MAXFIELD PARRISH | GIANT WITH JACK AT HIS FEET (POEMS OF CHILDHOOD)

The artist

Nicholas and Elizabeth Biddle, 1905 (gift from the above)

Private collection (by descent)

[with]American Illustrators Gallery, New York

Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1996

Eugene Field, Poems of Childhood, New York, 1904, cover illustration

Coy Ludwig, Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, no. 367, pp. 31, 207 (as Poems of Childhood, Cover Design)

Paul W. Skeeters, Maxfield Parrish: The Early Years 1893-1930, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1973, illustrated p. 165

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, One Hundredth Anniversary Exhibition, January-March 1905, no. 171, p. 19 (as Cover: Eugene Field Book)

Tokyo, Japan, Isetan Museum of Art; Osaka, Japan, The Museum of Art, Kintetsu; Yamanashi, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art; Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Norman Rockwell Museum, Maxfield Parrish: A Retrospective, April-December 1995, illustrated p. 65

In his description of the present work, Coy Ludwig writes: "Poems of Childhood by Eugene Field, first published with illustrations by Maxfield Parrish in September 1904, was destined to become in the United States one of the better known, if not the best known, of all books illustrated by him. The idea to have Parrish illustrate Field's poems originated with Edward Bok at the Ladies' Home Journal. When Bok commissioned him to paint his interpretations of five of the poems for the magazine, Charles Scribner's Sons arranged to use the five illustrations in a single volume of Field's poetry. Parrish promised to provide three additional paintings, as well as a cover design [Giant with Jack at His Feet (Poems of Childhood)] endpapers, and, title page, for the proposed book" (Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, p. 31).

Ludwig continues: "Poems of Childhood was the first book in which Maxfield Parrish's paintings were reproduced in full color. As with prior illustrations, he allowed the author's text only to suggest the subject, and from that point the interpretation was his" (Ibid.).