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- ABOVE: Howard Pyle, An Attack on a Galleon (c. 1905).
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- ABOVE: N.C. Wyeth, Westward Ho! (c. 1920).
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- ABOVE: Frank Frazetta, The Galleon (1973).
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- ABOVE: Frank Frazetta, Sea Serpent (1972), oil on canvas. Here’s a bonus: another painting by Frazetta inspired by An Attack on a Galleon by Howard Pyle.
Frazetta’s obvious borrowing from Pyle has been pointed out many times in the past; however, I’ve never seen anyone add Wyeth’s painting to the mix (although surely someone has, the line of influence being so clear). Now, of the three galleon paintings, it seems obvious to me that Pyle’s original effort is not only the first but also the best of the three. It’s the best composed; it’s the most expressively painted; it’s the most dramatic. No wonder Wyeth and Frazetta (who seems to me to have borrowed as much from Wyeth’s galleon as from Pyle’s) were enthralled by Pyle’s Attack on a Galleon. It’s a masterpiece. And which of the remaining two galleon paintings is the weakest, Wyeth’s picturesque, chocolate-box cliché or Frazetta’s virtuosic but underdeveloped pastiche? You decide…
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