Happy Birthday, Maxfield Parrish, American Artist and Illustrator

Frederich Maxfield Parrish was born on July 25, 1870, in Philadelphia, Pa. He began drawing at a young age, and archived letters written by Parish often show elaborate pictures sketched on their backs. Parrish went to school at Haverford College and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. According to Been Publishing, I’m Back, while he was studying at Drexel Institute he sought out instruction from Howard Pyle, but Pyle said that there wasn’t anything he could teach Parrish; after taking a few classes from Pyle, Parrish agreed.

According to the Parrish House, his career was launched when he illustrated “The Walls Were As of Jasper” for an 1897 issue of Scribers Magazine.

In the early 1900s, Parrish worked on many illustrations and murals, and his work could be seen in magazines, children’s books, department store windows and hotel lobbies. Bruce Watson of Smithsonian Magazine refers to Parrish as “the common man’s Rembrandt,” noting that his famous painting “Daybreak” from 1922 sold more than 200,000 copies. According to Encyclopedia Britannica he was the highest paid commerical artist in the U.S. during the 1920s. The National Museum of American Illustration claims that one of every four households in 1925 had one of Parrish’s prints.

Although Parrish’s early works were in black and white, he is most known for his extreme detail, vivid use of color and dream-like scenes. The Illustration House explains that the brilliant “Parrish blue” color and look of his paintings was achieved through layering paint with transparent varnish, a time-consuming technique but one that gave Parrish’s work the brilliant colors for which he is known along with the illusion of looking through a window.

One of Parrish’s most notable works is his “Old King Cole” mural, which hangs in New York City’s St. Regis Hotel. According to The New York Times the painting was commissioned for John Jacob Astor IV, to decorate the Knickerbocker Hotel. When the Knickerbocker was converted into office space, the painting was placed in the St. Regis. Parrish, who had a Quaker upbringing, was hesitant to complete the painting because it was meant for a bar. Interestingly, the St. Regis’ King Cole Bar took its name from the painting.

By the 1940s, the popularity of Maxfield Parrish’s work had given way to that of a new American artist, Normal Rockwell. According to the Parrish House, Rockwell had a deep admiration for Parrish, saying that “He was in the Golden Age of Illustration ... He was one of my gods.”

Parrish continued painting into his ’90s, and his work regained popularity in the 1960s and ’70s. He lived at his New Hampshire estate during his later years and, according to the National Museum of American Illustration, although he was married Parrish also had a mistress for 55 years, and she was the muse for many of female images in his paintings.

Although many Americans have seen prints of Parrish’s work, the Smithsonain points out that few people have ever seen a Parrish work in person, making him “one of America’s best-known and least-known artists.” Maxfield Parrish died in March of 1966 at the age of 95.