In 1902, this is how Elizabeth Shippen Green illustrated moonlight:
Less than ten years later, her treatment of moonlight was far more accomplished:
How do we account for the great transformation of her work within a decade?
Green worked at the dawn of the 20th century, on the brink of many great changes:
- The art world was evolving: Green's beloved teacher and mentor, Howard Pyle, passed away along with other great classical illustrators such as Edwin Austin Abbey. Green had been a member of Pyle's first art class in 1894; she recalled, "he did not so much teach me how to draw but how to interpret life." Now a new generation was elbowing its way onto the stage. In the decade following 1902, Picasso and Braque invented cubism; Fauvism made its debut at the Paris salon; and Marinetti introduced his "Futurist Manifesto."
- Opportunities were changing dramatically for women illustrators: Previously, illustration had been almost exclusively a man's profession. In 1907, Green was among the very first women elected to the Society of Illustrators. She earned a long term contract with Harper's Magazine doing a higher quality of illustrations. As Green's biographer Alice Carter wrote, "The first generation of educated American women was becoming successful in a variety of careers, and their achievements were beginning to attract considerable attention."
- Color printing was undergoing a revolution: Green began her career drawing black and white illustrations with thick outlines. Look how her work changed as new technologies increased her powers.
Slowly, crude color was added:
Color became more accurate and subtle:
Finally, here are some details from the example I used at the start:
- Wrenching changes in Green's personal life: The changing role of women forced difficult decisions on Green. She had to choose between working as an artist or higher education at one of the colleges now available to women. Green, along with illustrators Violet Oakley and Jessie Wilcox Smith, stayed briefly at Bryn Mawr college where Green said she got her whole education sitting on the college lawn breathing in the knowledge left unabsorbed by the coeds.
Most importantly, during this decade of change Green lived as one of the "red rose girls," three talented women illustrators who lived together in an intimate, loving relationship made possible by the new freedom for women. The three had vowed never to get married, but in 1911 Green broke her vow and left the group to marry a man. Her decision was agonizing for the entire group. Green was so torn by her choice, she prolonged her engagement, on and off, for 7 years.
We all live in times of change. Today we have uncertainty swirling all around us, from technological revolutions caused by AI to radical transformations in the audience for illustration. It remains to be seen if we navigate them as well as Green.
6 comments:
I love ESG; one of Pyle's best students. She had the drawing, imagination, color sense, pattern and texture, plus the craftsmanship. An amazing talent. One of the Crown Jewels in the Brandywine tradition, in my view.
Having said that, the first moonlight picture you posted is curiously terrible, also poorly printed. I don't know where you found it. I've never seen it. I don't think it is representative of her work overall or in 1902. (I wouldn't be surprised if it was something she did earlier on spec that later found publication because she had attained fame and standing.)
After all, one of my favorite ESG images is a moonlight image from the very same year as the poor one you posted at the top; 1902, March, Harper's: So haunted at moonlight with bat and owl...
Since I consider this spooky moonlight piece one of her masterworks, I'm disinclined to accept the rest of your narrative that begins with an inchoate ESG in 1902 inept at depicting Moonlight. (Pyle taught his students how to deal with various natural and artificial lighting situations, including moonlight.)
(fwiw, I don't like the second moonlight picture either. Clearly over-reliant on a reference photo and rather barren. The rest of the pictures are typical ESG greatness however.)
On another point, regarding ESG being "so torn" about getting married. She was torn about her husband-to-be being put in a position of being obligated to support her parents. Which she felt was her duty alone. Thus, as soon as her parents died, they were married. (Happily, they were well suited and had a grand time together.)
Kev Ferrara-- The picture I posted was an illustration from the same book as the picture you posted, "An Old Country House." by Richard Le Gallienne. Your picture is on p. 39 while mine can be found on p.93. I actually thought of using your "bat and owl" picture except it didn't show the moon. Besides, I thought my choice demonstrated an additional point, that the poor quality of printing in 1902 made it more difficult for illustrators to demonstrate their true worth.
If I was trying to skew the argument by picking lesser examples of ESG's work, it would not have been difficult to do, starting with the illustrations for A Very Small Person and extending all the way through the awful cover illustration for A May and November Correspondence. There were also some of her early books where the color was garish, probably as a result of the early technology.
I'm sorry you don't care for the second moonlight illustration. It was highlighted as an example of ESG's work in important reference works such as "200 Years of American Illustration" by Henry Pitz and "The Red Rose Girls" by Alice Carter. I couldn't find a better example of ESG's mature use of color when color printing improved. In my opinion, it rivaled Maxfield Parrish's use of color. Another consideration was that I had access to the original painting so I could show the best possible images here.
As for ESG's decision to marry, I'd urge you to take another look at Carter's excellent biography. Supporting her parents was the "official reason" she gave her suitor in order to fend off his repeated proposals for 7 years, but after her parents died "she... made no move to honor her promise to [her suitor]" until nearly a year later when he finally gave her an ultimatum: marry him now or the engagement was off. Carter has several well documented (and very sweet) pages on the romantic relationship between the three women (and their "wife") that show what an excruciating choice marriage was for ESG, even at age 39. ("Blinking back her tears, Henrietta asked her friends, 'How can she love anyone more than she loves us?'")
"I actually thought of using your "bat and owl" picture except it didn't show the moon."
The second moonlight illustration didn't show the moon either.
"I'm sorry you don't care for the second moonlight illustration. It was highlighted as an example of ESG's work in important reference works such as "200 Years of American Illustration" by Henry Pitz and "The Red Rose Girls" by Alice Carter."
Well if it appeared in "important reference works" it must be great, and I must be wrong (and "disputatious") to think it is weak in both conception and execution.
"Besides, I thought my choice demonstrated an additional point, that the poor quality of printing in 1902 made it more difficult for illustrators to demonstrate their true worth."
Aside from age-related yellowing and fading - the "Bat and Owl" picture and most others in that book (and in its original serialization in Harper's) printed fine.
"I couldn't find a better example of ESG's mature use of color when color printing improved."
Google: Images: Elizabeth Shippen Green color. Scroll. (The girl kissing the cross at picnic is an excellent example of ESG's mature coloring. Although the version you posted is considerably dimmed and wan compared to other shots I've seen of it.)
As far as ESG's marriage and the situation among the Red Rose Girls, these were well-mannered, demure Victorian-era gals who shared a very deep bond of loving friendship and mutual reliance - personally, financially, and professionally; a community of prim and dedicated craftspeople from a time completely unlike our modern post-1960s era of distracted hedonic sensation-addiction. What was broken by ESG's departure was mostly likely the blissful inertia of their wonderland of artistic and emotional co-dependence, a simple unencumbered life of play and creation; a utopian longing in the air of that era which they were living out - in defiance of convention yes, but also reality. Akin to Maxfield Parrish's idealistic prepubescent dreamworld. (In this light, your phrase "romantic relationship" seems to require disambiguation and definition so as not to mislead.)
Wow! I’d never heard of her before, and besides your examples, I checked out the search Kev suggested…really great stuff. This is exactly why this site’s so great for discovering long-forgotten artists. Thanks!
Kev Ferrara-- I agree that no "reference work" is infallible (other than this blog, of course). However, when Walt Reed, Henry Pitz and Alice Carter have all singled out a particular painting for attention, I'm insecure enough to think perhaps I should linger a little longer to see if I can spot what they saw.
If you'd followed my advice and revisited the Red Rose Girls book, you might not be asking me for a definition of a "romantic relationship." I didn't want to make sex a major distraction in a blog post about art, but the book discusses how, between 1895 and 1915 there was a major upsurge in curiosity and scientific literature about lesbian relationships (nearly 100 books and 566 articles, as opposed to just one scientific book on the subject between 1740 and 1895) as a result of "the crushes that were such an integral part of social life at women's colleges" where for the first time "young girls are thrown together" and "become increasingly affectionate."
One doctor noted these relationships and wrote that newly educated and liberated girls, away from home, "kiss each other fondly on every occasion. They embrace each other with mutual satisfaction. It is most natural, in the interchange of visits, for them to sleep together. They learn the pleasure of direct contact...." The Red Rose book quotes Lilian Faderman, a "noted authority on lesbian history," for the point that young, independent and educated women of the era could have "romantic friendships" and not think anything inappropriate: "It was still possible in the early twentieth century for some women to vow great love for each other, sleep together, see themselves as life mates, perhaps even make love, and yet have no idea that their relationship was what sexologists were now considering... abnormal."
Carter is careful not to claim that she knows for a fact what went on in the beds at the Red Rose but the correspondence and conversations she quotes make clear that ESG and Violet Oakley were not competing for the affection of Huger Elliott, but rather Oakley and Elliott were competing for the affection of ESG. When ESG married ( a day ESG "feared would be the saddest day almost for me") the local newspapers described Oakley as "completely grief stricken," and the other abandoned red rose girls behaved like jilted lovers. On her honeymoon ESG wrote her companions and said, "I find [my new husband] a perfectly satisfactory person" but she wanted to "pour out [her] heart" to her dear women and assure them that her feelings for them remain unchanged.
If you need more "disambiguation" than that, you'll find plenty of primary source material in the book. I only mentioned the romantic friendships in this post as one of several ways in which ESG's world was turning upside down in the decade of change from 1902-2012.
"However, when Walt Reed, Henry Pitz and Alice Carter have all singled out a particular painting for attention, I'm insecure enough to think perhaps I should linger a little longer to see if I can spot what they saw."
Images appearing in certain books by certain authors don't make me hallucinate what is not there. There's nothing to linger on. It's a weak picture.
I'd guess the image has kept showing up in print because it was owned by somebody connected in the illustration art milieu; while perennially available for viewing and sale, it kept on cropping up as the most ready-to-hand pre-photographed example of her work. There are any number of such pictures in the illustration art field; that through publishing happenstance accidentally define artists or seem to make authoritative assertions on matters of quality; a classic availability heuristic.
"Carter is careful not to claim that she knows for a fact what went on in the beds at the Red Rose"
Indeed, wisely; I perused her Red Rose book today. There are no facts in evidence. And presentism is hardly dispositive.
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