Maxfield Parrish: The Masterworks

Description

Now in its third edition, THE MASTERWORKS stands as the authoritative collection of Parrish’s best works. Compiled by long-time 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 Fete murals, the amazing Interlude, and the sublime Daybreak, which sold for a record $4.25 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 1996. 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 the genius behind the artwork. Updated with all the current Parrish scholarship, this new edition of THE MASTERWORKS continues the grand tradition of celebrating Parrish’s work and bringing his oeuvre to the public.

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Customer Reviews

Good job
The book has a lot about Gilbert, and, strangely, the plates are not sequential. Sometimes paintings are mentioned by name without reference to plate number, so you have to flip pages to find what you're looking for and to determine whether it is there at all. For those interested in Parrish, the stories are entertaining and the graphics production is very good.

2009-02-02 (Concord, NH) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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excellent
one of the best books on maxfield parrish. you won't be sorry to own it and see many of his best works with informative explanations.

2008-11-22 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Parrish
The illustrators of this era are true artists. It was nice to find this book, which I find impossible to locate in retail stores.

2008-03-19 | Linda Emily Menesez (Atascadero, CA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Maxfield Parrish: The Masterworks
A good quality book with extensive text, excellent illustrations and a description of Parrish's technique in his own words. The number of color illustrations is satisfactory and should not disappoint at the current asking price of $53.55. Parrish's later landscape paintings are reasonably well represented in full page, full color illustrations, and although I would have liked more of them, it is not a significant failing of the book.

2007-12-18 | Bill (Brisbane, Australia) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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Excellent for every Parrish fan!
I bought this book and I never regret of getting another Parrish art book again. This artbook is excellent with deep details of Parrish's way of study through his paintings. Theories based on his view of perspective and composition, it is something great to read about! However, one little thing I personally find missing is the "Dream Days" series, that is missing from this artbook and should have been included. Otherwise, get the book and you'll fall in love with Parrish blue all over again.

2002-05-30 | ghost (Valencia, CA. USA) | Helpful Votes: 13 | Rating: 5

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Worlds of Enchantment: The Art of Maxfield Parrish

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780486473062
• Adapt: NEW
• Notes: Type New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Description

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Maxfield Parrish

Description

We are pleased to bring this classic work back into print. A compendium of the life and work of Maxfield Parrish, it is an essential part of a Parrish library. For the collector, the publisher has included a value guide to some of the products that bear Parrish images. Examples of Parrish's most famous book illustrations are shown, including selections from Mother Goose in Prose and the Arabian Nights. Also included are his famous magazine covers-from Life, Collier's, Harper's Weekly, etc., as well as all the landscapes that he painted for Brown and Bigelow, who reproduced them as calendars every year from 1936 to 1963. One of the highlights of the book is the chapter on Parrish's technique, examining in depth his materials, favorite methods, and unique way of painting. In addition, there is a lengthy excerpt from an unpublished manuscript by Maxfield Parrish, Jr., explaining step-by-step his father's glazing technique and use of photography in his work. This definitive study also contains numerous revealing excerpts from Parrish's unpublished correspondence with family, friends, and clients.

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Customer Reviews

A Golden Age Captured in Paint
Note: I made some immature person angry by giving negative reviews of books written to "prove the Book of Mormon." Rather than answer my criticism, this person automatically gives my reviews negative votes. Oh, well.

Your "helpful" votes are appreciated, and please remember that a short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great book.

I love "Daybreak" (see cover) with a nude figure standing above a girl sleeping in a columned pavilion. If you like this painting, then check out different reproductions (the colors vary widely and change the nature and mood of the painting. Really change it.

"Twilight" is another great painting. For me, it is evocative of a great mystery. You want to step into that farm yard and explore the house and barn. No people are shown, but it gives me the feeling that ghosts live there (without being scary--in a dreamy sense).

"Afterglow" is also intreguing, showing a New England church as the stars come out.

The book is full of both color and black-and-white illustrations. I would love to see "Landing of the Brazen Boatman" in color. A robed figure is walking down some stairs of a strange temple while a boatman awaits.

What a gift of imagination Maxfield Parrish left to the world!

Highly recommended.

2008-03-28 (Sacramento, CA) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Interesting and prcatical
A comprehensive survey of the artist's work, it covers not just his paintings, but also his posters, advertising and magazine and book illustration and the murals. Very well illustrated and with a comprehensive text it chronicles the artist's development and his vast array of work.

One of the most interesting chapters is that which explains in detail the methods Parrish employed to achieve his remarkable results. This includes his use of photography and the painstaking glazing techniques he employed.

A very interesting and useful publication; it is not one that sits idly on my book shelf.

2007-10-12 (UK) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Glimpse of ethereal beauty
The version of this book that I own is from the second printing (1974). What a beautiful book! In some ways Parrish seems to be the dreamy counterpart to Norman Rockwell. An amazing attention to detail and lighting. To reiterate a point raised in other reviews, this book would benefit from more color plates, but that is a minor criticism. While I have not yet purchased any of the other books in print on Maxfield's work...this is a fine place to start. There is a generous sampling of landscapes, product advertisements and magazine covers. Recommended!

2007-08-19 (Harrison, NY) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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A great reference for illustrators and art enthusiasts.
This book has always been the "essential" Maxfield Parrish reference for me. It contains page after page of information about the artist's incredible personal and professional life. It also goes into great depth detailing the illustrator's perfected (and tedious) technique of creating illustrations. From crafting meticulous miniatures for layout to the final process of layering oil glazes onto the canvas. It's all there.

I would highly recommend this book to Illustrators, art teachers, and overall art enthusiasts who want to expand their knowledge about illustration and a true master of the past. This book has been cited in other publications such as "Step by Step Graphics" for the depth analysis of his technique.

My only small criticism is that I would've liked to seen more color prints within the book. A few too many black and white reproductions of the artwork. That aside, I feel this book is of tremendous value.

2007-01-05 | sketcher (Ohio) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Abundant, gorgeous color plates.
I, like you, want to own Daybreak--perhaps more so than any other painting. Sometimes an illustration entertains, perhaps greatly. Some evoke admiration, even gaping admiration. In the case of several Parrish paintings, admiration is merely the aftertaste of a much more powerful emotion: the craving to be in the space the artist has created, to have or to be the characters therein. A desire to truly exit this world and remain in the other. The list of works that affect me in that way starts off like this: It's A Wonderful Life, Oz, Narnia, Harry Potter's magical England, Parrish's Daybreak & Land of Make-Believe & Air Castles et al., Robert Heinlein's Glory Road, ERB's A Princess Of Mars... We read or watch or view them over and over again in an attempt to ease the longing.

This volume satisfied that craving long enough for me to catch my breath.

2001-10-03 (North America) | Helpful Votes: 22 | Rating: 5

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The Knave of Hearts (Calla Editions)

Description

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Customer Reviews

beautiful, but mixed up pages
I was thrilled to find that Calla had published a reissue of this beautiful book. My husband bought it for me, and it arrived quickly from Amazon. The book is perfect - except: the last several pages are mixed up. It goes from page 22 to 28 and then repeats earlier pages. Now I don't know how the story ends! Did anyone else notice this in their copies? I'll send it back to be replaced, and hope to receive a copy without the misprint.

Other than the page mix up, it is well worth it. The large size is appealing, as is the heavy paper and bright print quality.

2010-02-20 (Gila, NM USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Priceless
This book is beautiful and amazing for any Parrish fan. Well worth the modest price. You will be thrilled to own it.

2009-09-22 | Passionate Parrish Paramour (NY, NY) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Gorgeous reproduction of an out-of-print classic
As a fan of Maxfield Parrish, I was intrigued to see that a publisher had brought out a facsimile edition of "The Knave of Hearts," a book I knew of only by the illustrations found in books about MP. This edition is just astonishing. I've never seen such heavy-weight (80#!) pages. This is a truly heirloom-quality book. If you buy one for small children, make sure to order a backup! You'll want it for when they get older. Bravo to Calla Editions!

2009-09-21 (Bethel Park, PA) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 5

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The Knave of Hearts
Had excellent service from Amazon and the dealer. The book is delightfully comical, well illustrated and a pleasure to own.

2009-08-20 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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A Knave in Name Only
The last time I held a book this beautiful I was holding a first edition of "The Knave of Hearts," and holding it just as carefully as you should hold a book with a $3000 pricetag. Brokenheartedly, I returned it to its shelf, hoping that someday a reprinting would be published that would do justice to the original. That "someday" has arrived.

This beautiful edition from Calla is likely to become as much an heirloom as the original. The dimensions are practically identical to those of the first edition. The book is printed on 80# Utopia II Ivory Matte Cover, a thick paper with clothlike texture and the perfect medium for twenty-three of the most sumptuous paintings that Maxfield Parrish (or any other artist) ever created for book illustrations. The complete text of Louise Saunders' beguiling "closet drama" of the misunderstood knave is here as well, and the endpapers feature Parrish's "Romance" in one of the few reproductions I've seen that isn't so dark that the human figures are obscured. Indeed, the pictorial reproduction is top-notch throughout, perhaps a shade better than in the original edition.

There have been several artbooks showcasing most of the "Knave" illustrations, but this book finally brings the whole package to today's readers and Maxfield Parrish admirers. The price is a bargain and its contents are an embarrassment of riches. But don't be ashamed to buy it as a gift for yourself.

2009-07-31 | coffee shop inspector (Crooper, Illinois) | Helpful Votes: 14 | Rating: 5

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Maxfield Parrish

Description

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Customer Reviews

BAD REPRODUCTIONS
It's sad that such an otherwise valuable book suffers from shockingly poor reproductions. More than half of the illustrations are either grossly too light or too dark, with crude contrast balances. The colors are also frequently wrong. In short, the printing of this book was a rushed, cheap, hack-job done in China. Basically, the book is nearly worthless. I'm very disappointed, this could have been a very wonderful art book.

2009-10-22 (San Francisco) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Great value and very informative.
Yes, the images are somewhat small due to the book's size, but then again that is why it is one quarter the price of the coffee table books! Some of these reviewers, I swear...

I would consider myself a Parrish fan but not a fanatic. Therefore, this book is perfect for me. It is absolutely filled with high-quality color illustrations, is well bound, and provides substantial background material. I really appreciated the sections which also showcase other American illustrators who were contemporary with his work. Recommended.

2009-01-21 (New York, NY) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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an interesting addition to Parrish books
A small-format book like this can never be the best Maxfield Parrish reference, but I did enjoy the authors' slightly different take on his work. The pictures include many pieces that I had never seen before, and the text is thorough and entertaining. (Though the non-chronological order of the writing can be confusing.) I was intrigued to find that Parrish's long-suffering wife was also an illustrator, though, sadly, no examples of her work are illustrated. The authors do show the work of many other contemporary illustrators, including several that I had never heard of. I believe the choice of images was greatly determined by the collection the authors were drawing from, but the pictures were still interesting to see.

I have to say I'm less secure about the accuracy of this book's text, now that I've read some of the reviews discussing factual errors in the same authors' book on J. C. Leyendecker, but for those interested in Parrish, this book will at least partly satisfy.

2008-12-10 (Berkeley, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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A bit disappointing overall...
When I ordered this book I must admit I was not as thorough as I should have been when looking over the item specifics. I thought this was a larger version than it turned out to be. Measuring 6 1/2" x 8 1/2", the image reproductions are barely postcard sized and even smaller throughout. I should have gleaned the very idea from the price (but that can also be deceiving from book to book). Another thorn in my satisfaction level is it contains a loose errata sheet with corrections of many discrepancies. I've always thought it was chintzy to not include the corrections in the text when reprinted material goes back to press. Otherwise, it seems to be a very informative tome on Parrish as well as touching on the other illustrators of the day like Barclay, Betts, Christy, Goodwin, Oakley and many more notables. The book is nicely printed and bound on heavy paper. It simply falls short on its overall visual scope, which is the one thing an illustration reproduction retrospective should strive for.

2008-01-14 | agentthirt33n (Temple Terrace, FL USA) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 2

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Such a fine book!
I have just finished reading the book "Maxfield Parrish and the American Imagists", quite literally from cover to cover and I could not allow the occasion to pass without writing a review. It was, indeed, my profound pleasure to have read this book. I have been an MP aficiondo for probably 45 years of more. During this time I have acquired a very small and modest collection of his art prints as well as a dozen or more books and other miscellaneous items over the years. More importantly along the way I have gained a depth of appreciation of MP's genius as an artist and thinker. The publication of this book in 2004 represents a compendium of this American icon's work that brought it all together for me. It represents a resource and reference that I will be sure to refer to from time to time. The choice of format, quality stock, a faithful rendering and reproduction of the artwork and well-written text are impressive and unexcelled. Excellent!

2005-06-14 (Newport, RI) | Helpful Votes: 17 | Rating: 5

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Maxfield Parrish 2010 Calendar

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780764947698
• Notes: Stigmatize New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Fit out: NEW

Description

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