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1870 - 1966
As children, none of us can forget the first instance of seeing an art
picture or a book illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. Everyone recognizes
the magical world woven by Parrish usually with the color lapiz lazuli
in its purest form. His signature use of this color was so powerful that
a certain cobalt blue has become universally known as ‘Parrish Blue’.
His idealized images with figures of feminine pulchritude adorned in classical
gowns with backgrounds of electric violets, radiant reds and rich glowing
earth tone pigments, created an idyllic world indeed. Other images had
scenes embellished with billowing clouds in a fairy tale ambience of maidens
and knights lying under porticoes and these were equally harmonic, idealistic,
and loved.
Author’s words accompanying such images became superfluous. Yet when
those words were read, they were so enhanced by the illustrations that
the reader was attracted into the illustrator’s magnetic fantasies.
Books illustrated by Parrish no longer belonged to their authors, but
rather they became ‘Parrish’ books, just as a generic color
became ‘Parrish Blue.’ As a result of this ability to create
such a sublime splendor, Maxfield Parrish became unquestionably the most
successful and best-known American illustrator of the early part of the
twentieth century.
As adults, we long still for such visual images to materialize and we
harbor some childish guilt within us for not being able to seek out these
scenes of make-believe. Parrish has seized such visions and such images
for us - forever. We all thought that his paintings were of real places
and that these extraordinary people and fire-breathing dragons actually
lived and coexisted peacefully. Their images were too realistic not to
be believed. Their stark beauty and superb execution denied us any ability
to question their existence. They were photographic, mechanical and above
all, technically accurate.
His lush coloristic effects with extraordinary detail and academic perfection
were first broadly recognized by the American public in the 1920’s
and they rewarded him with an unrivaled national popularity. In 1925,
one out of every four households in the United States had a copy of one
of his art prints hanging in their living rooms. In a survey taken at
that time by a group of art print publishers, findings showed that the
three favorite artists were Cezanne, van Gogh, and Parrish.
For 58 years he was married to Lydia, a pretty art instructor who later
became one of the first documentors of African-American slave songs of
the Deep South. Yet, he also had a beautiful model/mistress and one of
the most romantic relationships of the century. For over 55 years, the
lovely Susan Lewin was his constant companion. She lived with him in his
studio at ‘The Oaks’, his Cornish, New Hampshire estate. It
was Susan whom he immortalized in so many of his incredible artworks.
He counted amongst his friends, Woodrow Wilson -28th President of the
United States, Walter Lippman -the journalist, Augustus Saint-Gaudens
-the sculptor, Frederic Remington -the artist, Winston Churchill -the
most popular American novelist of his day (not to be confused with the
English statesman), Ethel Barrymore -the legendary actress, and then some
local farmers and carpenters like plain old George Ruggles of Plainfield,
New Hampshire.
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Maxfield Parrish, 1956.
Photo
by Aubrey Janion
In
1960, a few years after the death of Lydia, when he did not marry Susan,
she retaliated by marrying a childhood friend. Although 90 years old,
Parrish was still painting actively, but upon learning of Susan’s
marriage, his hand froze and he never painted again.
He influenced
the work of Vasarely, with images bordering on Op Art, Andy Warhol (who
collected his work) with repetitive, reproducible Pop Art prototypes,
and even the great American illustrator, Norman Rockwell who had said
that Parrish was his ‘idol.’ The Realist, Photorealist and
Superrealist movements owe their directions to his legacy. He was revered,
but nearly forgotten and then rediscovered when he was in his 90’s
in 1964.
His life was rich and full and he did not suffer as many other artists
have with tortured lives. On the other hand, strange mysteries persisted
throughout his life: a father whom he emulated had a broken marriage
(unheard of) in the 1890’s, typhoid fever, tuberculosis and a son
who later committed suicide. He had an inordinate lover for the business
side of his craft, but he rarely spent any money, and it all added up
to a movie script life. In fact, he was a Hollywood-handsome man who
had stashed his incredible talented self away in the remote hills of
New Hampshire and once there, created a make-believe world of his own
and never left.
However, the fact remains that very few Parrish’s original paintings
have been seen by the contemporary art audiences. The most recent major
exhibitions of his work were held in 1961 at a Bennington College exhibit,
then in 1964 at the Gallery of Modern Art in New York, again in 1974
at the Brandywine River Museum in a tribute exhibition entitled, "Master
of Make Believe." The most recent comprehensive exhibition was
in 1989 at the American Illustrators Gallery, the first New York exhibition
since his death at the enviable and ripe old age of 95.
After a long and self-satisfied life, this striking and earnest gentleman
died on March 30, 1966, at his beloved home and studio, ‘The Oaks’
in Plainfield, New Hampshire. ‘The Oaks’ is in the middle
of the artist colony founded by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, his artist father
Stephen, and other creative notables of Cornish. The oak trees he loved
and photo-realistically portrayed in so many of his paintings, move
listlessly outside his home as they had for hundreds of years before
and since. His artistic career had ended some six years earlier.
Laurence S. Cutler, AIA RIBA*
Holderness, NH
*Co-author with Judy Goffman of Maxfield Parrish, published by Crescent
Books and distributed by Outlet Books of Random House, 1993.
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