Feb 29, 2024 - Sale 2660

Sale 2660 - Lot 2

Unsold
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

MAXFIELD PARRISH (1870-1966)

THE CENTURY / MIDSUMMER HOLIDAY NUMBER. 1897.


19½x13 inches, 50x33 cm. The Thomas & Wylie Lithographic Co.
Condition B+ / A-: repaired tears and restored loss in left margin. Matted and framed.

Most famous for his children's book illustrations, Parrish was nonetheless a "remarkable draughtsman, who energetically and successfully mixed fantasy and reality to create a luminous dreamworld that, for all its strangeness, is precisely rendered" (Parrish intro). He studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and then at the Drexel Institute under Howard Pyle. His posters were more illustrative and detailed than those of Edward Penfield and Will Bradley, and marked by what Charles Hiatt referred to as "curious individuality." Parrish won second prize in The Century's 1896 poster contest with this entry. He might very well have won first (which went to J.C. Leyendecker), but "entries had been restricted to three colors, and Parrish, an avid experimenter with the new half-tone process, employed five" (Margolin p. 20).

Kiehl 134, DFP-I 317, Margolin p. 19 & 51, Maitres pl. 123, American Posters no. 55, The American Poster p. 15, Virginia p. 6, Weill 126, La Femme 67, American Style 49, Crystal Palace 701, Art of Parrish 419, Art Nouveau p. 199.