October 2022

  Autumn Days

One of the most brilliantly colored landscape landscape images by Maxfield Parrish was this 1950  depiction of a wild river canyon in Arizona, when the artist fell back on his memories to depict the sun kissed brilliance and shadows of deep gorges and towering mountains. This is an unforgettable part of the scenery of the far western part of the United States, which the artist had originally encountered with his bride Lydia Parrish shortly after the turn of the century.

Parrish had fallen ill with tuberculosis, a little understood malady in those days, and this necessitated a trip in 1902 with his young bride to live for a few months in the warm climes of the Arizona desert.  His entire trip and stay was underwritten by a commission from Century Magazine for the purpose of illustrating Ray Stannard Baker’s proposed series on The Great Southwest, an area of the country which, at the time, most Eastern Seaboard residents were completely unfamiliar with. 

While in Arizona, Parrish marveled at the brilliant sun, and color patterns completely different from anything he had known before. The artist wrote back to his cousin, Henry Bancroft and lauded the skill his young bride had developed riding horses with him in the desert:

 You get a sense of freedom and vastness here that  I didn’t know existed….Lydia is a regular Annie Oakley, rides the desert horses astride, and is a crack shot with a six shooter.  But shooting people is considered bad form here nowadays, so she has to content herself with targets….”

Enjoy Parrish’s brilliant painting of an Arizona scene, which actually reprised an earlier painting he produced in 1930 to illustrate an article in the Ladies Home Journal magazine.

AGS 

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In regards to our 2022 exhibit of Parrish originals currently for sale, please view all the paintings, watercolors, and drawings by clicking on the Art for Sale link above.

Contact Alma Gilbert for the full catalogue and price list: agilbert@almagilbert.com