Artwork of The Antiquarian Heritage Collection

This page contains the artwork of Howard Pyle, including Travels of the Soul and many additional artworks from other artists. You may view larger versions of the works of art by clicking on the respective photographs or descriptions, or by going to our Artwork Photo Gallery page and clicking on the pictures there. Thank you for visiting and enjoy the artwork!

22 Paintings by Howard Pyle 1853-1911

The paintings by Howard Pyle became a part of the Kellogg Library’s collection due to the close friendship of Pyle and Alonzo Weston Kimball, a successful Green Bay business leader gifted the paintings to the community. Howard Pyle, a major celebrated American artist of the early twentieth century, is known as the Father of American Illustration. His books and magazine illustrations were highly sought after in the late 19th century. The collection of Pyle paintings reflects all of the major types of subjects that Howard Pyle painted, including adventure fiction (illustrated works of Robin Hood, pirates, and King Arthur) and American colonial life.

Pyle trained dozens of artists and his students dominated American illustration for a generation. In addition, he was close friends with some of the most prominent celebrities of his time, including Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Homes, President Theodore Roosevelt, and future president Woodrow Wilson. This Pyle collection constitutes the third largest collection of his work. The largest collection is at the Delaware Art Museum.

Slaughter Signing the Death Warrant of Leisler, oil on canvas, 1901 Fight between "Bonhomme Richard" and "Serapis", oil on canvas, 1901 Ships Loading in Albemarle Sound, oil on canvas, 1901 A Pennsylvania Cave Dwelling, 1683, oil on canvas, 1901 Sea Fight, oil on canvas, 1901 Political Discussion, oil on canvas, 1901 Anne Hutchinson Preaching in her House in Boston, oil on canvas, 1901 On the Warpath, oil on canvas, 1901 An Interview between Sir Edmund Andros and James Blair, oil on canvas, 1901 The Boston Tea Party, oil on canvas, 1901 The Burning of the "Gaspee", oil on canvas, 1901 Phips Recovering the Sunken Treasure, oil on canvas, 1901 Landing Negros at Jamestown from Dutch Man-of-War, oil on canvas, 1901 Washington before the Trenches at Yorktown, oil on canvas, 1901 Nathaniel Bacon and his Followers Burning Jamestown, oil on canvas, 1901 Arrival of Stuyvesant at New Amsterdam, oil on canvas, 1901 Colonel Rhett and Pirate Stede Bonnet, oil on canvas, 1901 Capitulations of Louisburg, oil on canvas, 1901

Travels of the Soul, oil on canvas, 1902:

The four richly-colored paintings titled “Travels of the Soul” were some of Pyle’s most personally treasured works done to illustrate his own allegorical short story, bearing the same title, written for The Century Magazine (December 1902). According to author and illustrator Henry C. Pitz - a student of Pyle - in The Brandywine Tradition (Houghton Mifflin, 1969), Pyle’s original paintings as reproduced in the magazine were “extraordinary examples” of the new four-color printing process that heralded the golden years of American color illustration.

The Travels of the Soul consists of The Wicket of Paradise; In the Meadows of Youth; In the Valley of the Shadows; and At the Gates of Life. The story narrates the journey of the Soul - a lovely, winged woman - as she leaves Paradise to follow the enchanting sound of the pipes played by Death—a male figure in red and white robes. In a sunlit meadow, she briefly encounters the radiant figure of Love, reminding her of the Paradise she left behind. The Soul once again hears and follows the pipes, and she struggles through dark forests and mountainous terrain until, in the Valley of the Shadows, encounters Grief. Grief orders the Soul to drink a bitter potion, and she is forced to rest. Again, Death plays his pipes, and the weary Soul continues through the Valley until she reaches a gigantic wooden door, which she cannot open. She cannot go forward nor can she return. The Soul asks Death what to do. Death speaks for the first time, assuring her that he, as her traveling-companion, will help her. He opens the door, and out floods the blinding light of Paradise. Death tells her that her journey has ended and she has returned home with the new wisdom and experience gained on her arduous journey - and admits he is not Death, but the angel known as Love.

Additional Artworks of The Antiquarian Heritage Collection

Landfall of Jean Nicolet painting by Edwin W. Deming oil study on canvas, 1904

Deming, best known for his images of Native Americans and wildlife, painted this depiction, the Landfall of Jean Nicolet of the exploration of Green Bay, as a study for a much larger work commissioned in 1904 for the Wisconsin Historical Society. The larger painting, bearing the same title, is placed in the State Capitol building.
Deming dedicated this study “To my friend Reuben G. Thwaites.”
Thwaites, was the Secretary (that is, Director) of the Wisconsin Historical Society 1887 to 1914. Thwaites gave Deming’s study, the Landfall of Jean Nicolet, to the Kellogg Library as a gift commemorating the opening of the new library building in 1903.

Landing at Fort Howard by Edward W. Hubbard  c. 1924

An oil rendition of an 1840’s daguerreotype View of Old Fort Howard, Green Bay Wisconsin

Bust of Abraham Lincoln. Leonard W. Volk, cast bronze on marble base,  replica 1912
This bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln is a replica, one of six cast by S. Klaber & Company,Founders, New York, of the original 1860 life mask made by Leonard Wells Volk (U.S. 1828-1895).  The other five are placed at Westmoreland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dartmouth College Hood Museum of Art, The Huntington Library,Art Collections and Botanical Gardens and a private collector.Volk began his career as a sculptor in St. Louis Missouri, later settling in Chicago after studying in Rome. It was in Volk’s Chicago studio in 1860 that Abraham Lincoln sat for the creation of his life mask. The likeness achieved from this mask is considered to be the best ever made and was used for many other sculptures of Lincoln.

Bust of Abraham Lincoln, artist unknown, plaster, n.d.    

Rufus B. Kellogg, George P. A. Healy; oil on canvas 1887

The portrait shown on the right was restored and preserved in 2010 to the portrait shown on the left.  Watch videos, view photos, and read about the restoration process, the  restoration process, the restored art piece, the unveiling event, the artist, and Rufus B. Kellogg.

Rufus B. Kellogg (1837-1891) founder of Kellogg National (now Associated) Bank and founder of the Kellogg Public Library (the first public library in our area—now the Brown County Library), was a strong leader of the community. Around the turn of the century, Kellogg helped the city achieve a number of significant projects. Originally this portrait hung in Kellogg Bank’s board room. In the 1930s, the bank gave the work to Kellogg Library as a tribute to their common founder.

George P. A. Healy (U. S. 1813-1894) painted this portrait of Rufus B. Kellogg in Paris, 1885. Healy showed an early interest in art. He opened his first portrait studio in 1830, and four years later went to France for formal study. His career in Europe thrived.  Eventually, he and his family moved back to the United States settling in Chicago. Healy, however, made frequent trips back to Europe to work on various commissions. He produced hundreds of portraits, including those of such celebrated figures as Pope Pius IX, John James Audubon, and 13 of the United States Presidents from John Quincy Adams through Ulysses S. Grant.

Kellogg’s depiction by Healy reflects significantly on Kellogg’s public standing and significance during his lifetime.  Learn more about Rufus B. Kellogg...

The Hospitality of St. Julian (also known as, The Prodigal Son), by Cristofano Allori (c.1615), Green Bay, Wisconsin version, oil on canvas, 19th century

Another painting restored and conserved in 2010, this rare work of art was originally the property of Frederic G. Hall, former owner of the Beaumont Hotel in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The painting hung for years in the lobby of the hotel. It was gifted to the library by Hall’s estate after his death and purchased by the Green Bay & De Pere Antiquarian Society as part of the Save Our Cultural History Campaign.

At the time of the purchase, the history and origins of the Allori work was unknown.  After three years of investigation and months of restoration, conservation and preservation, the restored painting and frame, along with its (known) history were unveiled at the Neville Public Museum in 2010.

Learn more about Frederic G. Hall, the original artist - Cristofano Allori - and this Green Bay version, including the extensive investigation, restoration process, the restored art piece, and the unveiling event...

Judith cutting off the head of  Holofernes - Cornelius Galle, (1576-1656); First proof of a steel engraving after Rubens, c. 1630

Galle was a noted Antwerp engraver and contemporary of the Flemish master Rubens.

Georges Rouault (1851-1958)- two aquatints
1. Vierge aux sept glavies (Virgin of the Seven Swords). Aquatint, drypoint, burnisher and roulette. Plate 53 of Miserere (C& R. 106) from the edition of 450. 1926
2. Augures (Omens). Aquatint, drypoint, burnisher and roulette. Plate 41 of Miserere C&R.106 the edition of 450. 1926

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Lithography

  L’Age de Soleil (Pour Roby) (B.680) from the book edition of 1,114. Signed in plate.

Winter Fields by Linda Plotkin (1938-) etching and aquatint c.1980
Linda Plotkin has a master's degree from Pratt Institute and has had shows at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan and the Teorema Gallery in Florence. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has her work in its collection as does the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.

 A Doorway In Old New Orleans, by Kate Abrams Townsend, oil on canvas

Sectioned Interior, Paul S. Donhauser, ceramic, c.1974
Donhauser(1936-2007) taught design and ceramics at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh from 1965 to 2004, receiving the John Mc-Naughton Rosebush Professorship in 1983 and becoming an endowed professor in 1995. He also taught for a time at Illinois State University, Lawrence University and Madison Area Technical College.
He contributed to numerous publications and authored “A History of American Ceramics.” He won many honors in the field of ceramics, most notably a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Visual Arts.
Donhauser was the first American to win the Grand Prize at the International Ceramics Competition in Faenza, Italy. His work is owned and displayed by countless private collectors as well as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Prudential Plaza in Chicago, Ill.

Untitled, Thomas Kruger, ceramic on wood, c. 1974          Lunar Holiday, Kurt Dworak, bronze, c. 1974          Untitled, Dan Bresnahan, metal and wood, c. 1974

To see more of The Antiquarian Heritage Collection, click on the following links:

Historic Works of The Antiquarian Heritage Collection

Oriental Rugs of The Antiquarian Heritage Collection