Rebecca Kruttschnitt Was a Published Illustrator

I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise, given how many people in my family draw well. Nevertheless, I was astonished to discover recently that Rebecca de Mendes Kruttschnitt (1889-1974), my great-grandaunt, was a professional illustrator.

Rebecca Kruttschnitt adeptly illustrated a drawing-room novel — that’s right, a roman de salon — published in 1910. The book, “In Town, and Other Conversations,” written by Janet Ayer Fairbank, includes more than a dozen of Rebecca’s delicate pencil drawings. Read it by clicking here.  no one will be blamed for just looking at the pictures.

Rebecca de Mendes Kruttschnitt was the daughter of Julius Kruttschnitt, the former board chairman of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Rebecca married Henry de Clifford Woodhouse when she was 22, one year after the book was published. A Canadian, Woodhouse was a veteran of the Boer Wars in South Africa.

As we have previously blogged, Woodhouse was no good to Rebecca. He carried on during wedlock with the poet Elinor Wylie, who even wrote love sonnets about their affair in her last book. Elinor and Rebecca were friends. Elinor frequently visited the Woodhouses after they had moved to England at their household at Henley-on-Thames. Maybe she visited too frequently, if I may be so bold.

It goes without saying that, to me at least, Rebecca’s illustrations are the most interesting part of the book. The book began as a play serialized in the Sunday editions of the Chicago Record-Herald under the name “The Tea Table.” The same characters appear in each scene to talk about issues of the moment. The talk is handled “in an amusing and highly natural manner,” according to one reviewer.

I can’t vouch for this because I have no interest in reading the book. Someone else can read it and tell me if it’s any good. But I can tell you that I completely agree with the reviewer when he evokes the “uncommon delicacy” of the illustrations. This is a book that you can judge by its pictures, starting with the covers.

Sadly, the only color illustration is on the cover. color. It features a lone passenger in an early automobile, about to set off on a weekend adventure, no doubt. I guess I’m not sure why the driver is all covered up with leaves still on the trees. Maybe that’s because I haven’t read the book.

Inside, there are lots of lovely pictures of beautifully dressed, thoughtful women doing exciting things — pouring tea, wearing furs, getting dressed by maids to go to the opera, stirring tea, that kind of thing. They are all really, really good.

Interestingly, men really aren’t a factor in the illustrations, except to hide behind newspapers, sit dully in armchairs, or wear old military outfits. That may be one reason why I have no interest in reading the book.