For my money, Howard Pyle’s illustrations for his 1903 book, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, were among the finest pen-and-ink illustrations of his career, which, of course, makes them some of the finest pen-and-ink illustrations of all time.
I scanned the following images from a library discard book that I bought a week or two ago at the local thrift store; the stain on the first image is from the glue that holds the circulation-card pocket in place on the other side of the page. Fortunately, the rest of the images were undamaged, though it was, at times, difficult to press the book down sufficiently to avoid focus problems near the gutters.
[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]
- Look Here: Howard Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights” (post 1 of 4) <-- YOU ARE HERE
- Look Here: Howard Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights” (post 2 of 4)
- Look Here: Howard Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights” (post 3 of 4)
- Look Here: Howard Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His Knights” (post 4 of 4)
P.S. I’ve long thought that Pyle’s portraits of King Arthur, Uther Pendragon, etc., were the inspiration for the portraits of King Arthur, Queen Ginevere, Sir Launcelot, Merlyn Ambrose, Elaine of Shalott, and Sir Galahad, contained in the minature Gorblimey Press portfolio, Excalibur: Six Drawings by Barry Windsor-Smith.
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