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A man must make his own happy-day

Date1907

Illustration Citation"The Happy-Day," by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott, in Everybody’s Magazine, December 1907

MediumCharcoal, graphite, ink, and watercolor on paper

Dimensionscomposition: 7 × 10 in. (17.8 × 25.4 cm)
support: 8 1/8 × 11 1/4 in. (20.6 × 28.6 cm)

Credit LineGayle and Alene Hoskins Endowment Fund, 2015

Object number2015-65

On View

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Label TextThis is one of six illustrations and several decorative borders that Benson Knipe created for a romantic coming-of-age story. Here, a young man (of a type reminiscent of J. C. Leyendecker’s Arrow Shirt Collar advertising model, a masculine ideal from his debut two years earlier in 1905) proposes marriage to a young woman at the seashore. The bird at right represents the spirit of his mother, who--he believes--would have approved of the match.

Benson Knipe studied initially in Howard Pyle’s 1899 illustration classes at Drexel Institute and then continued her training at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. Early in her career, she specialized in the illustration of children’s literature. She then collaborated as both author and illustrator with her husband Alden Arthur Knipe on books for children and adults. Though Benson Knipe is little known today, and her original work is very rare, she was prolific and well-recognized in her day. Her status in 1907 is reflected by the names of several other major illustrators whose work appears in the same Everybody’s issue, including Harry Dart Grant, Andre Castaigne, and Maginel Wright Enright, all represented in the Museum’s collection.