Works by the American imagist Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), one of the greats of the golden age of illustration, will be on view at Nassau County Museum of Art from Nov. 21 to Feb. 28, 2016. The works are drawn from the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI, and curated by Judy and Laurence S. Cutler, cofounders of the National Museum of American Illustration.
Maxfield Parrish: Paintings and Prints from the National Museum of American Illustration embodies the artist’s long career and extraordinary accomplishments, displaying Parrish’s lush coloristic effect with amazing detail. The exhibition includes original artworks as well as a large collection of vintage prints. Through this showing of artworks and vintage reproductions, today’s viewers will have the unique opportunity to see the way that viewers of an earlier age observed these images, comparing the mass-produced reproductions against the original luminous canvases.
Parrish described himself as “a businessman with a brush,” and was proud of his ability to market his artwork to the public. In 1904, a time that that the average annual income for an American worker was $500 or less, Parrish signed a six-year contract with Collier’s Magazine for $1,250 per month. His fee rose to $2,000 per painting, but each Parrish cover was a guaranteed sellout for that month’s edition of Collier’s.
Parrish’s universally popular and instantly recognizable images were produced between the late 1890s through the mid 1960s; they were seen on magazine covers, greeting cards, art prints, calendars, novels, advertisements and packaging. Clear and bold, with an uncomplicated subject, Parrish’s art prints papered the walls of American homes for decades.
Nassau County Museum of Art is offering public programming to enhance the experience of viewing the exhibition. There are daily screenings of a 30-minute documentary, Parrish Blue: An American Art History, that includes images of many of Parrish’s original canvases as well as comments by the artist’s son, Maxfield Parrish Jr., and Norman Rockwell, a friend and fellow artist. These screenings are free with museum admission.
signed and dated lower right, Brown & Bigelow calendar, 1943,
© copyright 2015 National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI.
(Photos courtesy Archives of American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY)
Also free with museum admission are three Brown Bag Lectures—Dec. 17, Jan. 7 and Feb. 4—in which museum docent Riva Ettus discusses Parrish’s works and career. On Dec. 5, Judy and Laurence Cutler, curators of the exhibition and cofounders of the National Museum of American Illustration, present a talk on Parrish and other American imagists. On Dec. 19, Gemini Journey presents a violin and cello concert of music from the early 20th century.
Additional information about these and other events and registration for the Dec. 5 and 19 events will be available on the museum’s website beginning on Nov. 9. Visit www.nassaumuseum.org/events.
