Eric Pape, the Master of the Pageant, was born in San Francisco, California, October I 17th 1870. His art education began in San Francisco School of Design, under Emil Carlsen, after which he went abroad, where he remained five years. While in Paris he studied under the French masters, Boulanger, Lefebvre, Constant, Doucet Blanc Delance, and Laurens, and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, under Gerome. In 1889 he worked for a year among the peasants and the picturesque country of northern Germany, and painted his first large Salon picture, - Zevener Spinnerin" ("La. Fileuse de Zeven"), which was exhibited in 1890 the Salon Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, Champ de Mars, Paris, France. It was later awarded a medal at the California Midwinter Exposition. In October, 1890, he left Paris for Egypt, where he remained two years, living over nine months by the great Sphinx and Pyramids of Gizeh. During this sojourn in the East, he traveled much on the Nile, and made a trip through a portion of the Sahara Desert. Mr. Pape's productiveness has been prodigious. In 1891 he exhibited ten paintings at the Exposition du Caire, Egypt; four pictures at the Paris Salon, 1892; two works at the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893 - "The Site of Ancient Memphis" and "The Great Sphinx by Moonlight"; eight works (one piece of sculpture) at the Paris Salon, 1893, among them being "The Two Great Eras," a large painting which later received a medal at the Atlanta Exposition; three works at the midwinter Exposition, California, 1894; an exhibition at the Keppel Galleries, New York, in conjunction with works by Messrs. de Myrbach and Castaigne, made for the Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1895; four works at the Lotus Club, New York, 1895; Cotton States International Exposition, 1896; exhibited by special invitation of the Jury at the International Kunst Austellung, Munich, 1897, the large decorative painting, "Angel with the Book of Life"; submitted sixteen works to jury of Paris Salon (Champ de Mars), 1897, all of which were accepted, the jury requesting that the artist select eight which he preferred to exhibit (an unusual honor), as lack of space made it impossible to hang the sixteen; collection of one hundred and twenty pictures, Omaha Exposition, 1898; a collection of twelve pictures, Aldine Association, New York, 1899; collection of eighty-two works at the Detroit Museum of Art, 1900. The St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts gave an important representative exhibition of the artist's oil and water-color paintings and drawings in 1900; represented in Collection of Pen Drawings by "Notable Pen Draughtsmen of Europe and America," exhibited in South Kensington Museum, London, England, 1901; in 1901 he was invited to exhibit ninety-seven works in the art gallery of the Palace of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Pan-American Exposition, representative of the life and customs of the ancient Incas, Toltecs, and Aztecs, including scenes of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico; he was awarded a medal for the collection; exhibited in the Art Palace of the Pan American Exposition, Buffalo, N. Y., 1901; 'The Foaming Surges," a large decorative painting, exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904; he exhibited at Toledo, Ohio, Museum of Fine Arts, and Lincoln, Neb., Museum of Fine Arts, 1905. Mr. Pape has exhibited several years at the Society of American Artists, New York; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Art Institute, Chicago; Academy of Design, New York; Art Club, and at the Copley Society of Boston, and numerous other exhibitions in the United States. His paintings are to be found in many private collections of art throughout the United States.
A year after his return from Europe he was married, on August 16, 1894, to Miss Alice Monroe, daughter of the late Prof. Lewis Baxter Monroe, author, dean and founder of the Boston University School of Oratory.
Mr. Pape has been awarded five medals. In 1902 he was made a member of the Society of Arts, London, England; member of The Players, New York, since 1895; was elected to the Atlantic Union, London, England, 1906, and is a foundation member of the United Arts Club, London, England, 1906. He is represented in "European Pictures of the Year," published in London, 1893; "Le Salon de 1893" (edition de luxe) published in Paris; "Great Biblical Pictures of the XIX Century," published by Cassel, London, 1893; in the "Studio" London, 1902; "Brush and Pencil," 1899, and many other important works.
Among the many works illustrated by Mr. Pape are the following: "The Fair God," in two volumes, by Lew Wallace, the edition de luxe being the finest set of books of their kind ever published in this country - two volumes with two hundred and seventy-two illustrations, published in 1898. Mr. Pape went to Mexico to gather material for this work. He illustrated "The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte," by Prof. William M. Sloane (edition de luxe), published in 1895; "Hilda Strafford" (a California story), by Beatrice Harraden, 1895; "The Children of the Sun," by Telford Groesbeck, published in 1897; "The Turn of the Screw," by Henry James, 1898; series of thirty-five water-colors were made for "The Life of Mahomet," in 1899; "The Great North Road," by Robert Louis Stevenson, Published in 1899; "Robert Tournay," by William Sage, published in 1900; "The Scarlet Letter," by Hawthorne (edition de luxe), published in 1902; "Isidro," by Mary Austin, 1905; "The Poems of Madison Cawein," five volumes (edition de luxe), published in 1907; "The War of the Air," by H. G. Wells, 1908; a series of portraits for the "Memoirs of Ellen Terry," 1908; he also made a great number of illustrations in prominent magazines for stories and poems. From 1893 to 1895 he made many portraits of distinguished personages. He has traveled extensively in Europe and the Orient, and In the remote and artistic sections of the United States and Mexico.
He founded the Eric Pape School of Art, Boston, 1898, one of the largest institutions of its kind in the country, and he has since been Director and Head Instructor.
He designed and executed in 1906 the petition to Congress from the citizens of Massachusetts, to preserve from destruction the famous U. S. Frigate Constitution, and circulated this petition, securing 30,000 names in three weeks. The immense illuminated parchment and scroll is now permanently on exhibition in the Naval Museum at Washington, D. C. The Massachusetts Society Sons of the Revolution passed resolutions, thanking Mr. Pape for his efforts in preventing the destruction of "Old Ironsides." In 1907 he designed the memorial, dedicated August 15th, 1907, Commemorating the Founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1623. It consists of a colossal bronze tablet surrounded by a bold granite bas-relief on a huge boulder (200 feet long by 50 feet high), at Stage Fort Park, Gloucester, Mass.
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