Bringing in the May
Date1884
Artist
Howard Pyle
(American illustrator, 1853–1911)
Illustration Citation"A May-Day Idyl of the Olden Time," in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, May 1884
MediumBlack and white oil on canvas
Dimensions20 7/8 x 15 in. (53 x 38.1 cm)
frame: 24 3/8 × 18 1/2 in. (61.9 × 47 cm)
frame: 24 3/8 × 18 1/2 in. (61.9 × 47 cm)
Credit LineAcquisition Fund, 1981
Object number1981-39
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextIn observance of May Day in 1884, Harper's published a series of letters exchanged between English cousins in 1610. Pyle illustrated a description of the traditional gathering of the typical seventeenth century May Day in England: ...presentlie over the hill came a partie the most joyous that ever I have seen...all laden with the blossoms lyke greate heapes of fragrant snowe...the noise of manie voices and of musick...growing fainter till it was night stilled by the distance.
