Howard Pyle, a chronicle by Charles D. Abbott, with an introduction by N. C. Wyeth and many illustrations from Howard Pyle's works.

HOWARD PYLE: A CHRONICLE
and handling with DUrer's will show what a careful
student the nineteenth-century American is of the sixteenthcentury German. I admit, with certain American critics
whom I respect, that in some quatlities it is very hard to tell
where Diirer ends and Howard Pyle begins. In his Otto
of the Silver Hand, for example, there are compositions
which are almost entirely suggested by DUirer. But who has
not made use of the suggestions of other men? That Pyle
should do this in telling and illustrating a medieval tale,
merely proves his ability to saturate himself with the spirit
of the age in which the scenes are laid, and to give his
work the color and character of the biggest man of that
age.. 0.0 ) And again:"1. 0. On looking through Howard Pyle's Otto of the Silver Hand, one finds the little
tailpieces there have much the same motives and are carried
out in much the same spirit, and yet are altogether original
in subject, while they are reproduced mechanically with
an ease that would have surprised DUl"rer. There is probably no draughtsman as successful as Howard Pyle 'in working in the manner of the sixteenth-century artists, always,
however, adding something of his own. His medieval
tales have given him good reason to adhere to the old
models. The book I have just mentioned would not have
been so appropriately illustrated with designs less conventional in treatment and more modern in feeling; the full
pages, though reproduced by process, look like old wood
blocks; the head and tailpieces might be mistaken at a glance
for Durer s. But that Pyle knows how utterly out of place
these designs would be in books relating to other periods
is proved by the very different methods he employs for other
subjects. His Pepper and Salt gives an excellent idea of the
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