Frontispiece for The Counterpane Fairy
Date1928
Artist
Katharine Pyle
(American painter, illustrator, and author, 1863–1938)
Illustration CitationThe Counterpane Fairy, by Katharine Pyle (New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1928)
MediumInk and graphite on illustration board
Dimensionscomposition: 9 5/8 × 6 1/2 in. (24.4 × 16.5 cm)
sheet: 13 3/8 × 10 in. (34 × 25.4 cm)
sheet: 13 3/8 × 10 in. (34 × 25.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. C. Lalor Burdick, 1992
Object number1992-27
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextIn this fairy tale, a little boy recuperating from an illness envisions the Counterpane Fairy, who tells him stories related to the squares in the counterpane (quilt) on his bed. The boy imagines himself as a character in each story. The youngest child of the Pyle family, Katharine was prolific as both author and illustrator. At the turn of the twentieth century, many considered art an appropriate extension of women's "natural" talent for beautifying their surroundings, but there was still resistance to women as professional artists. The artist and illustrator Joseph Pennell offered Katharine Pyle as an example of why there was "no earthly reason why women should not be illustrators."
