Parrish, Maxfield

Parrish, Maxfield (1870–1966). American painter and illustrator, born in Philadelphia, son of the landscape painter Stephen Parrish (1846–1938). He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and also attended classes given by the author-illustrator Howard Pyle (1853–1911), celebrated for his children's books. In 1895 Parrish designed a cover for Harper's Weekly and thereafter rapidly made a name for himself with illustrations, posters (he won a national poster competition in 1897), and advertisements. He also branched out into mural painting, notably with a series on Old King Cole (1906) for the Knickerbocker Hotel (now the St Regis-Sheraton Hotel) in New York. His greatest fame and popularity, however, came with colour prints designed for the mass market. Sentimental scenes such as The Garden of Allah (copyrighted 1919) and Dawn (1920) sold by the million and were found in homes all over the country. They are in a lush and romantic style, set in an escapist world combining elements of the Arabian Nights, Hollywood, and classical antiquity, with languorous maidens and idyllic landscape backgrounds. His draughtsmanship and detailing are immaculate and his colouring distinctively high-keyed and luminous. Many of his advertisements were in a similar vein. In the 1930s his style went out of fashion and he retired to paint landscapes, working up to his death at the age of 95. Shortly before this there was a revival of interest in his work, which had long been dismissed as kitsch; in 1964, for example, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, bought his painting Errant Pan (c. 1915). See also POPULAR PRINTS.