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

CHAPTER XI

M-URAL DECORATION
7 O0WARD the end of the nineteenth century and
the beginning of the twentieth there was in America
a vast increase in popular interest in mural paintings.
The architects of public buildings were insisting upon the
importance of decoration, and were everywhere planning
wall spaces that required the work of the rising mural
painters. Vedder, Abbey, Blashfield, Cox and many others
were doing excellent things; mural decoration was assuming
larger proportions than it ever had before in this country.
Under conditions such as these it was inevitable that Howard
Pyle should turn his attention to this branch of art. For
many years he had desired, if ever the opportunity should
present itself, to paint some large mural decoration, in
which he could create a lasting evidence of the historical
knowledge which he had acquired from so many years of
illustrative work.
Some of his friends in Boston were very anxious that he
should paint an historical picture in the Massachusetts
House of Representatives, and did everything in their power
to make it possible. In the end, however, the scheme
failed. When it was fairly evident that nothing would
come of it, he wrote thus to his friend, Winthrop Scudder
of Cambridge, who had been one of those most active in
trying to get the commission for him:.. I did not
[ 228 ]