EDWARD PENFIELD (1866-1925) HARPER'S APRIL. 1893. 185/8x127/8 inches. Condition A-: minor abrasions and creases in image. "In April 1893 something new was spotted in the shops of American news vendors and booksellers. Amid the handbills and letterpress notices of topical interest, there was a small poster . . . this was unprecedented . . . The poster was bold in its simplicity: the singular, isolated figure of the man; the magazine; a mere suggestion of the weather proverbially associated with the month; and bold lettering carefully integrated into the design." (Kiehl p. 11). Penfield himself writes that this poster "was done long before I ever heard of Lautrec or Steinlen as poster designers . . . I think the American Poster has opened a new school whose aim is simplicity and good composition." (ibid). Almost universally acclaimed as Penfield's inaugural Harper's image, this was, in fact, Penfield's second poster for the magazine, the first in March, 1893 (see Margolin p. 32 and DFP I 320). The earlier image is not signed. Not in Kiehl, DFP I 321.
