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David looked up into Hans Krout's face

Date1895

Illustration CitationThe Garden behind the Moon: A Real Story of the Moon Angel, by Howard Pyle (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895).

MediumBlack and white oil on illustration board

Dimensions12 3/8 x 9 3/8 in. (31.4 x 23.8 cm)
frame: 17 × 14 in. (43.2 × 35.6 cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, 1915

Object number1915-53

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Label TextIn 1889, Howard and Anne Pyle's oldest child, their son Sellers, died suddenly from an illness when his parents were in Jamaica, where the artist was researching locales for his pirate illustrations. Six years later, Pyle published The Garden Behind the Moon: A Real Story of the Moon Angel, a fantasy story for children. Pyle tells of David, a young boy whose imaginary journey takes him to a place beyond the moon and back to earth again. During David's magical experience, he polishes stars for the Moon Angel, tames a winged horse, overcomes an evil giant and ultimately wins the hand of a princess.

Written in the spirit of his Swedenborgian religious faith, the book was Pyle's deeply personal confrontation with the death of Sellers, whom he described as “a noble little fellow of six years old…and…a child of deep mind and noble generosity of character."