Eric Pape

Eric Moritz Pape (American, 1870-1938)

Frederick Moritz Pape was born in San Francisco on October 17, 1870. First studying in New York with Emil Carlsen, while still less than twenty years of age, Pape traveled to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian. He was quickly accepted at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied with Lefebvre, Gerome, Constant, Doucet, Blanc, and Laurens. While in Paris, he also studied with Whistler and Rodin.

In 1889, Pape traveled in Germany and completed the first of his works to be exhibited at the Paris Salon, The Spinner of Zeven, which was included in the Salon Societé Nationale de Beaux Arts, Champs de Mars in 1890. In October of 1890, he left Paris for Egypt. His sojourn there—approximately 18 months—was perhaps the most influential trip of his career. Pape worked primarily in a studio in Cairo, which had been recently vacated by John Singer Sargent. It was during this time that he completed studies of the pyramids at Giza which resulted in his most publicized painting, The Two Great Eras, depicting the Virgin and Child resting by the Sphinx during the flight to Egypt. The work was featured at the Salon in 1893.

Pape continued to exhibit heavily throughout the 1890’s. In 1897 he submitted sixteen works to the Salon, all of which were accepted (although due to space limitations the jury requested that Pape choose his eight favorites). Other exhibitions included the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, the International Kunst Ausstellung in Munich (by invitation) in 1897, and a one-man show at the Museum of Art, Detroit, and at the Cincinnati Museum of Art in 1900, plus numerous showings at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the National Academy and the Boston Art Club.

Early in his career Pape became known as a leading illustrator whose works frequently depicted distant places and times in great detail; while in Egypt, Mexico, and other countries, he often sketched scenes which later appeared in books. His work as an illustrator includes approximately 300 images for General Lew Wallace’s The Fair God (published by Houghton-Mifflin and Company), a volume of Hans Christian Anderson Fairytales (published by MacMillan), as well as John Brisben Wallace’s Mohammed (published in Cosmopolitan, March, 1899). In addition, he illustrated various stories and verses in magazines such as Collier’s Weekly, Harper’s, Life, The Ladies’ Home Journal, McClure’s, The Saturday Evening Post, Scribner’s, and Saint Nicholas.

[Taken from the internet web site of Comenos Fine Arts, Boston, www.comensofinearts.com, 2/7/2000 --jag]