Perhaps the most influential of Pyle’s students was Harvey Dunn, raised the child of sod-busters on the South Dakota frontier. Dunn often focused on a central compelling subject, using thick layers of paint and dramatic depictions of light to add emphasis. His images of the prairie, such as After the Chinook or the west as in Santa Fe were of faraway lands which most readers would never see. Dunn went to the European front in World War I and his many paintings of the "Great War" were images of distant lands, which some had never seen – and many sought to forget. Two Soldiers Walking Side by Side painted for the cover of American Legion magazine in 1930 and published in a number of books about Dunn, is certainly one of the most dramatic paintings in the collection.

Harvey Dunn sought to pass on Pyle’s philosophy and became a teacher in his own right. One of his most successful students was Dean Cornwell whose scene of a pitched religious battle in Spain in The Torrent is an outstanding example of the dramatic moment. There are dozens of figures in the picture, each of whose actions are carefully detailed. Cornwell’s illustrations for stories from the Bible are stunning for their vivid use of color. Mead Schaeffer studied under both Cornwell and Dunn and a more sinister Count of Monte Cristo stalking toward the reader is difficult to imagine. Again all of these depict exotic lands – the American frontier, Chinatown, Spain, France, the Middle East.

There were also some very successful artists whose style and subject matter were very different from the Brandywine group. While Pyle and his students specialized in dramatic stories of faraway times and places, many of these other illustrators focused on "High Society." (In many ways, of course, the life of the rich was another "distant land", a life that factory workers could only dream about.) One of the most famous of these illustrators was Charles Dana Gibson whose attractive, independent "Gibson Girl" became the (frequently unrealistic) ideal for a generation of women. Though many of his illustrations were humorous, Gibson’s graceful hand with pen and ink produced images of elegance and beauty. American Girl Abroad catches a comely, young, nouveaux riche American debutante weighing which of her three elderly European suitors to choose – based on the value of his title. Howard Chandler Christy created a not dissimilar ideal with his "Christy Girl". Christy was regarded as such a knowledgeable judge of beauty that he was the only judge at the first Miss America pageant in 1921. Gibson, Christy, Harrison Fischer and others specialized in "pretty girl" pictures – whose lives were, to most (low-wage) readers, as distant as the moon.

Another of the most popular illustrators was Joseph Christian Leyendecker. A prolific and perfectionist painter, Leyendecker had trained in Paris. He painted over 300 Saturday Evening Post covers, second in number only to Norman Rockwell. In addition, Leyendecker did a great many distinctive and highly stylized advertisements for Arrow collars and Kuppenheimer clothing -- in the process creating a male version of the Gibson Girl. Though Leyendecker did any number of paintings of the "Upper Crust," his subject matter varied considerably. With Leyendecker, one also sees the influence of new trends in the United States – the streamlined, linear precision of the "Art Deco" age of the late 1920s.

Brief biographies of the artists represented in the show appear later in this catalog. These and other artists too numerous to include in this exhibition, were to have long-lived careers. By the late 1930s and 1940s, however, demand for illustration was beginning to wane. Norman Rockwell, well known for his own attention to authenticity and detail, muses in his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, that this was partly due to a change in the audience: "The people who bought the mass magazines, the best-selling books, didn’t particularly care about fine illustration. They were as well satisfied with a good illustration as a great one….If there’s a blood red sunset in the picture, who cares whether the castle’s authentic?" But there were other reasons for this decline, including increased use of photography and magazines, such as Life and Look that were completely dedicated to photography; competition from movies and the aging of the illustrators who had been so influential 30 years earlier.

This is not to say that illustration is a dead art. Cartoonists are illustrators! And a look at a great many printed items – magazines, newspapers, brochures, advertisements, will reveal that illustrators are still very active. It is the drama, and color and detail that characterized the work of Pyle, Wyeth and Leyendecker that is no longer much in demand, except in some children’s books.

The images in this show tell us how much, or how little, the Americans of 1900 knew of the world beyond their cities and towns. How different that is from our instant access to news today. Many of us have traveled or will travel some day to many "Distant Lands." When we do, perhaps we will remember some of these images from a hundred years ago and smile.

Mary J. P. Kelly

Acknowledgements

Many people were important in putting together Distant Lands but several deserve particular recognition. First there is Nandini Makrandi, Assistant Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at KMA and Co-Curator of this show. In addition to curating, Nandini also marshaled all of KMA’s resources to produce the exhibition and attendant outreach programs. Thanks also to Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Stephen Wicks for his ideas and assistance throughout the project. Many thanks to the great staff of KMA for all their work and to Scott Denizon who designed the cover for the catalog.

We greatly appreciate the assistance of Elizabeth Broun, Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum who was kind enough to lend us a Norman Rockwell while our own is on tour. Thank you always to Walt and Roger Reed, the experts on illustration in the United States.

Here at the Kelly Collection, Elizabeth Marecki not only provided the introduction to Nandini, but also handled the myriad details, which get an exhibition up and running. Collection curator Chris Fauver put together the beautiful catalog. Greg Staley did his usual outstanding job of photography. Conservator Marie-Helene Guggenheim is responsible for the preservation and restoration, when needed, of our paintings, including most in this show. Holly Krueger had done the same with each of the works on paper. And finally, there is Richard Kelly without whom there would be no Kelly Collection (or Mrs. Kelly). We are fortunate in being able to live with these paintings in our home. Richard and I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.