100 Years of Illustration

Maxfield Parrish: Edith Wharton's Italian Villas and Their Gardens - 3

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Villa d'Este, Tivoli, near Rome.

The Pool at Villa d'Este. A recognizably languid Parrish figure lounges at its side.

Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore.

In the Gardens of Isola Bella, Lago Maggiore.

Villa Cicogna, Lago Maggiore.

Villa Pliniana, Lake Como.

on the grounds of the Villa Scassi in 1907, quite different from the romantic quality of Parrish's illustration. This is what made him so great even if this is not up to the quality of the other illustrations in the book. (For one thing, that statue is leading us nowhere.) However, it is the magic of Parrish and his great sense of design and color that separates him from his contemporaries, not to mention the enormous challenge to make interesting designs out of such complicated subjects.

I've seen prints of some of these subjects for sale on the Web at reasonable prices. The original copies of the book are very expensive and are listed at $500 to $2,500 at abebooks.com

 

Maxfield Parrish: Edith Wharton's Italian Villas and Their Gardens - 2

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Boboli Gardens, Florence.

Villa Gamberaia in Tuscany.

Villa Gori, near Siena.

Villa Vicobello, near Siena.

Villa Medici, Rome.

Villa Chigi, Rome.

 

Maxfield Parrish: Edith Wharton's Italian Villas and Their Gardens

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By way of disclaimer I must remind you (as if it isn't obvious) that I'm not an academic, nor an English major, and if I've read Edith Wharton or seen richly produced films based on her novels, I can't remember anything of any consequence. I would hazard a guess that she was in her time an authority on the subject of Italian villas and gardens as in later years Julia Child became an authority on the subject of French cuisine. In Wharton's time the area around Florence was filled with young college women from the United States who came to have their sculpted wax sketches pointed and finished life-size in marble by the patient and often grateful stone masons and artisans of Carrara and adjacent quarries. These sculptures were used to grace public libraries and civic structures throughout North America.

By November of 1903 when these ongoing articles were published in The Century Magazine Wharton was already famous for her novels (that would eventually number at least 40 in all) and Parrish was acknowledged as one of Howard Pyle's best pupils. I'm going to ignore Wharton's prose and just post visuals of Parrish's masterpieces because when you, as perhaps an illustrator, contemplate the enormous pressure on him to supply illustrations to satisfy this grande dame of letters and his august client Ted De Vinne,  1828-1914, the finest American printer of his day whose Century Magazine was appreciated for its good design and production.

Bruce Watson in the July 1999 issue of Smithsonian describes Maxfield Parrish as "a short, puckish man with piercing blue eyes," who "painted the stuff dreams are made of. His trademarks were lush gardens, ecstatic women and his famous 'Parrish blue,' the color skies must surely be in any Eden worth the name." The photo, above, is the property of the Dartmouth College Library, and a short biography is provided by the Alma Gilbert Gallery of Plainfield, New Hampshire.

Edith Wharton's biography, courtesy of the Gonzaga University's website devoted to her.

This is Edith Wharton in 1905 at The Mount, her very own famous estate and formal gardens.

This is the Villa Campi, near Florence. Click on the image to enlarge.

Harry Fenn: Pen and Ink Virtuoso

Harry Fenn was born in Surrey, England and emigrated at eighteen to the United States. He was a prolific book illustrator, later one of the founders of the American Watercolor Society. He could do it all, meticulous drawings, prints and paintings from his extensive travels throughout the world. His best work in black-and-white appears in Picturesque America, Picturesque Europe, and Picturesque Palestine.

You can read his biography at this link.

I've chosen these illustrated articles from Scribner's Magazine for March 1896 and The Century Magazine July 1887 to show off his virtuosity and total control of his pen line in illustrating such elusive subjects as flowers in one color.

Some of the article Carnations from March 1896, was printed in two colors. Click on image above to enlarge the detail.

Click on image below to enlarge.

The following illustrations are from "Among the Wildflowers," written by the famous naturalist John Burroughs. Click on this image and those below to enlarge the detail.

Yes, I know this work is over 100 years old, but who's counting?