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NEW EXHIBITION OPENS! MAXFIELD PARRISH:
THE RETROSPECTIVE
Newport, RI – The National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI) announces a milestone exhibition for 2012 Summer Season – ‘Maxfield Parrish: The Retrospective,’
debuting Friday, May 25th, on display thereafter through September 2nd,
2012. During the Season, NMAI is open for General Admissions Friday
through Sunday between 11am to 5pm, with a Guided Tour year-round on
Fridays at 3pm. NMAI is otherwise open year-round for group tours by
reservation.
 
(l-r) Maxfield Parrish in 1896 at age 26. Tallwood Pearl, 1955
The NMAI holds the world’s largest collection of Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) original artworks, including his magnum opus ‘A Florentine Fete,’ consisting of 18 murals, each 10’ 8” tall, to his smallest work, a 1.5” Mother of Pearl piece (see above right) titled ‘Tallwood Pearl.’
Parrish is one of the most represented artists in the NMAI’s globally
renowned American Imagist Collection, also featuring works by Norman
Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker, N.C. Wyeth, the Red Rose Girls, and 150
other luminaries.
Ask for Hires and Get the Genuine, 1921
 Parrish’s career spanned nearly eight decades, with commissions ranging from early book and poster illustrations, to magazine covers (‘Morning,’ 1922, Life cover), art prints and commercial advertisements such as Hires Root Beer (‘Ask for Hires and Get the Genuine’ 1921), and General Electric (‘Venetian Lamplighters,’ 1924. Note the light bulb in cartouche with scrolls).
His widely collected calendar art was published by Brown & Bigelow
during the 1930s through the 1950s. This exhibition shows all aspects of
this multi-talented illustrator’s career including a rare
three-dimensional mixed-media mailbox asemblage, entitled Belles Lettres, experiencing its inaugural exhibition.
Belles Lettres, 1934
 
(l-r) Venetian Lamplighters, 1924. Morning, 1922.
A Florentine Fete, 1916
 Maxfield Parrish’s astonishing Florentine Fete murals (1910-1916) were painted for the ‘Girls Dining Room’ at the
Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia. A monumental part of NMAI’s
permanent collection, they appear as if they were created for Vernon
Court, fitting exactly on each wall, or in combination on larger walls,
or on the huge expansive Rose Garden Loggia walls. A keen-eyed viewer
easily notices Parrish’s favorite model, his mistress Susan Lewin, for
she appears 166 times in these murals. Parrish himself appears 10 times,
while an aunt and neighbor each appear once. Sue Lewin is shown
as male and female, albeit with different stances, hairstyles, and
costumes.
Susan Lewin, c. 1910
Isola Bella, 1904
Parrish
was best known for romantic images with an unmatched richness, captured
by his uncanny use of color incorporating ultra-saturated hues and
often times an intense cobalt blue. Windsor & Newton Paint Company
honored the artist by renaming their radiant cobalt color, ‘Parrish
Blue.’ His paintings were created in alternating layers of single colors
with transparent varnish layers in between, applied over a
monochromatic underpainting. While this technique was superb for period
reproductions using early four color printing (which his technique
closely resembled), the resulting luminosity of the originals must be
seen in person to be fully appreciated. Everyone marvels at his actual
paintings while recognizing that his works are the most reproduced art
images in history. In 1922, it was said that one in four American
households had a Parrish art print on the walls.
Maxfield Parrish in 1956 at age 86
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Due to popular demand, NMAI will continue to exhibit highlights from the incredibly successful Norman Rockwell: American Imagist travelling exhibition, recently acclaimed in England by The American Spectator
magazine as “the best art exhibition in London for 2011.” That
exhibition will further tour in September to Alabama’s Birmingham Museum
of Art. NMAI will also continue to highlight works from the first
museum exhibition of illustrations by author Tom Wolfe, In Our Time, comprised of works from his book of the same title, satirizing 1970s American culture.
 
(l-r) The Bid. Norman Rockwell, 1948. Artistic Vision. Tom Wolfe, 1980
For more information, call 401.851.8949, ext. 18, or email art@americanillustration.org.
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Eric Brocklehurst