Description:

Parrish Maxfield

Maxfield Parrish unique autograph the same year he illustrated "The Lantern Bearers" 


Small archive comprised of Parrish signature, inscribed envelope, and bookmark-sized print of Parrish's "The Pied Piper". In very good to near fine condition, with light expected folds and isolated discoloration to signed paper slip. Envelope with minor weathering. Two pieces are mounted on black construction paper, while the third has mounting traces.

 

Maxfield Parrish signed as "Maxfield Parrish:" this paper slip on July 13, 1908 from his home in Windsor, Vermont. The slip may have been reduced in size from a larger ALS, or was always just an autograph. Parrish signed it in his unique and striking calligraphic script, with an enormously oversized "P". It appears on "Windsor: Vermont" letterhead. Measures 6" x 4.875" overall.

 

Parrish also inscribed the custom "Maxfield Parrish, Windsor, Vermont" envelope which originally enclosed his signature. He addressed the envelope to "Miss Ruth Seligman: 845 S. Burlington: Los Angeles.", although we know it was redirected to Del Monte, California by a postal note at bottom. The envelope bears a carmine 2 cent George Washington stamp and was postmarked from Windsor, Vermont on July 16, 1908.

 

The handsome color print is a reproduction of Parrish's mural painting "The Pied Piper", originally installed above the buffet/bar in San Francisco's Palace Hotel. Parrish was commissioned to paint the monumental 16' x 6' mural in 1909, and his lively depiction of the children's fairy tale character has made the hotel a famous landmark.

 

The same year, 1908, saw the publication of two of Parrish's most iconic illustrations on Collier's magazine covers: "The Lantern Bearers" and "Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth".

 

Maxfield Parrish was a classically trained artist who was known for his luminous and stylized illustrations. His vibrantly colored and visually dramatic illustrations for children's books, calendars, advertisements, magazine covers, and greeting cards made him independently wealthy. During his later career, Parrish had shifted his professional interest from commercial art to murals and landscape painting.

 

Parrish sent these materials from Windsor, Vermont, a picturesque town located just across the Connecticut River from Cornish, New Hampshire. Cornish later gave its name to the Cornish Art Colony. This community of sculptors, illustrators, artists, architects, actors, dancers, composers, and writers flourished between 1895 and 1918. Notable colonists included Parrish, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Isadora Duncan, Daniel Chester French, and Ethel Barrymore among others.

 

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