"Behold it then!" cried Perseus
Date1900
Artist
Howard Pyle
(American illustrator, 1853–1911)
Illustration CitationComplete Writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne; A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys and Tanglewood Tales, vol. XIII (Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Co., 1900)
MediumBlack and white oil on canvas
Dimensions21 × 10 3/4 in. (53.3 × 27.3 cm)
frame: 23 x 12 3/4 in. (58.4 x 32.4 cm)
frame: 23 x 12 3/4 in. (58.4 x 32.4 cm)
Credit LineGayle and Alene Hoskins Endowment Fund and Partial Gift of Ann Logan, 2000
Object number2000-1
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextIn this illustration from Nathaniel Hawthorne's re-telling of Greek myths for children, Perseus has severed the head of the snake-haired Medusa at the order of the king, who looks on at the left. The spectators at right are being turned to stone at the sight of the head.Color reproduction remained expensive for publishers even after it was largely perfected. Illustrators often created work in black and white well into the twentieth century. Pyle instructed his students: "Imagine the color, as you paint in black and white."
