Education
She studied with Howard Pyle and later married Pyle’s brother Walter.
illustrator Post editor-in-chief
She studied with Howard Pyle and later married Pyle’s brother Walter.
Born in the Germantown section of Philadelphia on November 11, 1876 to Newcomb Butler and Kate Ashton Thompson, Ellen began her artistic studies at the Drexel Institute of, Science and Industry in 1895. In 1897, she began to study under the famous illustrator Howard Pyle, and in 1898 and 1899, she was one of his top students. She was given commissions for illustrations for periodicals and books, and she was invited to attend Howard Pyle"s Brandywine School in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania both years.
Around this time, she met Howard"s youngest brother, Walter.
Walter and Ellen had four children between 1906 and 1914 and she suspended her art career to raise her family. in 1928 she wrote, “The absorbing task of raising four children put artwork in the background for a time. There has been a great deal of discussion as to whether a woman can keep on with her work and be a competent mother.”
In 1919, Walter died of Bright"s Disease, and Ellen, then aged 42, returned to illustration art to support her family.
She created magazine covers and book dust jacket art throughout the 1920s and 1930s, gaining in popularity each year. “I criticized their work, and they often pose for me, and at times it seems as if everyone in the house was either painting or being painted.” Pyle died on August 1, 1936 of heart disease, a few months short of her 60th birthday.
Ellen Pyle"s youngest daughter, Caroline, married Nathaniel C. Wyeth, elder son of North. C. Wyeth.
Her own children modelled for 20 of these covers. Friends and neighbors also commonly served as models. She wrote “The girl I am most interested in painting is the unaffected natural American type, the girl that likes to coast and skate in winter, who often goes without her hat, and who gets a thrill out of tramping over country roads in the fall.”
Some of her most memorable covers were:
Flapper - February 4, 1922.
Girl Hockey Player - January 22, 1927.
Sea in the Shell - August 6, 1927 - a toddler listens to a seashell. Target Practice - October 8, 1927 - a young woman practices archery.
Woman Tennis Player - August 30, 1932. Flower Children - May 5, 1934 - two children sell flowers in the rain for “5 cents a Bunsh”.
An original Saturday Evening Post cover by Ellen Pyle was appraised at $25,000-35,000 in 2006 on the Antiques Roadshow.
