He left the United States in 1888 for France where he studied in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Jean-Léon Gérôme, and at the Académie Julian.

For nine months he lived beside the Great Pyramids and Sphinx, extensively studying and drawing the ancient monuments.

In 1901, Pape was invited to exhibit 97 of his paintings in the Palace of American Archaeology and Ethnology at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo; he won a medal for the collection.

Pape also illustrated a large number of deluxe edition books, including The Poems of Madison Cawein (1907) in five volumes;[4] Henry James', The Turn of the Screw, (1898);[5] a special two-volume edition of Lew Wallace's The Fair God (1898) which included 272 illustrations.

Additionally, Pape worked as a stage designer for theatrical productions, most notably for Percy Mackaye's Canterbury Pilgrims, which was performed in honor of President William H. Taft at Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1909.

Pape's works are widely held in museum collections including the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the U.S.

Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland, the National Portrait Gallery in London and many other locations.