Profile of a Girl (possibly Mary Bancroft Coggeshall) is rendered with freer brushwork than that seen in Maxfield Parrish's well-known commercial work yet bears elements he incorporated often in his figure illustrations, such as the subject’s posing in profile, with a strong light source casting a halo on her hair and delineating the silhouette of her face. The painting was sold to a private collector in 1980 and has remained in the same family for over forty years.

More information about this painting...

Maxfield Parrish was a household name during the early part of the twentieth century, and today, he stands beside Howard Pyle and N. C. Wyeth as a triumvirate of American artists that delighted generations with their creations. These men mark the high point in the golden age of American illustration, and through Parrish’s imaginative work, he raised himself to the regal title “Master of Make-Believe.”[1] His famous painting Daybreak (handled by Vose Galleries) is among the most reproduced images of art history, and by the height of Parrish’s career, a replica of this piece was purportedly in one out of every four homes in America.

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[1] Christian Brinton, “Master of Make-Believe,” Century Magazine, 1912.

Provenance:

Collection of the artist’s son, Maxfield Parrish, Jr., Lexington, Massachusetts

With Vose Galleries, Boston, inventory no. 25957, June 1979

To private collection, Duxbury, Massachusetts, February 1980

By descent to the collector’s wife, 2008

By descent to the nephew of the above, private collection, Anacortes, Washington, by 2022

Inscription:

1. (on right stretcher, faint) PARRISH
2. (on left stretcher in red) M.P. Jr. No. 556
3. (on left stretcher in pencil) Maxfield Parrish
4. (on left stretcher in pencil) PARRISH
5. (on left stretcher in pencil) I think this is a / portrait of Mary Coggshall (sic) / M.P.’s cousin. About 1891-1895

Labels:

Previous Vose Galleries label, inventory no. 25957