New Hampshire Individuals of Note |
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Introduction Paintings by Artist Painting by Subject Paintings by Geography
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Maxfield Parrish (1870 - 1966)Maxfield
Parrish was the most popular and well known American artist in the United States
in the first third of the twentieth century. Early in his career he settled in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Parrish's works blurred the line between commercial (or applied art)
and fine art, and ranged fron chocolate box designs to landscape oils.
For seventeen years he painted the picture for the calendar produced by
Edison Mazda Lamp, a Division of General Electric.
Over 20,000,000 calendars were produced and many people saved Parrish's
paintings and hung them, framed, in their homes. His illustrations for children's books, such as the Arabian
Nights, made his work known to entire families. His paintings were used as covers for Harpers Weekly,
Scribner's , and other magazines. In
the 1940s Parrish painted several scenes of New Hampshire which were used for
posters to attract tourists to the state. His painting, Daybreak - two
figures, one bending over a reclining figure in Greek dress, both placed between
two columns with an expanse of sky, trees, water, and mountains - was created
for mass reproduction. It has been
estimated that one out of every four homes in the United States in the mid-1920s
had a copy of Daybreak in the house. Maxfield Parrish established his
reputation in the mid-1890s with covers for Century Magazine, illustrations for
Frank Baum's Mother Goose in Prose and Washington Irving's Knickerbocker's
History of New York, and a mural of Old King Cole for the University of
Pennsylvania's Dramatic Club. He
continued painting until 1960. Maxfield
Parrish's father, Stephen, was a well known painter and engraver and he exposed
his young son to art at home and through travel. This developed Parrish's analytical eye and his interest in
"nature, shapes, shadows, and light" which stayed with him throughout
his life. In addition to his
father, the major influences on his style were Thomas P. Anshurtz, a painter and
photographer on the staff of the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Howard
Pyle, a noted illustrator who was particularly interested in historic subjects
and costumed models, and Jay Hambridge, an historian and theoretician who
advocated the concept of "dynamic symmetry" as the key to great art
and architecture. Anshurtz was a
careful craftsman who used bold and unmixed colors in his painting, and
photographs to help lay out his design. Parrish attended some of Pyle's
lectures, was impressed by his work and personality,
and was encouraged by Pyle to seek a
career in illustration. Hambridge
derived his theory of "dynamic symmetry" from a study of the
architecture of ancient Egypt and Greece. Parrish
read his works and heard him lecture and was greatly impressed.
Hambridge argued there should be a balance in all composition. This
balance created harmony and was obtained by using the same set of proportions
throughout the entire work. In some
of Parrish's studies for his works, one can see the pattern of lines he used to
find this balance. The influence of
these three men can be seen in Parrish's work throughout his life. Many
of the works created by Parrish were oils designed to be reproduced in prints to
be sold to the public. These
paintings were full of brilliant colors that shimmered as though they were still
wet. He achieved this remarkable
quality by attention to each layer of color.
He placed a layer of pure color on his art board and covered it with a
thin layer of varnish. He would
then polish the layer slightly before putting on the next layer, and repeat the
process. It was a slow process and
it could take Parrish two to three months to complete one painting.
Parrish's use of blue was so distinct that
the phrase "Parrish blue" became part of the American
vocabulary, and is still used to describe the brilliant blue he achieved in many
of his best known works. His "Girl
on a Rock" Series and his Edison Mazda Calendar Series, especially the
"History of Light Paintings" such as Prometheus and Venetian Lamp
Lighter, reveal his mastery of light and shadow. Parrish
was a master of detail and, as a trained architect, of space.
In addition to the lines he used to seek the "dynamic symmetry"
of his composition, he often built models of items, such as chairs or houses,
that he included in his paintings. When he was doing a work with human figures, he would take
photographs, cut out the figures, and use them to provide the outline in the
drawing. When
Parrish's oils were being prepared for printing, he followed the process
closely, demanding that the work be faithful to the original.
The works were reproduced meticulously. A lithographer transferred the images of
the original to stone. Aluminum
plates were then made from the lithographer's work.
From these durable plates, hundreds of prints could be made.
The quality of these reproductions enhanced his reputation, and Time
magazine reported in 1936 that in the area of fine reproductions the three most
popular artists in the world were Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Maxfield Parrish.
Parrish
always had an eye for the whimsical, and for the mystery inherent in fairy
tales. His many illustrations for
the D. M. Ferry Seed Company reflect these traits.
His later landscapes were described by the art critic, Ken Johnson, as
"...works of mystic pantheism," which
suggests a sense of the mystical remained with him throughout his life.
In his illustrations Parrish captured the mood and imagination of the
American people in the first thirty years of the century.
Interest in Parrish's work began to wane in the late 1930s
but returned in the 1960s
with the advent of pop art, which connected the popular images of advertising
with the fine arts. Also, the
expanding use of technology to produce art and illustrations has led many
artists to study the work of this fine illustrator. Recent organized shows
and publication of collections of his work illustrate this interest.
The work of this most popular artist of the first half of the twentieth
century which combines brilliant coloration, sensitivity to design, painstaking
detail, exaggerated natural settings, and a whimsical eye deserves
study by students of art, history and literature. At the present there is no museum in New Hampshire dedicated
to the life and work of Maxfield Parrish, but fortunately, one can study his
work in several recent books. Frederick
Maxfield Parrish was an only child. He
was born into a prominent Quaker family in Philadelphia on July 25, 1870.
He was known as Fred in the family, but he dropped it before he became
famous. His mother, Elizabeth Bancroft, was from an old and wealthy
Philadelphia family. His father,
Stephen, took Maxfield to museums in Europe and taught him to sketch.
He showed talent at an early age. Some
of the works he created in high school and at college were included in a 1999
exhibit organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. From
1888 to 1891 he attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania, majoring in
architecture. Already committed to
a career as an artist, Parrish left college and
studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he first
gained fame. In 1891 he took some
classes at the Drexel Institute where he met Lydia Austin.
Several years later after a six month intense courtship, Maxfield Parrish
married Lydia Austin on June 1, 1895. Two days later he left alone for an art tour of Europe.
This set the tone for their relationship throughout Lydia's life. In
1892 Stephen Parrish moved to New Hampshire where he became a part of the artist
colony in the Cornish area. On a
visit there Maxfield Parrish fell in love with the region. He bought land from which there was a view of Mt.
Ascutney. He designed and
helped build his and Lydia's home, "The Oaks."
They moved in in 1898 and became part of the Cornish colony along with
Willa Cather, Winston Churchill, and Augustus Saint Gaudens.
President Woodrow Wilson spent several summers in Cornish. On the
extensive landscaped ground of "The Oaks," Parrish built a wood and
machine shop where he constructed many items for his own use as well as the wood
and metal models of items he included in his paintings. Later he added a studio building. Parrish
developed tuberculosis and spent the winter of 1900 recuperating at Saranac
Lake, New York. This visit, plus
time he spent in Arizona where he was inspired by the brilliant blue of the sky,
the intense light, and great sweep
of space, confirmed color as the most important part of his work. In
1903 Lydia Parrish traveled to Europe alone.
On her return, Lydia and Maxfield had four children, Dillwyn, Maxfield,
Stephen, and Jean, who were raised at "The Oaks." The three youngest were all interested in art and Maxfield
Jr. worked to develop records of his father's work and helped to establish the
Maxfield Parrish Family Trust which has control of many of the copyrights to his
works. After
the birth of Dillwyn in 1904, at his father's suggestion, Maxfield built a large
studio at "The Oaks," where he could work undisturbed, and hired a
young girl, Susan Lewin, to help Lydia with the baby. Susan soon became Parrish's model and posed for many of his
best known works, but he also used other models, including himself, whom he
photographed using specially rigged remote controls. Susan lived with Parrish at the studio until her marriage in
1960. After
1912 Lydia spent winters at St. Simon Island, Georgia.
She became an expert on the folk music of the black inhabitants of the
Sea Islands and published the first collection of this music.
She died in 1953. Parrish
admired his father's work and apparently always wanted to be a landscape
painter. He signed an agreement
with the Brown and Bigelow Calendar Company of St. Paul, Minnesota in 1936 that
continued until 1961. The contract
assured a good income and allowed him to concentrate on landscapes.
He painted over 100 landscapes in those last twenty five years.
Maxfield Parrish died at "The Oaks" in Cornish in 1966.
"The Oaks" was then
sold, used as a bed and breakfast, and burned to the ground in 1979. WOK Sources: Coy,
Ludwig. Maxfield Parrish. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill
Publishers, 1973 (recently reprinted by
Schiffer Publishing Co.). Cutler,
L. S. and J. G Cutler. Maxfield Parrish: A Retrospective.
San Francisco, CA:
Pomegranate Artbooks, 1995. Gilbert,
Alma. Maxfield Parrish: The landscapes.
Berkeley, CA: 10 Speed Press,
1998. Gilbert,
Alma. Treasury of Art and Children's Literature. New York,
NY: Atheneum
Books for Young Artists, 1995. Parrish,
Maxfield.
Edison Mazda Collection. Portland,
Oregon: Collectors Press,
1995. Sweeney,
Marian. Maxfield Parrish Prints: A Collector's Guide. Dublin, NH: Wm. L. Banhau, 1974.
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