In Short
An indisputable icon of American art, Maxfield Parrish is celebrated as one of the most influential painters of the 20th century due to his impact on, and formal association with, Surrealism and post-modernism. Presaging Pop Art’s interest in iconic figures and commercial culture, Maxfield Parrish portrayed Lewis Carroll’s famous character Humpty Dumpty at least twice over the course of his acclaimed career, the first depiction of which was in 1897 for Mother Goose in Prose, his first illustrated book. The subject clearly appealed to the artist, who revisited the character in the present work, which was reproduced on the cover of LIFE magazine’s Easter issue on March 17, 1921. Humpty Dumpty was acquired directly from the artist by the du Pont family, close friends of Parrish’s, and has remained in the same collection since.Celebrated for his distinctive style and adroitness with a variety of media, including painting, drawing, collage, etching and photography, Parrish painstakingly perfected the technique used in Humpty Dumpty. The artist’s process of layering pigments and glazes resulted in works that are both colorful and luminous, reminiscent of the surface of stained-glass. While murals such as Old King Cole at the St. Regis Hotel in New York made Parrish famous, the artist often preferred to work on a small scale: these jewel-like paintings, such as Humpty Dumpty, have fascinated Surrealists, Pop masters, and contemporary artists alike—and have become ubiquitous images over the last century. Indeed, in 1936 Time magazine declared that “as far as the sale of expensive reproductions is concerned, the three most popular artists in the world are Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, and Maxfield Parrish.”
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The present work illustrated on the cover of Life magazine, March 17, 1921.
In an Eggshell
1921 Parrish paints Humpty Dumpty, which graces the cover of the March 17, 1921 Easter issue of LIFE Magazine, contributing to the iconography of one of the most famous children’s book characters.
The present work illustrated on the cover of LIFE magazine, March 17, 1921.
1868 George L. Fox plays the title role in the Broadway show Humpty Dumpty, which ran until 1869 for 463 performances and popularized the character in the United States.
George L. Fox in costume as Humpty Dumpty 1871 Illustrated by John Tenniel, Humpty Dumpty appeared in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, which established his characterization as an anthropomorphic egg.
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, first published circa 1871.
1897 The collection of children’s stories Mother Goose in Prose, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish, was published and includes an early portrayal by the artist of the character.
Humpty Dumpty illustration by Maxfield Parrish for Mother Goose in Prose, 1897. 1903 William Wallace Denslow, illustrator of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, publishes the iconic children’s book Denslow’s Humpty Dumpty
Denslow’s Humpty Dumpty, circa 1903.
1921 Parrish paints Humpty Dumpty, which graces the cover of the March 17, 1921 Easter issue of LIFE Magazine, contributing to the iconography of one of the most famous children’s book characters.
The present work illustrated on the cover of LIFE magazine, March 17, 1921.
A Link with Surrealism
Salvador Dali, Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937. Tate Gallery, London, Artwork © 2020 Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The dreamlike, fantastical dimension of Humpty Dumpty betrays a formal affinity with the Freudian language of Surrealism, a harmonious rapport accounting for Dorothea Tanning’s lifelong admiration for Parrish’s work. The slightly uncanny presence of his paintings, particularly Humpty Dumpty, exudes the same rejection of rationality that would preoccupy artists across the Atlantic later that decade following the publication of the Surrealist manifestos.
[left] Rene Magritte, The Therapist, 1937. Private Collection, Artwork © 2020 C. Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
[right] Rene Magritte, Elective Affinities, 1932. Private Collection, Artwork © 2020 C. Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
“Said to paint like Salvador Dalí without the bad dreams,” according to Arts Magazine in 1935, Parrish produced luminescent and seemingly brushstroke-less surfaces, evocative of the wild nature of psychology and the unconscious, that are reminiscent of those of the Surrealists, and his commercial work even foreshadowed the Vogue covers that Dalí began producing in the late 1930s.
Rene Magritte, Le Domaine D'Arnheim, 1938. Private Collection, Artwork © 2020 C. Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Contemporary Art's "Grand Pop"
A Rediscovery Parrish’s images were ubiquitous during the period of Humpty Dumpty’s creation, and approximately one in four American households owned a Parrish print in 1925. Later the pervasiveness of Parrish’s images would appeal to Pop Art’s predilection for seriality and blurred divisions between fine art and commercial culture: his dreamscapes especially fascinated Andy Warhol, who was an avid collector of his pictures. In 1964, Lawrence Alloway—the critic and curator who coined the term “Pop Art”—curated a Parrish retrospective at Bennington College that travelled to New York’s Gallery of Modern Art, reintroducing the artist to the post-war art world and contextualizing his work as a precursor to Pop Art, which led Time to dub him “Grand-Pop.” 
Andy Warhol, Eggs, 1982. Private Collection, Artwork © 2020 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
“Behind a screen of high technique, Parrish is master of the cliché, of the image of the moment. And, because of his exceptional talent, operating so lavishly in a complex historical moment, his art poses connections between high and low, fine and mass art with which, in fact, the art theory of the 20th century has still to deal”
— Lawrence Alloway
Every Television in America
After the rediscovery of Parrish’s work during the height of Pop Art’s fame, his aesthetic was further introduced to the general public in subsequent decades through advertisers’ appropriation of his imagery. Examples of this include a 1970s campaign for the Rainier Brewing Company which directly employed Parrish’s Humpty Dumptyand a Kinder Chocolate commercial from the 1980s that featured a character uncannily alike the one in the present work.Rainier Brewing Company advertisement, 1970s
A Broader Reach
Parrish’s pop culture relevance from the 1970s through the 1990s persisted, reaching the film and music sectors as well. Madonna and George Lucas both own iconic paintings by the artist, and the artist’s imagery was appropriated for album cover imagery by Elton John and Enya, among many others during the period. Michael Jackson, an avid admirer of Parrish, even emulated the artist’s Daybreak in his hit music video for “You Are Not Alone” in 1995, and the poster for the 1987 cult classic film The Princess Bride featured a Parrish-esque landscape. By the end of the century, Parrish’s aesthetic had penetrated nearly every area of American pop culture: even a major international fashion brand was named Maxfield Parrish.
Film poster for The Princess Bride, 1987.
Contemporary Meditations
The blur of distinctions between high and low art that Parrish’s art embodies is still a chief theme in contemporary visual culture. While George Lucas has acknowledged that Parrish’s uncanny aesthetic directly influenced the look of the Star Wars epics, renowned artists such as Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Paul McCarthy produce work that explores consumerism and commercialism’s complicated relationship with art. This perennial dialogue, which Parrish was a significant contributor to, has had an incomparably profound effect on the art of the last century. 
Jeff Koons, Popeye, 2009-2011. Private Collection, Artwork © Jeff Koons
America's Court Painter
Maxfield Parrish, Du Pont Mural, 1933.
Parrish accepted his last mural commission in 1932 from the du Pont family, close friends of the artist who also acquired the present lot, Humpty Dumpty. For this project, Parrish executed three panels depicting a breathtaking mountain and landscape, which were installed in the family’s music well in 1933.In addition to his domestically-scaled paintings and magazine covers such as Humpty Dumpty, Parrish also produced 34 monumental works for nine major mural projects he undertook during his career. Through these commissions, he became acquainted with some of the most important industrialist families in America, and his murals adorned their homes and businesses across the country. 
Maxfield Parrish’s mural at the Old King Cole Bar in the St. Regis Hotel in New York is still enjoyed by hotel guests today.
John Jacob Astor IV commissioned Parrish to paint a mural for the bar in the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York in 1906. This colossal painting features a scene from the British nursey rhyme Old King Cole and it is one of the artist’s most iconic images. Parrish’s mural is still enjoyed today by patrons of the eponymous bar at the St. Regis Hotel, New York.
Maxfield Parrish’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin, circa 1909 at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin was commissioned by the Palace Hotel in San Francisco 1909, and remains there to this day.
Maxfield Parrish, The Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Murals, circa 1912 (detail, East wall panel).
In 1912, Parrish was commissioned by art world authority Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, to paint seven monumental murals for her Long Island studio. Depicting a bacchanal, these works were the largest Parrish ever made.Maxfield Parrish, Du Pont Mural, 1933.
Parrish accepted his last mural commission in 1932 from the du Pont family, close friends of the artist who also acquired the present lot, Humpty Dumpty. For this project, Parrish executed three panels depicting a breathtaking mountain and landscape, which were installed in the family’s music well in 1933.In addition to his domestically-scaled paintings and magazine covers such as Humpty Dumpty, Parrish also produced 34 monumental works for nine major mural projects he undertook during his career. Through these commissions, he became acquainted with some of the most important industrialist families in America, and his murals adorned their homes and businesses across the country.
Provenance
The du Pont Family, Wilmington, Delaware (acquired directly from the artist circa 1925)
Thence by descent to the present ownerLiterature
LIFE, March 17, 1921, vol. 77, no. 2002 (illustrated on front cover)
Paul W. Skeeters, Maxfield Parrish: The Early Years 1893-1930, Secaucus, 1973, p. 335 (LIFE cover illustrated)
Coy Ludwig, Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, p. 210Artist Biography
Maxfield Parrish
One of the leading figures of American art, Maxfield Parrish achieved widespread acclaim for the vibrant and idealized neoclassical scenes he created for calendars, magazine covers, and other forms of commercial art that during the first half of the 20th Century. Through his work for such titles as Mother Goose in Prose, Harper’s Bazaar, LIFE, and Scribner’s Magazine, Parrish has had a considerable impact on the development of American illustration, helping establish its Golden Age, but also shaped contemporary visual culture as a whole; his painting Daybreak was the most popular art print of the 20th century.
Parrish’s work is marked by its use of saturated color, which Parrish achieved through a glazing process he developed while recovering from tuberculosis, and for its lifelike recreations of three-dimensional space, created using an innovative photographic technique to accurately render texture and his signature “Parrish blue.” The impact of Parrish’s work on pop culture has proven long-lasting, influencing artists across disciplines from Norman Rockwell to Elton John and Michael Jackson.
Property from the du Pont Family, Wilmington, Delaware
Ο13
Humpty Dumpty
signed with the artist’s initials and dated “MP 1921” lower right; further signed and dated “Maxfield Parrish. January 1921.” on the reverse
oil on board
15 1/8 x 12 in. (38.4 x 30.5 cm)
Painted in January 1921.
Estimate
$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $740,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
Head of Evening Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1278
20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 2 July 2020
