拍品专文
Maxfield Parrish's Sleeping Beauty in the Wood is a quintessential example of the artist's unique and adored style. Painted at the height of his career, this masterwork was executed as the cover for Hearst's Magazine's November 1912 issue. The present painting represents the artist's mastery of figures and landscapes, possessing many of the celebrated hallmarks of Parrish's style.
Parrish began executing works for magazines after he was discovered in 1895 when he painted wall decoration for the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Club. A member of Harper and Brothers' art department asked him to submit covers for Harper's Bazaar. With great success, he was then commissioned to do covers for Scribner's, Ladies' Home Journal, Century Magazine, Collier's and Life. "The vehicle that catapulted Parrish's art into the limelight was his work as a cover artist for the better magazines of the turn of the century. From every newsstand his work would be instantly recognized, sometimes gracing different publications alongside each other." (A. Gilbert, Maxfield Parrish: The Masterworks, Berkeley, California, 1992, p. 63)
The story of "Sleeping Beauty" is the tale of a beautiful princess and handsome prince. At the christening of a long wished for princess, fairies invited as godmothers offered gifts such as beauty, wit and musical talent. However, a wicked fairy who had been overlooked placed the princess under an enchantment as her gift, so that on reaching adulthood, she would prick her finger on a spindle and die. A good fairy, though unable to completely reverse the spell, said that the princess would instead sleep for one hundred years, until awakened by the kiss of a prince and thus true love's first kiss. The king forbade spinning throughout the kingdom, but it was all in vain. The princess came upon an old woman in a tower of the castle who was spinning and asked to try the unfamiliar task. The wicked fairy's curse was fulfilled.
In the present work, Parrish captures the scene after the good fairy returns and puts everyone in the castle to sleep. A forest of briars sprang up around the castle, shielding it from the outside world so no one could penetrate it without facing death in the thorns. After one hundred years had passed, a prince who had heard the story of the enchantment braved the wood, which parted at his approach, and entered the castle. After seeing the princess' beauty, he fell on his knees before her and kissed her. The princess and everyone in the castle woke to continue where they had left off and they all lived happily ever after.
In Parrish's mind, composition was of paramount importance and responsible for a great degree of the overall impact. In much of his art, there is a specific focal point with the background appearing much further behind. In Sleeping Beauty in the Wood it is created by the princess at the top of the stairs surrounded by two sleeping female companions as the lush evening landscape recedes behind them. The scene possesses several quintessential features of Parrish's landscape style. In characteristic fashion, Parrish arranged the composition with a clear and natural flow. The viewer's eye is lead through a visual narrative: from the sleeping girl at lower right to the girl at center left, up to the princess and through the columns to the landscape in the background. Parrish's remarkable use of light and color in his landscapes is expertly rendered in this painting. Light illuminates the sleeping figures and the trees in the distance. With the luminosity and brilliant hues of pinks, purples and Parrish's signature blue, the artist gives the work a magical and ethereal quality.
The magic and spirit embodied in Sleeping Beauty in the Wood is the result of Parrish's unique and intricate approach to painting. He possessed a calm and patient disposition that was perfectly suited to the arduous and time-consuming work his pictures demanded. He began with a white base that served to illuminate the image from the first layer up through to the last. Over this pigment was layered with varnish over and over to heighten the vibrancy of the colors and create a smooth, enamel-like surface. Parrish felt strongly about the purity of color and the resulting effect it made on the picture as a whole. In an unknown article, the artist expresses his aims concerning color, "Probably that which has a greater hold on me than any other quality is color. I feel it is a language but little understood; much less so than it used to be. To be a great colorist that is my modest ambition. I hope someday to express the child's attitude towards nature and things; for that is the purest and most unconscious." (Maxfield Parrish, Maxfield Parrish Papers, Hanover, New Hampshire) Employing his masterful use of glazes, the end result of Sleeping Beauty in the Wood is Parrish's keen ability to convey surface textures, most clearly demonstrated in the delicately rendered faces, the crispness of the marble stairs, the surface of the tree bark, the lush flowers and greenery and the voluminous folds of the dresses.
The model for the princess was Susan Lewin, the niece of the Parrish's housekeeper, who was hired to assist Lydia Parrish with their new baby and help around the house. Parrish then began to ask Susan to pose for him and she later became one of the artist's favorites. "When Susan bounded around [Parrish's home and studio] The Oaks with babes in arms, Parrish watched her with fascination. He imagined her as his counterpart to Lord Leighton's companion model, Dene. When he first asked her to model for him and that first pose resulted in the painting Land of Make-Believe (1905, private collection), Parrish was so happy with the outcome that he began to use Susan as his constant model." (L.S. Cutler, J.G. Cutler, Maxfield Parrish: A Retrospective, San Francisco, California, 1995, p. 12)
Parrish began executing works for magazines after he was discovered in 1895 when he painted wall decoration for the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Club. A member of Harper and Brothers' art department asked him to submit covers for Harper's Bazaar. With great success, he was then commissioned to do covers for Scribner's, Ladies' Home Journal, Century Magazine, Collier's and Life. "The vehicle that catapulted Parrish's art into the limelight was his work as a cover artist for the better magazines of the turn of the century. From every newsstand his work would be instantly recognized, sometimes gracing different publications alongside each other." (A. Gilbert, Maxfield Parrish: The Masterworks, Berkeley, California, 1992, p. 63)
The story of "Sleeping Beauty" is the tale of a beautiful princess and handsome prince. At the christening of a long wished for princess, fairies invited as godmothers offered gifts such as beauty, wit and musical talent. However, a wicked fairy who had been overlooked placed the princess under an enchantment as her gift, so that on reaching adulthood, she would prick her finger on a spindle and die. A good fairy, though unable to completely reverse the spell, said that the princess would instead sleep for one hundred years, until awakened by the kiss of a prince and thus true love's first kiss. The king forbade spinning throughout the kingdom, but it was all in vain. The princess came upon an old woman in a tower of the castle who was spinning and asked to try the unfamiliar task. The wicked fairy's curse was fulfilled.
In the present work, Parrish captures the scene after the good fairy returns and puts everyone in the castle to sleep. A forest of briars sprang up around the castle, shielding it from the outside world so no one could penetrate it without facing death in the thorns. After one hundred years had passed, a prince who had heard the story of the enchantment braved the wood, which parted at his approach, and entered the castle. After seeing the princess' beauty, he fell on his knees before her and kissed her. The princess and everyone in the castle woke to continue where they had left off and they all lived happily ever after.
In Parrish's mind, composition was of paramount importance and responsible for a great degree of the overall impact. In much of his art, there is a specific focal point with the background appearing much further behind. In Sleeping Beauty in the Wood it is created by the princess at the top of the stairs surrounded by two sleeping female companions as the lush evening landscape recedes behind them. The scene possesses several quintessential features of Parrish's landscape style. In characteristic fashion, Parrish arranged the composition with a clear and natural flow. The viewer's eye is lead through a visual narrative: from the sleeping girl at lower right to the girl at center left, up to the princess and through the columns to the landscape in the background. Parrish's remarkable use of light and color in his landscapes is expertly rendered in this painting. Light illuminates the sleeping figures and the trees in the distance. With the luminosity and brilliant hues of pinks, purples and Parrish's signature blue, the artist gives the work a magical and ethereal quality.
The magic and spirit embodied in Sleeping Beauty in the Wood is the result of Parrish's unique and intricate approach to painting. He possessed a calm and patient disposition that was perfectly suited to the arduous and time-consuming work his pictures demanded. He began with a white base that served to illuminate the image from the first layer up through to the last. Over this pigment was layered with varnish over and over to heighten the vibrancy of the colors and create a smooth, enamel-like surface. Parrish felt strongly about the purity of color and the resulting effect it made on the picture as a whole. In an unknown article, the artist expresses his aims concerning color, "Probably that which has a greater hold on me than any other quality is color. I feel it is a language but little understood; much less so than it used to be. To be a great colorist that is my modest ambition. I hope someday to express the child's attitude towards nature and things; for that is the purest and most unconscious." (Maxfield Parrish, Maxfield Parrish Papers, Hanover, New Hampshire) Employing his masterful use of glazes, the end result of Sleeping Beauty in the Wood is Parrish's keen ability to convey surface textures, most clearly demonstrated in the delicately rendered faces, the crispness of the marble stairs, the surface of the tree bark, the lush flowers and greenery and the voluminous folds of the dresses.
The model for the princess was Susan Lewin, the niece of the Parrish's housekeeper, who was hired to assist Lydia Parrish with their new baby and help around the house. Parrish then began to ask Susan to pose for him and she later became one of the artist's favorites. "When Susan bounded around [Parrish's home and studio] The Oaks with babes in arms, Parrish watched her with fascination. He imagined her as his counterpart to Lord Leighton's companion model, Dene. When he first asked her to model for him and that first pose resulted in the painting Land of Make-Believe (1905, private collection), Parrish was so happy with the outcome that he began to use Susan as his constant model." (L.S. Cutler, J.G. Cutler, Maxfield Parrish: A Retrospective, San Francisco, California, 1995, p. 12)