They questioned him with malevolent persistence
Date1910
Artist
Howard Pyle
(American illustrator, 1853–1911)
Illustration Citation"The Black Night," by James Hopper, in Harper's Monthly Magazine, June 1910
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions23 1/4 × 15 1/4 in. (59.1 × 38.7 cm)
frame: 26 7/8 × 18 7/8 in. (68.3 × 47.9 cm)
frame: 26 7/8 × 18 7/8 in. (68.3 × 47.9 cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, 1912
Object number1912-52
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextThis is a dream scene: the pharmacist in custody (being harassed by judges, guards and spectators in a French court) is dreaming that he mixed the wrong medicine and caused a woman's death, making him an accused murderer. Upon waking, he realizes that he did make a mistake but that the patient did not take the medicine. He determines to live with a new awareness of life's fragility.
