Religion: Old Testament Faces

The Bible still holds its long-undisputed place at the top of the bestseller list, but to a vast proportion of its modern buyers, it remains a closed book. Texas newspaper Publisher Houston Harte (the San Angelo evening Standard and Standard-Times) often wondered why, especially considering that the Bible is full of dramatic stories and fascinating characters. When Presbyterian Harte asked his friends & neighbors, they agreed that biblical characters are awe-inspiring, all right, but that somehow they are just not like people in real life. Bible-Lover Harte began to think about how to make them more so.

He decided to select the best stories in the Old Testament, cut them down for easier reading, and present them in a big well-printed book, profusely illustrated by an artist who could make the prophets and kings of Israel as real as the corner grocer and the local minister. The pictures on the four following pages are examples of what he meant. Along with 24 others, they are full-page illustrations for the big (9 in. by 12 in.) book, In Our Image* edited by Harte and published this week. The 26 stories, told in the fine, measured English of the King James version, were chosen by 56-year-old Publisher Harte with the help of seven leading Protestant clergymen.

To illustrate the stories, Harte picked an intense, white-haired little artist named Guy Rowe. When 55-year-old Artist Rowe accepted the commission, he knew next to nothing about the inside of the Bible. For months before picking up a brush, he read and reread the Old Testament, steeping himself in its character and drama. Then he began a patient, persistent search—among his friends, in public places, on trains and planes—for the faces that would fit his conception of the prophets and kings of Israel. Only one picture was posed: his son and daughter-in-law became Adam & Eve. The rest of the illustrations, painted without models, were combinations of Rowe’s invention and memory.

Elijah was a man lunching in a Manhattan sidestreet cafeteria. Day after day, Rowe found him eating there at noon, and for three weeks he returned to study each line and plane of the luncher’s face. Artist and subject never exchanged a word. With his wife helping on the voluminous research needed for costumes and backgrounds, Painter Rowe worked steadily on his 32 illustrations for 3½ years. As a result, he has become deeply concerned with the Bible and the Christian faith. Said he last week: “I don’t know how to explain it in words. I had to elevate myself to the high places in order to catch the spirit of the prophets.”

*Copyright 1949 by Oxford University Press Inc. ($10).