Sunday, November 22, 2009

Parrish Exhibit At Delaware

Yesterday we traveled to the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington to view Fantasies and Fairy-Tales: Maxfield Parrish and the Art of the Print.
We found ourselves beguiled by the lushly inventive, romantic, fantasy world of Maxfield Parrish and his vivid illustrations.
The artist and illustrator Maxfield Parrish was a household name during his long and productive lifetime. He was born in 1870 in Philadelphia and died in 1966 in Plainfield, New Hampshire, at “The Oaks,” the home he built and lived in for most of his life. In 1891, Parrish began a course of study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He studied briefly with Howard Pyle at Drexel Institute and then launched a career illustrating books and magazines.
Fantasies and Fairy-Tales is the first traveling exhibition of Parrish’s color prints, which were made from his original paintings. Included are reproductions of commissions for book illustrations, magazine covers, and advertisements. The works reveal Parrish’s sense of humor and his eye for graphic design. The subject of this exhibition is the phenomenon of the simultaneous merging of advances in print technology with Parrish’s singular genius for capturing the imagination of the American public.
Few painters have left a lasting impression on American life.
Maxfiled Parrish is one of them.
The journey of his life and his commitment to his art and craft are on ample display in this fine exhibition.
While you are at the museum don't miss Parrish's letter with drawings -- a series of letters which Parrish wrote (along with remarkable drawings) as he journeyed through Europe at the age of 14. His talent was evident from a very early age.
The Parrish exhibition runs through January 10.

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