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59

Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection FREDERICK MAXFIELD PARRISH (1870-1966) The K...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:150,000.00 - 250,000.00 USD
Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection FREDERICK MAXFIELD PARRISH (1870-1966) The K...
Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
FREDERICK MAXFIELD PARRISH
(1870-1966)
The King and the Chancellor: Illustration for 'The Knave of Hearts,' 1924
signed with initials "M.P" (lower right) signed, inscribed with title and dated "Maxfield Parrish, Windsor: Vermont, 1924 The Knave of Hearts...The King and the Chancellor are impatient to enter the kitchen" (on reverse)
oil on paper laid down on board
20 1/8 x 16 3/8 in. (51.1 x 41.6 cm) <p>Estimate: $150,000-250,000 <p> Provenance
Scott & Fowles, New York Private Collection Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, April 21, 1978, lot 90 Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland, 1978 <p> Exhibited
New York, Scott & Fowles, Maxfield Parrish, November-December 1925 Perth, Art Gallery of South Australia; Adelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia; Brisbane, Queensland Art Gallery; Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria; Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Wellington, New zealand, National Art Gallery, Auckland, New zealand, Auckland City Art Gallery, Christchurch, New zealand, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, America & Europe: A Century of Modern Masters from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, 1979-1980, no. 49 (illustrated) <p> Literature
Paul W. Skeeters, Maxfield Parrish: The Early Years 1893-1930, Los Angeles, 1973, p. 271 (illustrated) Coy Ludwig, Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, cat. no. 707, pp. 48-53, and 206 Gail Levin, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Twentieth-Century American Painting, London, 1987, p. 34, no. 2 (illustrated, p. 35) <p> Maxfield Parrish established his year-round studio in Cornish, New Hampshire, in 1898. Among the many artists and writers who summered there and with whom he was friendly were Maxwell Perkins, the legendary Scribner's editor, and his wife, Louise Saunders. Charles Scribner's Sons had published numerous works by Parrish in its monthly magazine, as well as his children's books, The Arabian Nights and Poems of Childhood. When Maxfield Parrish contacted Scribner's to propose that they publish Louise Saunders' play for children, The Knave of Hearts, with illustrations that he would create especially for it, he was approaching a very familiar source indeed. <p>In October 1920, at the peak of his career, fifty-year-old Maxfield Parrish wrote to J.H. Chapin at Scribner's: "The reason I wanted to illustrate The Knave of Hearts was on account of the bully opportunity it gives for a very good time making the pictures. Imagination could run riot, bound down by no period, just good fun and all sorts of things." Scribner's issued a contract for The Knave of Hearts, and Parrish created twenty-six paintings for what would be the most lavishly produced book of his career. <p>As seen in The King and the Chancellor, his imagination did run riot. He combined many elements in this and other paintings that had become identified with his work, such as distinctive and immediately recognizable characters, fairy-tale costumes, wavy-patterned fabrics, and a fanciful landscape with voluminous clouds. As always, his paintings were created with impeccable draftsmanship, a unique color sense, and high technique. <p>The illustrations for The Knave of Hearts, published in 1925, were the fitting culmination of Maxfield Parrish's long and distinguished career as one of America's most recognized and best-loved illustrators of children's books. <p>We are grateful to Coy L. Ludwig for cataloguing this lot.
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