Maxfield Parrish: Edith Wharton's Italian Villas and Their Gardens - 3
Click on images to enlarge.
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
What a treasure your website is. With the increasing rarity of older publications you are saving and making available a precious part of our past.
Posted by: Jane Librizzi | October 07, 2007 at 04:40 PM