Sketches Abroad with Pen and Pencil
Felix O. C. Darley
Hardcover
(Hurd and Houghton, March 15, 1869)
The author, a noted artist and illustrator, made a summer tour of post- war England, France, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Italy, travelling a good deal by rail, with many illustrations after his own sketches. Felix Darley ''can well be considered America's first important illustrator.'' Self taught and highly prolific during a long career that included being a newspaper staff artist, illustrator for book publishers and for famous authors including Washington Irving, Henry Longfellow and James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens. With illustrations for these writers, Felix Darley popularized such American icons as the Pilgrim, the Pioneer, the Minuteman and the Yankee Peddler. Western art collectors covet his illustrations depicting the settling of the West, the early life on the plains, the Indians, the white settlers, trappers, and hunters. He was especially adept at portraying the dramatic action of the Indian buffalo hunt. Darley's fame was so great while he was alive that many books were advertised as ''illustrated by Darley''. His talent was that of bringing life to the scene, whether his medium was pencil, ink wash, or oil; he brought the reader into the story. He was also part of the first generation of American illustrators that successfully challenged the dominance of English and European mid-19th Century illustration.