Maxfield Parrish was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and
illustratorAn illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
active in the first half of the twentieth century. He is known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery.
Life
Born in
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, he was the son of painter and etcher
Stephen ParrishStephen Parrish was a painter and an etcher from the United States.-Biography:Parrish was engaged in mercantile pursuits until he was 30, when he applied himself to art, studying for a year with a local teacher. In 1878 he first exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia, and in 1879 at...
. He began drawing for his own amusement as a child. His given name was Frederick Parrish but he later adopted the maiden name of his paternal grandmother, Maxfield, as his middle name, and later as his professional name. His father was an engraver and landscape artist, and young Parrish's parents encouraged his talent. He attended
Haverford CollegeHaverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
, the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine ArtsThe Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...
, and Drexel Institute of Art. He entered into an artistic career that lasted for more than half a century, and which helped shape the Golden Age of illustration and the future of American visual arts.
He lived in Philadelphia until the age of 28, and the rest of his entire adult life at his New Hampshire home/studio at The Oaks with his wife, Lydia, who died in 1953, and his mistress and model, Sue Lewin, who survived his death in 1966 at age 95. He was by all accounts a charming and intelligent man whose writings add a great deal to the text in Ludwig's biography of him.
Launched by a
commissionA contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
to illustrate
L. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
's
Mother Goose in ProseMother Goose in Prose is a collection of twenty-two children's stories based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes. It was the first children's book written by L. Frank Baum, and the first book illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. It was originally published in 1897 by Way and Williams of Chicago, and...
in 1897, his repertoire included many prestigious projects including
Eugene FieldEugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays.-Biography:...
's
Poems of Childhood (including 8 color plates) (1904) (see illustration) and such traditional works as
Arabian Nights (including 12 color plates) (1909). Books illustrated by Parrish, in addition to those that include reproductions of Parrish's work—including
A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales (including 10 color plates) (1910),
The Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics (including 8 color plates) (1911) and
The Knave of Hearts (including 23 color images) (1925) – are highly sought-after collectors items.
He had numerous commissions from popular magazines in the 1910s and 1920s including
Hearst's,
ColliersCollier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
, and
LifeLife generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
. He was also a favorite of advertisers, including
Wanamaker'sWanamaker's department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States. At its zenith in the early 20th century, there were two major Wanamaker department stores, one in Philadelphia and one in New York City at Broadway...
,
Edison-Mazda LampsMazda was a trademarked name created by the Shelby Electric Company for incandescent light bulbs. The name was used from 1909 through 1945 in the United States by Shelby and later General Electric; Mazda brand light bulbs were made for decades after 1945 outside the USA...
, Fisk Tires,
ColgateColgate-Palmolive Company is an American diversified multinational corporation focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products . Under its "Hill's" brand, it is also a manufacturer of...
and Oneida Cutlery. In the 1920s, Parrish turned away from illustration and concentrated on painting for its own sake.
AndrogynousAndrogyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- and γυνή , referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics...
nudes in
fantasticalFantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
settings were a recurring theme. He continued in this vein for several years, living comfortably off the royalties brought in by the production of posters and calendars featuring his works. An early favorite model was Kitty Owen in the 1920s. Later another favorite, Susan Lewin, posed for many works, and was employed in the Parrish household for many years. Parrish himself posed for many images that featured male—and occasionally female—figures (see
Potpourri, 1905).
In 1931, he declared to the
Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, "I'm done with girls on rocks", and opted instead to focus on landscapes. Though never as popular as his earlier works, he profited from them. He would often build models of the landscapes he wished to paint, using various lighting setups before deciding on a preferred view, which he would photograph as a basis for the painting (see for example,
The Millpond). He lived in
Plainfield, New HampshirePlainfield is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 2,364. The town is home to the Helen Woodruff Smith Bird Sanctuary and Annie Duncan State Forest....
, near the
Cornish Art ColonyThe Cornish Art Colony was a popular art colony centered in Cornish, New Hampshire from about 1895 through the years of World War I. Attracted by the natural beauty of the area, about 100 artists, sculptors, writers, designers, and politicians lived there either full time or during the summer...
, and painted until he was 91 years old. He was also an avid machinist.
Technique
Parrish's art features dazzlingly luminous
colorColor or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
s; the color
Parrish blue was named in acknowledgement. He achieved the results by means of a technique called
glazingGlazes can change the chroma, value, hue and texture of a surface. Drying time will depend on the amount and type of paint medium used in the glaze. The medium, base, or vehicle is the mixture to which the dry pigment is added...
where bright layers of
oilOil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the...
color separated by
varnishVarnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent. Varnish finishes are usually glossy but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss...
are applied alternately over a base rendering (Parrish usually used a blue and white monochromatic
underpaintingIn art, an underpainting is an initial layer of paint applied to a ground, which serves as a base for subsequent layers of paint. Underpaintings are often monochromatic and help to define colour values for later painting...
).
He would build up the depth in his paintings by photographing, enlarging, projecting and tracing half- or full-size objects or figures. Parrish then cut out and placed the images on his canvas, covering them with thick, but clear, layers of glaze. The result is realism of elegiac vivacity. His work achieves a unique three-dimensional appearance, which does not translate well to
coffee table bookA coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...
s.
The outer proportions and internal divisions of Parrish's compositions were carefully calculated in accordance with geometric principles such as
root rectangleA dynamic rectangle is a right-angled, four-sided figure with dynamic symmetry, which in this case, means that aspect ratio is a distinguished value in dynamic symmetry, a proportioning system and natural design methodology described in Jay Hambidge's books...
s and the
golden ratioIn mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.61803398874989...
. In this Parrish was influenced by
Jay HambidgeJay Hambidge was an American artist, born in Canada. He was a pupil at the Art Students' League in New York and of William Chase, and a thorough student of classical art. He conceived the idea that the study of arithmetic with the aid of geometrical designs was the foundation of the proportion and...
's theory of Dynamic Symmetry.
Parrish devised many innovative techniques which no other major artist has successfully copied. A technique which Parrish used frequently involved creating a large piece of cloth with a geometric pattern in stark black-and-white (such as alternate black and white squares, or a regular pattern of black circles on a white background). A human model (often Parrish himself) would then pose for a photograph with this cloth draped naturally on his or her body in a manner which intentionally distorted the pattern. Parrish would develop a transparency of the photo, then project this onto the canvas of his current work in progress. Using black
graphiteThe mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...
on the white canvas, Parrish would painstakingly trace and fill in all the black portions of the projected photo. The result was astonishing: in the finished painting, a human figure would be seen wearing a distinctive geometrically-patterned cloth which draped realistically and accurately.
Influence
Parrish's work defies
categorizationCategorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Categorization implies that objects are grouped into categories, usually for some specific purpose. Ideally, a category illuminates a relationship between the subjects and objects of knowledge...
since he was part of no traditional movement or school, and developed an original and individual style. However, his work has been highly influential.
The
Elton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
album
CaribouCaribou is the 8th studio album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1974 . It was John's 4th chart-topping album in the U.S. and his 3rd in the U.K. The album contains the singles, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me", which reached # 16 in the UK Singles Chart and # 2 in the U.S.,...
has a Parrish background.
The Moody BluesThe Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
album
The PresentThe Present is the eleventh album by The Moody Blues. It is the second album of the Patrick Moraz era. It had three minor hit singles, "Blue World" , "Sitting at the Wheel" and "Running Water"....
uses a variation of the Parrish painting
DaybreakDaybreak is a painting by Maxfield Parrish made in 1922. Daybreak is regarded as the most popular art print of the 20th century, based on number of prints made: one for every four American homes. According to the The National Museum of American Illustration, it has outsold Andy Warhol's Campbell's...
for its cover. In 1984,
Dali's CarDalis Car was a musical group formed in 1984 by Peter Murphy , Mick Karn and Paul Vincent Lawford . The band was formed soon after Murphy and Karn left their former bands...
, the British New Wave project of
Peter MurphyPeter John Murphy is an English rock vocalist. He was the vocalist of the rock group Bauhaus, and later went on to release a number of solo albums, such as Deep and Love Hysteria...
and
Mick KarnAndonis Michaelides , better known as Mick Karn, was an English multi-instrumentalist musician and songwriter, who came to fame as the bassist for the art rock band Japan, from 1974 to 1982....
, used
Daybreak as the cover art of their only album,
The Waking Hour. The Irish musician
EnyaEnya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...
has been inspired by the works of Parrish. The cover art of her 1995 album
The Memory of TreesThe Memory of Trees is an album by Irish musician Enya, released in 1995 . It won the Grammy Award for "Best New Age Album" of 1997...
is based on his painting
The Young King of the Black Isles http://www.artpassions.net/cgi-bin/show_image.pl?../galleries/parrish/blackisles.jpg. A number of her music videos include Parrish imagery including Caribbean Blue. In the 1995
music videoA music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
"
You Are Not Alone"You Are Not Alone", released on the 10th of August 1995, is the second single from Michael Jackson's album HIStory. The R&B ballad's composition has been attributed R. Kelly in response to difficult times in his personal life. He then forwarded a bare demo tape to Jackson, who liked the song and...
",
Michael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
and his then wife
Lisa Marie PresleyLisa Marie Presley is an American singer and songwriter, also known as the "Princess of Rock and Roll". She is the only child of Elvis Presley, and daughter of Priscilla Presley.-Early life:...
appear semi-nude in emulation of
Daybreak.
The cover of the 1985
Bloom CountyBloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
cartoon collection
Penguin Dreams and Stranger ThingsPenguin Dreams and Stranger Things is the third collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1985.It is preceded by Toons For Our Times and followed by Bloom County Babylon....
comprises elements of
Daybreak,
The Garden of Allah, and
The Lute Players.
The poster for
The Princess BrideThe Princess Bride is a 1987 American film based on the 1973 novel of the same name by William Goldman, combining comedy, adventure, romance, and fantasy. The film was directed by Rob Reiner from a screenplay by Goldman...
was inspired by one his works.
Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
's work
The Sirens of TitanThe Sirens of Titan is a Hugo Award-nominated novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., first published in 1959. His second novel, it involves issues of free will, omniscience, and the overall purpose of human history...
alludes to "Maxfield Parrish light" coming from treetops.
In 2001, Parrish was featured in a U.S. Post Office commemorative stamp series honoring American illustrators, including
Rockwell KentRockwell Kent was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, and writer.- Biography :Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York, the same year as fellow American artists George Bellows and Edward Hopper...
,
Norman RockwellNorman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
,
Frederic RemingtonFrederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West, specifically concentrating on the last quarter of the 19th century American West and images of cowboys, American Indians, and the U. S...
, and 16 others.
The
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York, along with many other museums, has samples of his work. The
San Diego Museum of ArtThe San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed its name to the San...
toured a collection of his work in 2005. The
National Museum of American IllustrationThe National Museum of American Illustration , founded in 1998, is the first national museum to be devoted exclusively to American illustration artwork....
claims the largest body of his oeuvre in any collection, with sixty-nine works by Parrish. Some of his works are located at the
Hood Museum of ArtThe Hood Museum of Art is a museum in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Dating back to 1772, the museum is owned and operated by Dartmouth College and is connected to the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The current building, designed by Charles Willard Moore and Chad Flloyd, opened in the fall of 1985. It...
(Hanover, New Hampshire) and the Cornish Colony Art Museum (Windsor, Vermont).
Family
His second son Maxfield Parrish, Jr. is known for his important contribution to the development of the first self-developing camera at Dr.
Edwin H. LandEdwin Herbert Land was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Among other things, he invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and his retinex theory of color vision...
's
Polaroid CorporationPolaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...
. He also collaborated with his cousin, inventor
John Haven EmersonJohn Haven "Jack" Emerson was an American inventor of biomedical devices, specializing in respiratory equipment. He is perhaps best remembered for his work in improving the iron lung.-Early life:...
, in an important patent lawsuit involving
iron lungA negative pressure ventilator is a form of medical ventilator that enables a person to breathe when normal muscle control has been lost or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability....
s.
Maxfield Parrish's third son, Stephen Parrish II, worked for Pan American as a mechanic. His daughter Jean Parrish was a noted artist in her own right. She died in 2004. With her death, there are no living children of Maxfield Parrish. There are seven grandchildren, six great grandchildren, and several great great grandchildren as of 2007.
Further reading
- Laurence S. Cutler
Laurence S. Cutler AIA, RIBA is an architect, urban designer, historic property developer, author, educator, and advertising executive. Cutler, along with his wife, Judy Goffman Cutler, is co-founder of the National Museum of American Illustration at Vernon Court in Newport, RI; the first...
; Judy Goffman CutlerJudy Goffman Cutler is an art dealer, art collector, co-founder of the National Museum of American Illustration, and founder and Executive Director of the American Illustrators Gallery, NYC, the premier gallery showcasing major original artworks from the 'Golden Age of American Illustration'...
; National Museum of American IllustrationThe National Museum of American Illustration , founded in 1998, is the first national museum to be devoted exclusively to American illustration artwork....
. Maxfield Parrish and the American Imagists. Edison, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 2004. ISBN 0785818170; ISBN 9780785818175 (Worldcat link: http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/57069888&referer=brief_results#)
- Flacks, Erwin, Maxfield Parrish Identification and Price Guide, 4th ed. Portland, OR: Collectors Press, 2007
- Smith, Alma Gilbert, Maxfield Parrish: Master of Make-believe. London : Philip Wilson, 2005
External links