Artists

The pictures are usually of beautiful greek women in paradise lounging on marble benches beneath greacian pillars. His work may have been in pastels but the colors are very soft and peaceful. I am at a loss as to what his name is and I need it for a novel I am writing. Thank you.

My friend, you are talking about a turn of the century American artist named Maxfield Parrish. He painted oils on canvas and worked with watercolor to do illustrations for magazines. It was his magazine illustrations that brought him fame starting in the 1920s. He was extremely popular to the ‘Flappers’ from the Roaring 20s. Then the counter-culture hippies re-discovered him and his art and made it popular again. The cartoonist who created ‘Bloom County’ further increased the new interest in Parrish’s artwork by using it as backdrops for the dream fantasies of Opus.

Here are some links that should help you:

http://www.parrish-house.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxfield_Parrish

http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/parrish.htm

(The first of the faux Greek paintings he did was called ‘Daybreak’ and it became so popular, so famous during it’s time that thousands of prints were made of it.)

Here is a Bloom County version of a Parrish painting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Penguin_dreams_and_stranger_things.jpg

4 Responses

1. anessa Says:
   February 17th, 2010 at 6:28 am

   I know some artists (around 1890) painting about Greek women with marble benches or fountain. It was academic art era. Academic art era has William Bouguereau and Jean-Leon Gerome. Also in Pre-Raphael era, many artists used this subject. I do not know hippie era, so give me more detail.
   References :

2. bologna Says:
   February 17th, 2010 at 7:00 am

   good moring!
   popular hippie.
   http://www.trasalimenti.blogspot.com/
   References :

3. dianed33 Says:
   February 17th, 2010 at 7:37 am

   the list is clickable. with pictures of the art
   References :
   http://www.abcgallery.com/mythindex.html

4. Doc Watson Says:
   February 17th, 2010 at 8:08 am

   My friend, you are talking about a turn of the century American artist named Maxfield Parrish. He painted oils on canvas and worked with watercolor to do illustrations for magazines. It was his magazine illustrations that brought him fame starting in the 1920s. He was extremely popular to the ‘Flappers’ from the Roaring 20s. Then the counter-culture hippies re-discovered him and his art and made it popular again. The cartoonist who created ‘Bloom County’ further increased the new interest in Parrish’s artwork by using it as backdrops for the dream fantasies of Opus.

   Here are some links that should help you:

   http://www.parrish-house.com/

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxfield_Parrish

   http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/parrish.htm

   (The first of the faux Greek paintings he did was called ‘Daybreak’ and it became so popular, so famous during it’s time that thousands of prints were made of it.)

   Here is a Bloom County version of a Parrish painting:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Penguin_dreams_and_stranger_things.jpg
   References :

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