He drew back half afraid from the intimate beauty of this unaccustomed face
Date1914
Artist
Harry Everett Townsend
(American painter, illustrator, and printmaker, 1879–1941)
Illustration Citation"The Invasion of Reality," by Amelia Josephine Burr, in Century Magazine, April 1914
MediumLithographic crayon and wash on paper mounted on illustration board
Dimensionssheet: 13 × 8 13/16 in. (33 × 22.4 cm)
Credit LineLouisa du Pont Copeland Memorial Fund, 1976
Object number1976-50
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThis scene seems to take place in a European setting. The facial expressions suggest a moment of emotional--and possibly romantic--intensity.A naturally talented artist, Harry Everett Townsend worked as a sign painter for local businesses in his native Illinois until he enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He then worked in advertising art until he joined Howard Pyle's classes in Wilmington from 1900 to 1904. He settled in Leonia, New Jersey, and began his prolific career as an illustrator for major book and magazine publishers; he also maintained a studio in France until the beginning of World War I. In 1918 he was selected by the Army Corps of Engineers as one of eight artists who traveled with the American Expeditionary Forces to the battlefront. Townsend was particularly skilled at depicting comples military machinery.
