When the great illustrator Howard Pyle died in 1911, his heartbroken disciples gathered in his studio. Pyle had been a phenomenal creative force, the illustrator of over 125 books (24 of which he had written himself) and hundreds of stories in the most popular magazines of his day. Vivid images of pirates, knights, soldiers and lovers flowed from his boundless imagination.
Pyle’s students struggled for some way to prolong their master’s presence. One of his students, Ethel Leach, painted Pyle’s studio exactly as he left it, with his last painting unfinished on his easel.
