Arthur Pendragon of Britain: A Romantic Narrative
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Donaldson, John W. Arthur Pendragon of Britain: A Romantic Narrative by Sir Thomas Malory as Edited from Le Morte Darthur. Ill. Andrew Wyeth. New York: G. P. Putnam's, 1943.
Andrew Wyeth, the son of N. C. Wyeth, carried on his father's tradition of Arthurian illustration. His four full-page line drawings for John W. Donaldson's Arthur Pendragon of Britain, however, were radically different from his father's vivid, action-oriented color images for The Boy's King Arthur. Andrew Wyeth's stark drawings brought a distinctly fresh and modern sensibility to the legendary tales. His illustrations are black-and-white character portraits with virtually no castles, horses, or other traditional details in the background to offer definition or create context. The use of portraits of the characters is a feature of Howard Pyle's Arthurian books and might be a way of linking to the Brandywine tradition that Pyle began.