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MAXFIELD PARRISH RETROSPECTIVE
EXTENDED THROUGH FALL 2013!
Venetian Lamplighters, 1924
Originally scheduled to conclude this September, the NMAI's Maxfield Parrish: The Retrospective exhibition
is extended through the Fall of 2013, due to its incredible popularity
and accolades. Visitors have already come from as far as China, S.
Korea, Sweden, the UK, Italy, the Czech Republic, anon..., not to
mention from all over the United States, just to visit the Parrish
exhibition and NMAI.
Maxfield Parrish: The Retrospective has had A Super-Extraordinary Response!
A Florentine Fete, 1916
The
NMAI has the single largest collection of Maxfield Parrish artworks in
the world. Our American Imagist Collection includes his largest work
(see: above), a self-proclaimed "Magnum Opus," 'The Florentine Fete,' comprises 18 murals (each 10 1/2 feet tall) and his smallest work, 'The Tallwood Pearl'
(painted on a 1 1/2 inch diameter Mother of Pearl button-for his
gardner's daughter, who collected buttons; see: below), on view along
with 64 other Parrish artworks, the largest exhibition of Parrish
original artworks ever held.
NMAI holds the largest Maxfield Parrish collection
of original paintings extant - over 100 artworks as well as every
vintage artprint, book illustration, magazine cover and advertisement he
created.
Tallwood Pearl, 1955
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FALL HOURS ANNOUNCED
NMAI's
2012 Weekend General Admissions hours conclude on Sunday, September 2.
Until next Memorial Day, the NMAI will be open on a year-round General
Admissions basis every Friday from 11am to 5pm, with a guided tour at
3pm. The NMAI is open year round by advance reservation for guided group
tours of 8 or more, and individuals interested in visiting on days
other than Friday during our off season are encouraged to telephone in
case there are any group tours scheduled to which they can be appended.
NEW EXHIBITION - HOWARD PYLE & HIS STUDENTS
 With the popular Norman Rockwell's America exhibition traveling from Newport to the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama this month, the NMAI is exhibiting its Howard Pyle & His Students exhibition. Pyle (1854-1911), known as 'The Father of American Illustration,'
was a prolific illustrator, as well as a major author of books and
periodicals in the late 19th century. Pyle founded the first school for
illustration art in 1894 at what is now Philadelphia's Drexel
University, and later founded the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art
in the Brandywine River area at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. The students
attending his school became known as the 'Brandywine School of
Illustrators.'
left: Howard Pyle, the 'Father of American Illustration'
Many
of Pyle's students became famous illustrators: Stanley
Arthurs (1884 - 1952), Harvey Dunn (1877 - 1950), Elizabeth Shippen
Green (1871 - 1954), Violet Oakley (1874 - 1961), Frank Schoonover (1877
- 1972), Jessie Willcox Smith (1863 - 1935), and N.C. Wyeth (1882 -
1945). As the first significant wave of commerical illustrators in
America, the Brandywine School artist-illustrators wielded a strong
influence on others such as Maxfield Parrish (1870 - 1966) and Norman
Rockwell (1894 - 1978). Parrish actually audited Pyle's classes for
about two weeks in the early 1890s, before Pyle suggested that he
immediately embark on his career as an illustrator.
 Above Brandywine Artists: Clockwise from top - Marooned, by Howard Pyle. 1887; The Prisoners, by Harvey Dunn. 1914; Little Miss Muffet, by Jessie Willcox Smith. 1912; Waiting at the Ford, by Stanley Arthurs. c. 1915
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Eric Brocklehurst