For "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary,” a 1921 Parrish ad for Ferry Seeds, his young daughter, Jean, posed for the larger-than-life figure, backed by a scenic landscape. The Ferry series made for effective posters and best-selling lithographic reproductions. James Halperin, Heritage Auctions.
:Maxfield Parrish (1870–1966), a supremely talented artist and extraordinary entrepreneur, occupies a special niche in the history of America's culture. Over the course of a 70-year career, stretching from the late Gilded Age to the Vietnam era, his illustrations, advertisements, posters, paintings and murals — utilizing an idiosyncratic combination of jewel-like, often luminescent colors, precise details, compositional balance and whimsical, sometimes surrealistic, images — made him one of the most popular artists of his time. Although his work deliberately appealed to popular tastes, it was grounded on sound aesthetic considerations.
In his work, Parrish combined a mastery of technique with canny knowledge of the rapid technological advances taking place in color printing. His technical brilliance allowed him to develop unique glazing processes and incandescent color effects, including his own "Parrish blue" — that gave his work a mysterious, lyrical quality.
His ability to exploit new, high-quality refinements in color printing processes allowed for meticulously detailed and brilliantly illuminated images and facilitated mass dissemination of his inventive pictures. In creating works that were part illustration and part fine art — iconic images that appeal to this day — he defined a new role for graphic artists.
In the 1920s, Parrish produced imagery of such popularity that it was estimated that one of every four American homes had reproductions of his world of make-believe hanging on its walls. Because he was unabashedly a "popular" or "public" artist, creating works for the masses, however, the art establishment tended to look down on his achievements. Toward the end of his long life and for several decades after his death, his work was denigrated and neglected, but in recent years it has regained respect from art historians and commanded large prices on the market.
At the behest of a candy manufacturer, Parrish created images such as "Rubaiyat,” 1917, to decorate the tops of Crane candy boxes. Susan Lewin served as the male model on the right for this popular picture. James Halperin, Heritage Auctions.
All this makes "Fantasies and Fairy-Tales: Maxfield Parrish and the Art of the Print," organized and circulated by the Trust for Museum Exhibitions in Washington, D.C.,
especially timely. Already seen in Sacramento, Wichita, Wilmington and Shreveport, it is on view at the Everson Museum of Art through July 11.
The exhibition poses questions such as, What is the place of artists, such as Parrish, whose careers are devoted to art for the general public? Should so-called commercial art be taken seriously by critics and scholars? This show, the first comprehensive examination of the artist's oeuvre in the print media, suggests the answer to the latter is a firm yes.
Frederick Parrish was born in Philadelphia, the son of Quaker parents. He later adopted the family name Maxfield as his professional name. His father, Stephen (1846–1938), a painter better known as an etcher, gave him art lessons and took him on art tours to Europe, where the budding artist was particularly impressed by Pre-Raphaelite art.
After attending Haverford College for three years, in 1892, Parrish enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, studying under Thomas Anshutz and Robert Vonnoh. In his early 20s, Parrish decorated the new home of the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Club in Philadelphia, a venerable theatrical group known for its spirited musical comedies. The centerpiece of his fairy-tale designs, the mural "Old King Cole,"
was later replicated in an 8-by-30-foot version for John Jacob Astor's Knickerbocker Hotel. Today, it graces the bar/lounge of Manhattan's St Regis Hotel.
