Maxfield Parrish – Poet of the Golden Age of Illustration
Maxfield Parrish’s paintings of beautiful surroundings and delightful characters charmed the public during America’s Golden Age of Illustration. Maxfield Parrish’s artwork has been used for book illustrations, large murals, and magazine covers. A large number of Maxfield Parrish’s prints for children’s books, which are still widely popular, are the product of his initial battle to earn a living as an illustrator around the beginning of the 20th century.
Maxfield Parrish’s Artwork and Life
Few of us can forget the first time we saw one of Maxfield Parrish’s prints as children. Everybody knows Parrish’s wonderful universe, which is frequently woven with the hue of lapis lazuli in its finest form. His usage of this hue was so influential that a specific cobalt blue was dubbed “Parrish Blue”.
His idealistic pictures of feminine grace and beauty dressed in classical costumes against backdrops of electrifying violets, bright reds, and rich luminous earth tone paint produced an exquisite universe.
Other pictures depicted sceneries decorated with thick clouds in a fairy tale atmosphere of princesses and knights sleeping beneath pediments, and they were equally harmonious, utopian, and cherished. Maxfield Parrish became undoubtedly the most famous and well-known illustrator in early 20th century America as a virtue of his capacity to generate such majestic grandeur.
His sumptuous coloristic qualities, amazing precision, and academic excellence were widely acknowledged by the American public in the 1920s, and he was honored with unprecedented national acclaim. In fact, in the year 1925, it is estimated that around one out of every four American families had a print of one of his artworks in their homes.
A Maxfield Parrish Biography
| Nationality | American |
| Date of Birth | 25 July 1870 |
| Date of Death | 30 March 1966 |
| Place of Birth | Philadelphia, United States |
Maxfield Parrish was an artist and illustrator from the United States whose artwork influenced the Golden Age of Illustration. He is well-known for his unusual color intensity, idealistic neoclassical iconography, and financial prosperity.
Challenging the stereotype of the hungry artist, Parrish received his first assignment before graduating from art school and went on to acquire enormous success throughout the first part of the 20th century.
Early Life and Education
The son of a painter and etcher, Maxfield Parrish was born in Philadelphia. His birth name was Frederick, but he eventually modified it to Maxfield. He grew up in a Quaker household. He began painting for his own entertainment as a youngster, had shown great skill, and his family supported him.
In 1884, his parents accompanied him to Europe, where he saw Italy, England, and France, was introduced to architectural design, and paintings by the great artists, and attended Dr. Kornemann’s Paris school.
Parrish then enrolled at Haverford School and afterward pursued architectural design for a couple of years at Haverford College starting in 1888. Parrish left the school and moved to Annisquam, Massachusetts, where he and his father had a painting workshop. With his father’s support, he enrolled at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry.
Career
Parrish started an artistic profession that spanned more than a half-century and shaped visual arts in America. Throughout his profession, he created around 900 artworks, and Maxfield Parrish’s paintings were featured in greeting cards, calendars, and magazine covers.
The majority of Parrish’s early artworks were in white and black.
Maxfield Parrish’s artwork appeared on the Easter 1895 cover of Harper’s Bazaar. He has also contributed to numerous other publications, such as Scribner’s Magazine. Les Maîtres de l’Affiche featured one of his paintings for The Century Magazine. He also produced L. Frank Baum’s Mother Goose in Prose children’s book in 1897. He had become a part of the Society of American Artists by 1900. In 1903, he returned to Europe to explore Italy.
Until the 1920s, Parrish accepted several orders for commercial painting. Among the numerous prominent undertakings in Parrish’s more commercially focused artworks were Eugene Field’s Poems of Childhood (1904) and such conventional works as Arabian Nights in 1909. A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales (1910), and The Knave of Hearts (1925) all include books drawn by Parrish.
In 1910, Edward Bok commissioned Parrish to create 18 painted panels for the girls’ dining room in the new Curtis Publishing Company building in Philadelphia. Collectively known as A Florentine Fête, the extensive series took approximately six years to complete. In 1914, while Parrish was still working on the dining-room panels, he received a separate commission to design Dream Garden for the building’s lobby. Parrish created the design, while Tiffany Studios executed it as a monumental glass mosaic. Installed in 1916, Dream Garden remains in the Curtis Building lobby, whereas the dining-room panels were removed around 1966 and later installed at the National Museum of American Illustration.
Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, he worked for major publications such as Hearst’s and Life. He also designed advertisements for Edison-Mazda Lamps, Wanamaker’s, Colgate, and Oneida Cutlery.
From 1904 through 1913, Parrish worked for Collier’s. The artist was then given a six-year contract to deal with them solely. In 1916 and 1923, he created posters for D.M. Ferry Seed Company, which assisted him in gaining popular attention. Daybreak, his best-known painting, was completed in 1922 and published as an art print the following year. It depicts feminine figures in a landscape setting. The artwork also has Parrish blue hues.
Nevertheless, in the 1920s, Parrish abandoned illustrating in favor of painting. Parrish started working on enormous murals in his forties, rather than merely children’s books, while he was in his 40s.
His paintings frequently depicted androgynous nudists in surreal surroundings. He made a career by selling posters and calendars showing his artwork. Susan Lewin began posing for several paintings in 1904 and eventually became Parrish’s long-term assistant. Parrish contributed to calendar graphics for General Electric from 1918 until 1934. In 1931, Parrish said to tabloids “I’m done with females on rocks,” and decided to concentrate on landscapes rather.
By 1935, Parrish had devoted himself entirely to painting landscapes. He benefited from them, even though they were never as successful as his previous efforts. He would frequently construct scale models of the fictional landscapes he desired to paint, experimenting with various lighting configurations until settling on a favored view, which he would photograph as the foundation for the picture, for instance, The Millpond.
He produced until he was 91 years old and resided in Plainfield. He was also an ardent machinist, referring to himself as “a mechanic who liked to make art.”
Personal Life
Maxfield Parrish met Lydia Ambler Austin, an art instructor, while studying at the Drexel Institute. They married on June 1, 1895, and had four children: Dillwyn, Maxfield Jr., Stephen, and Jean. In 1898, the couple began establishing their family home and studio, known as The Oaks, in Plainfield, New Hampshire. Lydia later documented African American spirituals and other musical traditions on the Georgia Sea Islands.
In 1905, while Lydia was expecting their second child, 16-year-old Susan Lewin joined the household as an au pair to help care for their first child, Dillwyn. Lewin subsequently became Parrish’s principal model, studio assistant, costume designer, and housekeeper. She remained closely associated with him until 1960. Their relationship was publicly presented as platonic, although biographers generally regard Lewin as Parrish’s probable longtime lover.
Beautiful vistas surrounding the house and an adjoining workspace stimulated Parrish’s sketches.
In 1900, Parrish was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB). During his illness, he found how to combine oils and glazes to produce bright hues. To improve his condition, Parrish worked in Castle Hot Springs, from 1900 until 1902. Jean, Parrish’s child, modeled for Ecstasy soon before departing for Smith College. Parrish was diagnosed with arthritis.
In the late 1950s, he received his final commission. However, by 1960, his arthritis had rendered him unable to paint.
His later years were spent confined to a wheelchair. Lydia Parrish died in 1953. Although Parrish was then free to marry Lewin, he did not formalize their relationship. Lewin remained at The Oaks for another seven years before leaving in 1960 and marrying Earl Colby, whom she had known in her youth. Parrish stopped painting around the same period, but claims that Lewin’s departure caused him to abandon art remain speculative; his advanced age and severe arthritis offer a more firmly documented explanation.
Legacy
Maxfield Parrish’s artwork influenced the works of many other respected and valued artists, including Vasarely, who accumulated his works, and Andy Warhol, who also accumulated his artwork, with recurring, repeatable Pop Art designs.
His legacy influenced the Photorealist, Realist, and Superrealist groups. He was respected but virtually disregarded until his rediscovery in 1964 when he was in his 90s.
Unfortunately, relatively few of Parrish’s unique works have ever been viewed by modern art audiences. His existence was rich and fulfilling, and he did not struggle as many other troubled painters have. Mysterious puzzles, on the other hand, lingered through his life: a father whom he admired had a broken marriage in the 1890s, typhoid sickness, TB, and a son who subsequently committed suicide.
He had an unhealthy obsession with the financial side of his art, but he seldom spent a cent.
In essence, it all summed up to life straight out of a movie script. Parrish was said to be a handsome person who had hidden his amazing skill away in the isolated hills of New Hampshire, where he had established his personal fantasy existence and just never left.
Maxfield Parrish’s Paintings and Technique
While most of Maxfield Parrish’s artwork was not displayed in museums, it was popular with the general public. The Art Nouveau style popularized the use of printing for advertising on a large scale. Because of advances in technology, lithography has become a very popular art medium, allowing for the use of many colors and bigger letter types.
Millions were charmed by Parrish’s work. His greeting cards, advertisements, magazine covers, and calendar designs were shown in public spaces such as dorms, living areas, salons, coffee houses, reception areas, clothing stores, and laundromats. The Great Depression did not deter artists, since reproductions of fine art grew more popular during this period.
Parrish developed his compositions through an elaborate combination of drawing, photography, physical models, props, paper cutouts, and carefully controlled lighting. Rather than simply copying the visible world, he assembled real and imagined elements into precisely planned scenes. His studio at The Oaks included a darkroom and a machine shop in which he constructed tools, architectural models, and miniature landscapes.
For figurative compositions, Parrish photographed models in staged poses and costumes. He sometimes used patterned fabric to study how designs changed across folds and around the body. Photographs could then be enlarged or projected to help establish accurate outlines, proportions, and placement. Paper figures and other cutouts served as movable planning devices with which he could test different arrangements before committing the composition to the final support.
Parrish used a similarly methodical process for his landscapes. He photographed natural features, constructed detailed models of buildings and scenery, and experimented with artificial light until he achieved the desired pattern of illumination and shadow. The resulting photographs and models served as references for the painted composition; they were not simply pasted onto the finished painting.
After preparing the composition and underlying forms, Parrish built up color through multiple transparent oil glazes applied over a light ground, often separating stages with varnish. This slow process produced the saturated colors, sharp detail, and luminous depth for which his work became famous.
Parrish carefully calculated the outer proportions and internal divisions of many compositions using geometric systems. His arrangements were particularly influenced by Jay Hambidge’s theory of Dynamic Symmetry, which employed proportional relationships and root rectangles to organize pictorial space.
Cultural Influences of Maxfield Parrish’s Prints
Maxfield Parrish’s paintings continue to have an impact on popular culture. The 1985 cartoon Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things features themes from Daybreak and The Lute Players on the cover. Daybreak influenced the artwork for The Princess Bride. Caribou, a record by Elton John, features a Parrish backdrop.
In 2001, Parrish was honored with a memorial stamp series issued by the United States Postal Service recognizing American designers, notably Parrish.
The sleeve of the Moody Blues record The Present features a variant of the Parrish picture Daybreak. Dali’s Car, utilized Daybreak as the cover image for their single album, The Waking Hour, in 1984. Enya was influenced by Maxfield Parrish’s artwork. Parrish’s work, The Young King of the Black Isles, inspired the cover picture for her 1995 album The Memory of Trees. Branduardi’s record, La pulce d’acqua, released in 1977, includes nine inlay full-color print copies of painter Mario Convertino’s paintings, one of which is definitely influenced by Parrish’s artwork Stars.
Famous Maxfield Parrish Paintings
His systematic, almost mechanical approach to painting resulted in spectacular color and lighting effects. He integrated the new method of printing technology into old masters’ approaches and began with a monochromatic underpainting before layering on translucent glazes. He varnished in between each coat.
Here are a few examples of Parrish’s output.
- Cover of Mother Goose in Prose by Frank Baum (1897)
- Cover of Whist in Reference invented by John T. Mitchell (1897)
- Cover of The Golden Age by Kenneth Grahame (1900)
- Cover of The Dream Days by Kenneth Grahame (1902)
- Illustrations in The Arabian Nights by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith (1909)
- Illustrations in Lure of the Garden by Hildegarde Hawthorne (1911)
- Illustrations in The Knave of Hearts by Louise Saunders (1925)
Parrish has had a lengthy career and great financial success. By the 1920s, he had become the highest-paid professional artist in America. He was very well respected for his imaginative illustrated works, as well as his idealistic neo-classical iconography. The remarkable compositions stand out because of their rich tones and intense colors, which create an otherworldly, surreal atmosphere. Parrish claimed that portraying landscapes was his genuine love, and he included aspects of landscape art into many of his works. Maxfield Parrish’s artwork has appeared on book covers, enormous murals, and magazine covers. Many of Maxfield Parrish’s prints for children’s books, which are still very famous today, are the product of his early attempt to generate income as an illustration artist around the beginning of the early 20th century.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where Is the Maxfield Parrish Museum?
There is not a Maxfield Parrish museum solely dedicated to his works. However, one can explore his art in many other museums around America. One can visit such places as the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, the United States, to see some examples of Maxfield Parrish’s paintings.
What Was Maxfield Parrish Known For?
Maxfield Parrish was an American artist and illustrator whose work influenced the Golden Age of Illustration. He is well-known for his remarkable color intensity, idealistic neoclassical iconography, and wealth. Parrish defied the cliche of the starving artist by receiving his first commission before graduating from art school and went on to achieve considerable success over the first half of the 20th century. While the majority of Maxfield Parrish’s work was not placed in museums, it was well-received by the general population. The Art Nouveau style pioneered the use of large-scale printing for advertising. Lithography has become a very popular art medium as technology has advanced, allowing for the use of numerous colors and larger letter kinds. Parrish’s paintings enchanted millions. His greeting cards, advertisements, magazine covers, and calendar designs were displayed in public places like dorms and coffee shops.
What Kind of Art Did Maxfield Parrish Make?
He painted murals on panels and delivered them to clients, most of whom were large metropolitan hotels. Parrish worked as an illustrator for a number of children’s books, including Arabian Nights. He designed advertisements for a variety of significant business companies, including General Electric, Jell-O, and Fisk Tires. He also designed backdrops for Broadway and regional companies. The use of a saturated and vivid color palette in Maxfield Parrish’s paintings distinguishes them, and the color Parrish blue was named after him.
Isabella studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature & Language and Psychology. Throughout her undergraduate years, she took Art History as an additional subject and absolutely loved it. Building on from her art history knowledge that began in high school, art has always been a particular area of fascination for her. From learning about artworks previously unknown to her, or sharpening her existing understanding of specific works, the ability to continue learning within this interesting sphere excites her greatly.
Her focal points of interest in art history encompass profiling specific artists and art movements, as it is these areas where she is able to really dig deep into the rich narrative of the art world. Additionally, she particularly enjoys exploring the different artistic styles of the 20th century, as well as the important impact that female artists have had on the development of art history.
Learn more about Isabella Meyer and the Art in Context Team.
Cite this Article
Isabella, Meyer, “Maxfield Parrish – Poet of the Golden Age of Illustration.” Art in Context. March 17, 2022. URL: https://artincontext.org/maxfield-parrish/
Meyer, I. (2022, 17 March). Maxfield Parrish – Poet of the Golden Age of Illustration. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/maxfield-parrish/
Meyer, Isabella. “Maxfield Parrish – Poet of the Golden Age of Illustration.” Art in Context, March 17, 2022. https://artincontext.org/maxfield-parrish/.
There are some incorrect details here. Mr. Parrish had four children with his wife Lydia. Sue Lewin was hired as an au pair after the birth of the Parrish’s youngest child. She was Mr. Parrish’s mistress, although she denied it publicly until the end of her life. There has been some suggestion in letters of an additional mistress, although that woman has not been identified. After Lydia’s death, Mr. Parrish still would not marry Sue, and so she left The Oaks (his New Hampshire home/studio) and married a farmer who’d been interested in her in her youth.
The large mural that Mr. Parrish created for the Curtis Publishing Co. was actually in the dining room of the Ladies Home Journal magazine. Not the lobby. The last I’d read (admittedly over 15 years ago), the mural was still in situ.
There’s also a mistaken description of his working methods. Those have been covered in detail in a number of books.
Sorry to be so critical, but seeing Parrish’s work in person is a revelation, and due to critics like Clement Greenberg, Parrish doesn’t get his due these days. It is important to get the details right.
Thank you for your detailed comment. You are correct that our article mistakenly attributed Parrish’s four children to Susan Lewin. They were his children with his wife, Lydia, and that passage requires correction. The description of Parrish’s working methods also needs to distinguish more carefully between the photographs, projections, paper figures, models, and props he used to plan compositions and the glazing process used to produce the finished paintings.
Our research indicates, however, that Susan Lewin joined the household in 1905 to help care for the Parrishes’ first child while Lydia was expecting their second, rather than after the birth of their youngest child. Sources generally describe Lewin as Parrish’s probable lover, although the precise nature of their relationship was publicly denied and is treated somewhat cautiously by Parrish scholars.
The Curtis Publishing Company commissioned two separate projects that should not be confused. Parrish painted a series of panels for the girls’ dining room, but he also designed Dream Garden for the building’s lobby. The latter was executed as a glass mosaic by Tiffany Studios and remains in the lobby today. The dining-room panels, by contrast, were removed around 1966 and later installed at the National Museum of American Illustration.
You are also correct that Parrish did not marry Lewin after Lydia’s death in 1953. Lewin left The Oaks in 1960 and married Earl Colby, whom she had known in her youth.
Thank you again for drawing attention to these issues. We will revise the article so that the personal history, the two Curtis commissions, and Parrish’s working process are described more accurately.