A man in it, standing upright and something lying in a lump at the bow

A man in it, standing upright and something lying in a lump at the bow
A man in it, standing upright and something lying in a lump at the bow

A man in it, standing upright and something lying in a lump at the bow

Date1896
Artist (American illustrator, 1853–1911)
Illustration CitationIn Ole Virginia or Marse Chan and Other Stories, by Thomas Nelson Page, with illustrations by W.T. Smedley, B.W. Clinedinst, C.S. Reinhart, A.B. Frost, Howard Pyle and A. Castaigne (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896)
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions15 7/8 × 11 1/2 in. (40.3 × 29.2 cm)
frame: 20 × 15 1/2 in. (50.8 × 39.4 cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, 1915
Object number1915-65
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextIn this eerie tale, the narrator revisits the now-decaying plantation home where he grew up near "no haid pawn," or No Head Pond, and has a vision of a long-dead murderer and his headless victim. In a scene lit by lightning, Pyle adds red to the black and white palette for the character's turban and bloody hand.

Pyle depicts a dream with a scene that is realistic but fraught with tension and horror. Don Maitz (at right) brings convincing realism to a scene that includes imaginary folkloric characters. Each artist merges the supernatural and the earthly.

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