Turpin and King
Date1890
Artist
Howard Pyle
(American illustrator, 1853–1911)
Illustration Citation"Chapbook Heroes," by Howard Pyle, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June 1890
MediumBlack and white oil on illustration board
Dimensions23 1/2 × 15 1/2 in. (59.7 × 39.4 cm)
frame: 27 1/2 × 19 5/8 in. (69.9 × 49.8 cm)
frame: 27 1/2 × 19 5/8 in. (69.9 × 49.8 cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, 1919
Object number1919-3
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextTom King, the 18th century horseman at right, is smiling because he recognizes his attacker as Dick Turpin, a fellow highway robber. The two join forces, and spend years "laughing at the slow and cumbersome machinery of the law that was striving in vain to catch up with them." In the 18th and 19th centuries, a chapbook was a small volume of entertaining stories and information, often sold in rural areas by itinerant merchants.
