Mar 09, 2023 - Sale 2629

Sale 2629 - Lot 138

Unsold
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000

MAXFIELD PARRISH (1870-1966)

POSTER SHOW / PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY. 1896.


44x28 inches, 111 3/4x72 cm. Ledger Show Print, Philadelphia.
Condition B: colors faded; toned overall; time-staining in margins; hand-signed by the artist in pencil.

Most famous for his children's book illustrations, Parrish was nonetheless a "remarkable draftsman, 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." Starting in 1890, with an exhibition of French posters at New York City's Grolier Club, the American market began to become receptive to poster art. Exhibitions were held in Boston, New York and Pennsylvania. This, one of Parrish's earlier posters, was for a poster exhibition at his alma mater. Completely atypical of his style, the image uses the broad planes of flat colors employed by Toulouse-Lautrec, rather than the lush, imaginary landscapes that populated so much of Parrish's other work. Unsigned versions of this poster exist with additional text printed in the bottom text panel. Kiehl 133, Margolin p. 211, Reims 1250, Weill 82, Affichomanie 27, MoMA 171.1968.