Four Maxfield Parrish Masterworks Illustrate His Fascinating Artistic Method

Past Auction

American Art

19 November 2019 | 10:00 AM EST | New York

S otheby’s American Art sale (19 November, New York) will present four masterworks by the renowned American illustrator Maxfield Parrish. Each painting represents a distinct facet of the artist’s contributions to American Art across his long and storied career. The earliest work, Romance: Aucassin Seeks for Nicolette, was reproduced as the frontispiece illustration for Scribner’s Magazine in 1903. A year later, Parrish painted Giant with Jack at His Feet (Poems of Childhood) for the cover illustration of Eugene Field’s Poems of Childhood. Cleopatra, commissioned as the cover illustration of Crane’s Chocolates 1917 Christmas gift box, represents the artist’s successful foray into commercial advertising. Painted later his career in 1945, Mill Pond was included in Brown & Bigelow’s 1948 regular calendar and quickly became one of Parrish’s most commercially successful landscapes and recognizable paintings.

Parrish’s popularity was a direct result of his meticulous interdisciplinary artistic process, which engaged both photography and woodworking. "Parrish took a great deal of pains to ‘plan a picture’…,” explains Alma M. Gilbert, “His photographs allowed him to take the details back to the studio with him. He kept a cabinet in the studio with small compartments labeled 'Rocks,' 'Trees,' 'Streams,' etc., where he kept glass negatives of his images...In his studio machine shop, he would build elaborate balsa-wood models. A skylight was cut out over his easel so that he could throw the skylight open, lay some branches across the opening, and study their patterns and effects on the floor, in order to render a particular shading. Then he would study the models and play with light sources to obtain the right emphasis and mood. After that, he drew a pencil sketch dividing the composition, using Jay Hambidge's theory of symmetry. Sometimes a watercolor might surface; however, he preferred to sketch in oils. The final work would take the artist approximately two to three months to complete because of his meticulous glazing technique between layers of paint. This was necessary to give the works the luminosity that has remained the hallmark of Parrish's work." (Maxfield Parrish: The Landscapes, Berkeley, California, 1998, pp. 19-20).

In preparation for Romance: Aucassin Seeks for Nicolette, Parrish constructed a detailed model of the distant castle. "Just as Maxfield Parrish enjoyed making paper cutouts as a child," explains Parrish biographer Coy Ludwig, "he also passed many pleasant hours making wooden models of buildings which served as backgrounds for the great pageants performed by his cast of paper characters...The artist applied his experience in making architectural models to his painting technique by making wooden models of the buildings (real and imaginary) that he intended to paint. The architectural models were illuminated with the desired effects of light and shadow and photographed in the studio. The glass-plate photographs were then used by the artist in laying out the composition." (Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, p. 200).

Parrish’s methods were similarly complex in his approach to Mill Pond. To create the composition, Parrish began by photographing the 19th-century mill located in Quechee, Vermont (still extant today) and then created a model of the structure in his machine shop, which he also captured on film. Of this photograph, Coy Ludwig writes: “One such interesting photograph from the artist's studio collection shows the model setup used for The Millpond [sic], published in 1948 by Brown & Bigelow. The elaborate wooden model made by the artist is seen reflected in a mirror, representing the reflection in the still water of the mill pond. The model is detailed even to the tiny boards leaning against the side of the storage shed and the logs floating int he water. A silhouette of a tree painted on a sheet of paper is attached to the wall behind the model with a thumbtack. The artist created in this studio still life all the major elements of the painting. By using such models and props he was able to manipulate the scene and the lighting until he arrived at the exact effect that he wanted to paint." (Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, p. 200).

Parrish’s process evolved throughout his career, much in the same way that the commercial means for reproducing his art developed during the early 20th century. According to Coy Ludwig, "Giant with Jack at His Feet (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." (Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, p. 31). Parrish’s paintings for Field’s publication are among the better known, if not the best known, of all his illustrations. Giant with Jack at His Feet (Poems of Childhood) was positioned prominently on the book’s cover.

By 1917 Parrish’s works were also available for purchase through mail-order art prints. To increase the demand for his boxes of Crane’s Chocolates, Clarence Crane enclosed order forms for copies of Parrish’s paintings in his chocolate gift boxes. This system drastically increased the artist’s notoriety nationwide and created intense commercial interest in replicas of works like Cleopatra. "The demand for reproductions of Parrish's decorations grew so great that Crane arranged for the House of Art, the New York fine arts publishing and distributing firm, to handle the marketing of the prints...Crane's reproductions helped to create an unprecedented public demand for Parrish's paintings in the art-print market and with it the assurance of continued financial security for the artist." (Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, pp. 135, 138).

Led by this group of masterworks by Parrish, Sotheby’s American Art sale will also present important works by other American illustrators including N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Frank Schoonover and Thomas Maitland Cleland. The auction will take place in New York at 10:00 AM EDT; registration is now open.

Past Auction

American Art

19 November 2019 | 10:00 AM EST | New York