Louis Rhead — The Culprit Fay (1903)

Holy moly, look at all that ink! This piece is one of the most intricately detailed pieces of pen and ink art I have ever seen. The background is made up of impossibly fine cross hatching and stipple, and the line work on the figure and foreground is incredible. Louis Rhead was an English born American artist who worked at the turn of the twentieth century (my favorite art period). He was best known for his poster work and his illustrations for children’s books. Art is large (17” x 12”), and was published in 1903 in a book of poems by Joseph Rodman Drake. The inscription under the art reads, “Borne after on the wings of the blast northward away he speeds him fast.” Art includes this inscription in the artists’s hand on the back (see additional photo).