Name: Prometheus
Brand: Maxfield Parrish
Rating: 5 (27 reviews)

Prometheus

View Similar Items

Bernardino Campi (Cremona 1522 -1591) - Portrait of a woman with a book

Paul Lunaud - Portrait of a woman ironing

Louis-Alexandre Cabié - The Cayre-Vézère rock at Eyzies in Dordogne

Louis-Alexandre Cabié - The Saint-Antoine bridge in Clisson in France

Paul-Louis Martin des Amoignes - The bohemians

Louis-Alexandre Cabié - Path in a hamlet

Gerald Purdy - Shore Birds

Paul Pretzer - Blech und Begierde

Louis-Alexandre Cabié - Louis Cabié (1853-1939) - Landes à Pessac - Gironde

Louis-Alexandre Cabié - Farm in Andernos near Arcachon

Pascal Vinardel - Rome - Dômes Et Couvents

Emile Chaumont - Emile Chaumont (1877-1927) - Summer landscape in Dordogne

About the Item

Medium: Oil on Panel Sight Size 31.00" x 21.25", Framed 36.00" x 22.00" Signature: Signed Lower Left Maxfield Parrish began his career at age 25 as an illustrator, painting magazine covers, advertisements, posters and book illustrations. He was already a well-respected commercial artist when, in 1917, he received a commission from General Electric to produce annual calendar illustrations to advertise the company’s Electric-Edison Mazda Lamps. Eager to sell their product as new and innovative, GE executives asked the artist to emphasize the many facets of light: natural, manmade and fantastical. Over the course of the next 15 years, Parrish created a group of 17 paintings illustrating the progression of the history of light, the immense popularity of which transformed the artist into a national icon. Between 1917 and 1931, over 20 million copies of the calendar were painstakingly reproduced in two different sizes and four different colors. Parrish enjoyed painting images for calendars, because he loved the immediacy and ubiquity of these commissions: far more people would gain exposure to his work in the offices, banks and stores where the calendars commonly hung. If the artist was not already well-known in popular culture through his illustrations and other ads, Parrish became a household name through the Mazda commission. Prometheus, painted in 1919 and published the following year, visually translates a mythical tale of Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the Olympian gods and presented it to early man, thus allowing for the evolution of civilization and cultural progress. As a result of this act, Prometheus became the patron of all earthly artists and thinkers as he brought enlightenment to the world. Parrish emphasizes this heroic interpretation in the present work by depicting the subject in clear mythological glory. Bathed in a warm golden light, Prometheus is rendered in the classical Greek style, idealized and youthful, returning triumphantly to earth bearing the flame of the gods. Although the scene’s iconography is predominantly appropriated ancient Greek sources, Prometheus characteristically incorporates such diverse influences as Old Master principles, Pre-Raphaelite aesthetics, and Parrish’s own vivid imagination to achieve a fantastical scene that both appealed to popular imagination and was perfectly suited to the corporate image GE wanted to project. The preternatural landscape rendered behind the figure was likely conjured by Parrish’s fertile imagination; he created these make-believe “Parrishscapes” by synthesizing both real and imagined natural elements. Behind the protagonist, a distant view reveals a mysterious mountainous landscape. The artist’s dazzling gifts as a colorist reveal themselves as the dramatic moonlight beams down upon the crystal calm lake and the craggy outcroppings that surround it. The velvety, midnight blue was reportedly inspired by the effects of light filtering through the cloud layer that Parrish felt was specific to New England: “There is an intense blue in New England,” he once wrote. “Put a mountain here, against the east, in a clear sunset glow, and it would be more startling than in Arizona” (quoted in Alma Gilbert, The Masterworks, Berkeley, California, 1992, p. 103). The present work exhibits a remarkable luminosity and purity of colors that Parrish attained by painting with layers of transparent colored glazes, now considered a hallmark of his distinctive style. Displaying lush color effects and an extraordinary attention to detail, Prometheus impressively demonstrates the unique style and vivid imagination that has earned Parrish his place among the most celebrated and beloved of American illustrators. Exhibited Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Brandywine River Museum, Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe: An Exhibition, June-September 1974, no. 58 San Mateo, California, La Galeria, Maxfield Parrish, 1976 Windsor, Vermont, The Oaks: Maxfield Parrish Museum, June-August 1978 Currently Being Exhibited At: Brandywine River Museum, A Date with Art: The Business of Illustrated Calendars, January 25, 2014- May 18, 2014 Literature Coy Ludwig, Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, pp. 126, 137, pl. 37, illustrated in color Paul W. Skeeters, Maxfield Parrish: The Early Years, 1893-1930, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1973, p. 71, illustrated in color Laurence S. Cutler, Judy Goffman and The American Illustrators Gallery,Maxfield Parrish, London, 1993, p. 69, illustrated in color p. 68 Alma Gilbert, Maxfield Parrish: The Masterworks, Berkeley, California, 1995, fig. 5.4, pp. 96, 97, 113, illustrated in color p. 101 Laurence S. Cutler, Judy Goffman Cutler and the National Museum of American Illustration, Maxfield Parrish and the American Imagists, Edison, New Jersey, 2004, p. 269, illustrated in color

Creator:
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966, American)
Creation Year:
1919
Dimensions:
Height: 31 in (78.74 cm)Width: 21.25 in (53.98 cm)
Medium:
Oil,Panel
Period:
1910-1919
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Fort Washington, PA
Reference Number:
Seller: 21171stDibs: LU38431688453

More From This Seller

View All

French Military on Horseback

By Jules Delaunay

Located in Fort Washington, PA

Date: 1893 Medium: Oil on Panel Dimensions: 14.50" x 21.00" Signature: Signed and Dated Lower Right: J. Delaunay. 1893

Category

1890s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Jules Delaunay
French Military on Horseback, 1893

$12,000

Thanksgiving, The Saturday Evening Post cover, November 12, 1910

By Joseph Christian Leyendecker

Located in Fort Washington, PA

Medium: Oil on Canvas Laid on Panel Signature: Signed Lower Right The Saturday Evening Post cover, November 12, 1910

Category

1910s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Panel

Joseph Christian Leyendecker
Thanksgiving, The Saturday Evening Post cover, November 12, 1910, 1910

$210,000

Couple in a Horse-Drawn Carriage

By William Henry Dethlef Koerner

Located in Fort Washington, PA

Date: 1923 Medium: Oil on Panel Dimensions: 24.00" x 36.00"

Category

1920s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

William Henry Dethlef Koerner
Couple in a Horse-Drawn Carriage

$19,000

Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy - Comedians Traveling Road Sign

Located in Fort Washington, PA

This Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy illustration was used as a traveling show sign for the comedy duo. Medium: Oil on Wood Panel Signature: Unsigned

Category

1940s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil, Panel, Wood Panel

Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy - Comedians Traveling Road Sign, 1940s

$5,500

My Duty Towards my Neighbor, and My Duty Towards God (diptych)

By Maxfield Parrish

Located in Fort Washington, PA

Overall Dimensions, including artist frame: 54 x 80 in. Each Painted Panel: 33 x 24 in. Medium: Oil on Panel Signature: Each panel signed and dated Literature: Coy Ludwig, Maxfiel...

Category

1890s Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Maxfield Parrish
My Duty Towards my Neighbor, and My Duty Towards God (diptych), 1898

$775,000

Pausing for Refreshments

By Charles Relyea

Located in Fort Washington, PA

Medium: Oil on Board Laid on Panel Signature: Signed Lower Right Sight Size 29.00" x 23.00," Framed 33.00" x 37.00"

Category

Early 20th Century Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel, Board

Charles Relyea
Pausing for Refreshments

$18,000

16th Century Italian School Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Portrait of a woman with a book, Circa 1560

$20,928

Portrait of a woman ironing

Located in BELEYMAS, FR

Paul LUNAUD (Brantôme 1900 – 1949) The ironer Oil on wood H. 80 cm; W. 64 cm Signed and dated on the right in the center, formerly signed lower right. 1942 Provenance : Artist's stu...

Category

1940s French School Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Paul Lunaud
Portrait of a woman ironing, 1942

$3,109

The Cayre-Vézère rock at Eyzies in Dordogne

By Louis-Alexandre Cabié

Located in BELEYMAS, FR

Louis-Alexandre CABIE (Dol-de-Bretagne 1853 - Bordeaux 1939) The rock of Cayre-Vézère in Les Eyzies in the summer of 1900 Oil on panel H. 52 cm; L. 36 cm Signed lower right, dated 19...

Category

Early 1900s French School Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Louis-Alexandre Cabié
The Cayre-Vézère rock at Eyzies in Dordogne, 1900

$1,913

The Saint-Antoine bridge in Clisson in France

By Louis-Alexandre Cabié

Located in BELEYMAS, FR

Louis-Alexandre CABIÉ (Dol-de-Bretagne 1853 - Bordeaux 1939) The Saint Antoine bridge in Clisson Oil on cardboard H. 26 cm; L. 29.5 cm Signed lower left, dated 1907 Provenance: Priv...

Category

Early 1900s French School Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Louis-Alexandre Cabié
The Saint-Antoine bridge in Clisson in France, 1907

$1,435

The bohemians

Located in BELEYMAS, FR

Paul-Louis MARTIN des AMOIGNES (Saint Benin d’Azy 1850 – Nevers 1925) The Bohemians Oil on panel H. 37 cm; W. 23 cm Monogrammed lower left "PLM" Circa 1886 Provenance: Private colle...

Category

1880s French School Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Paul-Louis Martin des Amoignes
The bohemians, 1886

$2,750

Path in a hamlet

By Louis-Alexandre Cabié

Located in BELEYMAS, FR

Louis-Alexandre CABIÉ (Dol-de-Bretagne 1853 - Bordeaux 1939) Path in a hamlet Oil on panel H. 24.5 cm; L. 31 cm Signed lower left, dated 1929 Provenance: Private collection, Charent...

Category