A Taste for Adventure: The Art of William Pène du Bois

This exhibition marks the centenary of William Pène du Bois’s birth (1916-1993). Featured are illustrations from his 1947 Newbery Award-winning book, The Twenty-One Balloons, the fantastic story of Professor William Waterman Sherman’s around-the-world balloon voyage of 1883. Also on view are illustrations of Giant Otto (1936), a large yellow hound who uses his size and strength to perform good deeds. Other endearing Pène du Bois characters come to life in Elizabeth the Cow Ghost (1936), The Horse in the Camel Suit (1967), and Porko von Popbutton (1969). Pène du Bois’s illustrations animate text by such legendary authors as Isaac Bashevis Singer and Smith College professor and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Richard Wilbur.