Sir Launcelot and Elouise the Fair, for "The Story of the Champions of the Round Table" 1905

Howard Pyle made this drawing of Sir Launcelot and Elouise the Fair in pen and black ink, probably in one sitting, maybe more. I love to imagine him hunched over the page, his hand moving rapidly to capture the intricacies of their garments and the cobblestone path. Pyle was an illustrator and author, and his Arthurian illustrations were very popular. I can imagine him thinking a lot about what it meant to be brave, honorable, or fair. There is real artistry and inventiveness in his work: the textures, the rendering of clothes, the folds and drapes… It's easy to get lost in these details. I can almost feel the scratch of his pen, the way the ink bled slightly into the paper. I always wonder about artists like Pyle, illustrators, who maybe thought their work wasn't "high art." But they are part of the conversation too, aren’t they? He's in dialogue with medieval artists and writers, reinterpreting these old stories, just like we are looking at his work now and adding our own thoughts and interpretations.