Today is the birthday of Maxfield Parish (1870-1966). The Duchess is far better qualified to write a post on this subject than I ever could be. But I take a back seat to no one in my love for his imagery. It’s the sort of thing the two of us bond over. There is something about the combination of mythological themes, the fantastical imagination, and these gorgeous, saturated colors, tints so vivid and contrasts so extreme they actually quicken the pulse. One of Parrish’s first commissions was to illustrate L. Frank Baum’s Mother Goose in Prose (1897). Those people understood dreams far better than we seem to in this pale, anemic and too literal age.
Interested in a link between Parrish’s sensibility and the world of vaudeville? There actually is one. Check out this post from a few weeks ago about Paul Swan.
Happy Birthday Maxfield Parrish!
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