Cover for "Everybody's Magazine"

Born in Philadelphia in 1876, Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle attended the Drexel Institute in 1895. She began her studies under Howard Pyle in 1897 and became one of his top students. She was invited to join Pyle’s Brandywine School in Chadds Ford, where she met his brother Walter, who would become her husband. Ellen Pyle was successful as an illustrator, gaining commissions for illustrations for periodicals and books. Perhaps her best-known works are her cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post from the 1920s and 1930s.

According to a letter from Ellen Pyle’s daughter to George Weymouth in 1972, the painting was done for a cover of Everybody’s Magazine for the November 1923 issue. Everybody’s was founded in Philadelphia in 1899 and originally published both non-fiction articles and contemporary fiction. Created in her iconic illustrative style, the painting depicts a young brown-haired girl holding a pumpkin, a fitting subject for an autumn issue of the magazine.