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
lessly, putting into operation all the ideas and theories which
he had gleaned from the preceding years of his work. All
winter long he went back and forth from Wilmington to
Philadelphia once every week to superintend the study of
these promising young men and women. His interest was
thoroughly aroused; he was determined to make a contribution to teaching that would immeasurably aid his pupils in
their upward struggles. Such excellent results were manifest after this first year that the success of the class was
assured. Howard Pyle became almost immediately the center of art instruction in Philadelphia and one of the most
celebrated teachers of illustration in America. But his class
was so rapidly increasing in numbers that steps had to be
taken to keep it from growing too large. He decided that
he could do more service by limiting membership in it to
advanced students only, to those who were almost ready
to begin on some phase of practical work. Part of a letter
written to a prospective student will give an idea of what
the aims were: 1.:. My class was formed more for the
purpose of encouraging imaginative drawing in the more
advanced students, and to teach a pupil how not to copy
the life model until the pupil knows how to copy it. The
parallel in'mu'sic would be the avoidance of mechanical precision in playing the notes and the run of the scales. You
must first know how to play the scales accurately and strike
the chords with precision, and then you may be taught how
to avoid that same mechanical precision.. 0. It is too often
thought that illustrative art requires less practice than painting in colors. The fact is that it requires a great deal more
knowledge and much more freedom of technique; for I
observe that our painters who come from abroad are very
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