Pyle on Barye

“Greyhound and Hare” by Antoine-Louis Barye

During his August 29, 1904, composition lecture, Howard Pyle said:

Barye is one of the very few who have rightly expressed the animal nature.

I recall a thing by him of greyhounds killing hares. One of the hounds had a hare in its strong jaws and was crunching it in a cold-blooded way - absolutely without any feeling or passion.

A wild beast devouring another takes its food in a way natural to it, as a tree absorbs moisture, rather than as a creature bent on revenge.

When you throw your own self into the animal you make him human. You should consider him a being different from yourself.

Pyle Talk Today

Well, I’ve cobbled together 118 slides and will somehow squeeze them into 40 minutes to an hour of Howard Pyle talk tonight at 5.30pm at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

My two main topics are the “befores” and “afters” of Pyle’s work: what went into his pictures (sketches, studies, appropriations, photos, etc.) and things he did to his pictures after they’d already been published (which I’ve talked about now and then on this blog).

On to Stockbridge!

Me Talk Pyle One Day

It’s official: next Thursday, August 16th, at 5.30pm, I’ll be talking about Howard Pyle at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Here are some details. It’ll be my first time speaking on the topic to a (willing) audience of more than a handful of people, so be gentle.