"You were happy!" said the king. "You were disobedient. You were causing grave anxiety and you were happy! The first duty of a prince is to his country."

"You were happy!" said the king. "You were disobedient. You were causing grave anxiety and you were happy! The first duty of a prince is to his country."
"You were happy!" said the king. "You were disobedient. You were causing grave anxiety and you were happy! The first duty of a prince is to his country."

"You were happy!" said the king. "You were disobedient. You were causing grave anxiety and you were happy! The first duty of a prince is to his country."

Date1916
Artist (American artist and illustrator, 1877–1960)
Illustration Citation"Long Live the King," by Mary Roberts Rinehart, in Everybody's Magazine, August 1917
MediumGraphite, crayon, and gouache on illustration board
Dimensionscomposition: 15 3/8 × 22 5/16 in. (39.1 × 56.7 cm)
sheet: 16 11/16 × 23 13/16 in. (42.4 × 60.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of the estate of Frieda Becher, 1971
Object number1971-74
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextIn this novel about intrigues in a fictional European country, the young Prince explains to his irritated grandfather the King that he escaped from his guardian to an amusement park for an evening. The King lectures him on the royal obligations that must come before personal happiness.

Initially schooled in the studios of academically-trained German artists in Milwaukee, Arthur Becher studied with Howard Pyle and at the Munich Academy By 1908 he was working regularly as an illustrator. He readily adapted his naturalistic style to a wide variety of subjects, especially to the diversionary fiction that was a mainstay of popular literature.
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