DOI Heft:
No. 159 (June, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Irvine, J. H.: Professor von Herkomer on Maxfield Parrish's book illustrations
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20715#0063
Maxfield Parrish's Book Illustrations
complete expression. Mr. Parrish knows when to
be unflinchingly faithful to the letter of his text,
and when to seek rather the spirit that maketh
alive. Mr. Grahame knows that the thoughts
of a boy seek an expression that is ultra-modern,
that bis fabled hero would scorn to ride in a
pageant that lacked the Maxim, the Pom-Pom)
and all the other pomp and circumstance of
modern war. With no less certainty does Mr.
Parrish know that the spirit of boyish dreaming
is not of this age, but must be sought amid the
glamour and romance of mediaeval chivalry
and Fields of Cloth of Gold. And so, if we
turn to the text of one of the most perfectly
decorative of his designs, we shall find the coal-
black charger and the set face with its hero’s
sabre-cut; but where Mr. Grahame rightly gives us
guns that rattle and leap along the village street,
42
Mr. Parrish still more rightly
shows us the standard waving
in the breeze and the boy-com-
panion with his lictor’s axe.
Surely here, if ever, is interpre-
tation and sympathy for which
to give thanks fasting.
This expression of what one
may call the unprofessional point
of view in reference to one
particular illustration was im-
mediately enlarged by Professor
von Herkomer into a new view
of Mr. Parrish’s work as a whole.
“It is just that particular qua-
lity,” he said, “ that would lead
me to call Parrish an ‘annotator
rather than an illustrator. And
this brings me to another point.
The two authors, who have
hitherto supplied Parrish with
the subjects for his drawings,
have in their work a certain
resemblance—a serious simpli-
city, which would seem to have
been the chief source of the
artist’s inspiration. This makes
it a little difficult to imagine
him engaged in illustrations of
any other phase of thought.
Not that I wish him to leave
what seems so harmonious with
his strongest self. Above all,
I pray Heaven to deliver him
from the temptation to draw
‘society’ pictures. It is just
the purity of Parrish’s artistic mind that gives
us his delightful atmosphere, and the refresh-
ment of this atmosphere cannot be too freely
imbibed in the face of the society pictures
masterly as many are—that almost overwhelm us
in the present day. I am by no means so old-
fashioned as to be unable to see the gigantic power
of some of the modern social satirists, but I am
just old-fashioned enough to believe that when
expression is given to the hollowness of society,
there should be the mind of a teacher at the back
of it, such as we find in George Du Maurier.
“It is just the romance and the particular kind of
poetry that I find in Parrish’s work, as well as the
humour of it, that is So attractive to me, and so
reposeful. I doubt if one could look at the best
society drawings and feel repose; but the world
that Parrish has so far illustrated is a haven of
complete expression. Mr. Parrish knows when to
be unflinchingly faithful to the letter of his text,
and when to seek rather the spirit that maketh
alive. Mr. Grahame knows that the thoughts
of a boy seek an expression that is ultra-modern,
that bis fabled hero would scorn to ride in a
pageant that lacked the Maxim, the Pom-Pom)
and all the other pomp and circumstance of
modern war. With no less certainty does Mr.
Parrish know that the spirit of boyish dreaming
is not of this age, but must be sought amid the
glamour and romance of mediaeval chivalry
and Fields of Cloth of Gold. And so, if we
turn to the text of one of the most perfectly
decorative of his designs, we shall find the coal-
black charger and the set face with its hero’s
sabre-cut; but where Mr. Grahame rightly gives us
guns that rattle and leap along the village street,
42
Mr. Parrish still more rightly
shows us the standard waving
in the breeze and the boy-com-
panion with his lictor’s axe.
Surely here, if ever, is interpre-
tation and sympathy for which
to give thanks fasting.
This expression of what one
may call the unprofessional point
of view in reference to one
particular illustration was im-
mediately enlarged by Professor
von Herkomer into a new view
of Mr. Parrish’s work as a whole.
“It is just that particular qua-
lity,” he said, “ that would lead
me to call Parrish an ‘annotator
rather than an illustrator. And
this brings me to another point.
The two authors, who have
hitherto supplied Parrish with
the subjects for his drawings,
have in their work a certain
resemblance—a serious simpli-
city, which would seem to have
been the chief source of the
artist’s inspiration. This makes
it a little difficult to imagine
him engaged in illustrations of
any other phase of thought.
Not that I wish him to leave
what seems so harmonious with
his strongest self. Above all,
I pray Heaven to deliver him
from the temptation to draw
‘society’ pictures. It is just
the purity of Parrish’s artistic mind that gives
us his delightful atmosphere, and the refresh-
ment of this atmosphere cannot be too freely
imbibed in the face of the society pictures
masterly as many are—that almost overwhelm us
in the present day. I am by no means so old-
fashioned as to be unable to see the gigantic power
of some of the modern social satirists, but I am
just old-fashioned enough to believe that when
expression is given to the hollowness of society,
there should be the mind of a teacher at the back
of it, such as we find in George Du Maurier.
“It is just the romance and the particular kind of
poetry that I find in Parrish’s work, as well as the
humour of it, that is So attractive to me, and so
reposeful. I doubt if one could look at the best
society drawings and feel repose; but the world
that Parrish has so far illustrated is a haven of