More Maxfield Parrish

These first four illustrations are from a special section devoted to Parrish's work entitled "The Great Southwest" published in Century Magazine for November of 1902. There were seven in all, but I think these are the best to consider. Click on images to enlarge.

This is called View in the Grand Cañon of the Colorado commonly known today as simply The Grand Canyon. I'm guessing that it was drawn from a large format black-and-white photograph such as an 8 x 10, and then painted either on site or from color notations and sketches made on site. I know from my visits to the bookshop at the Grand Canyon that there were a couple of brothers who seemed to be resident photographers and I'm guessing that their work was available to Parrish.

Speaking of working from photos, these two riders and their horses look as if they were snapshots and part of a montage. There's precious little painting going on, it would seem, and that that little white – and possibly gloved – hand poking just above the horizon and silhouetted against the blue sky seems totally out of place. Where were the editors on that one?

This looks like the skies we used to see up in Sonoma County, California. It's entitled, "Water let in on a field of Alfalfa."

I don't understand how this got into the mix, what with the gratuitous legend. It's a meticulous rendering and could stand alone with just a line or two in type below the image. Bill Sachs reminds me a lot of Ansel Adams.

I don't have a title for this one, which appeared in the November 1904 issue of Century Magazine. It's a lovely piece and looks so much like the Southwest must have been before the railroad and commercial developers fouled the nest.

This is typical of Parrish's storybook style. It's from "The Desert," which appeared in the December 1902 issue of Scribner's Monthly Magazine.