Maxfield Parrish was one of the most popular American artists of the 20th century. His engaging covers for Scribners and Life, murals such as Old King Cole and the Pied Piper, and posters, calendars, and paintings have delighted viewers for over 100 years. This is the first critical examination of Parrish's place in the history of American art and culture.

Luminous landscapes. Stunning scenery. Courageous colors. All this and more describes the amazing body of work by one of America's most popular artists, Maxfield Parrish. Now in its third edition with updated pricing, ownership, and trends, The Masterworks stands as the authoritative collection of Parrish's best works. Compiled by longtime Parrish expert and curator Alma Gilbert, The Masterworks brings together the most popular, most important, and most fanciful of Parrish's paintings. Here you'll find the glorious Dinkey Bird, the extensive Florentine Fête murals, the amazing Interlude, and the sublime Daybreak. Also included are some of Parrish's lesser-known works, through which we see the development of the artist's style and technique. Through historical analysis, contemporary news clippings, and letters from the artist himself, we get to know Parrish the man, discovering the genius behind the artwork. Updated with all the current Parrish information, this new edition of The Masterworks continues the grand tradition of celebrating Parrish's work, and bringing his oeuvre to the public.

Maxfield Parrish left a legacy of magnificent paintings, but he is best appreciated in the context of his own life and times. This book provides that context with an overview of the era in which American illustrative art flourished. When Parrish first arrived on the publishing scene in the 1890s, "mass media" meant print media. From Arthurian legends to American fables like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, stories were avidly read by a literate population. New printing technology made color illustrations possible, a liberating element for artists and a delight for readers. Part lively Parrish biography and part lucid historical analysis, this book offers a treasure trove of illustrations from classic children's literature by Parrish and his contemporaries, accompanied by excerpts from the stories.

Illustrations and paintings by Maxfield Parrish are paired with Mother Goose rhymes, tales from the Arabian Nights, and works by the Brothers Grimm, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Browning, Charles Perrault, and Eugene Field.

Maxfield Parrish enjoyed tremendous popularity throughout the early decades of the twentieth century. Bruce Watson, writing in Smithsonian magazine, deemed Parrish the "comman man's Rembrandt." It's said that during the Depression, a Parrish illustration was displayed on the walls of one out of every four American homes. The artist's romantic, richly colored images of winsome maidens and faraway places continue to appeal to modern audiences. Selected from hundreds of the artist's images for books, magazines, and calendars, this original collection spotlights Parrish's work from 1897 through the 1920s. Illustrations include art from publications such as Century Magazine, Collier's, and Scribner's. Numerous advertisements include the famed Edison-Mazda Lamp series, along with ads for Jell-O, Ferry's Seeds, and Swift's Premium Ham. A wide selection of book illustrations comprises scenes from The Arabian Nights, Eugene Field's Poems of Childhood, Louise Saunders' The Knave of Hearts, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales, and other treasured works