After painting dozens of successful calendar illustrations, Maxfield Parrish felt that his subjects were getting stale, and he wanted to paint pure landscapes for his own pleasure.
"I'm done with girls on rocks," Parrish said in 1931. " I've painted them for thirteen years and I could paint them and sell them for thirteen more. That's the peril of the commercial art game. It tempts a man to repeat himself. It's an awful thing to get to be a rubber stamp. I'm quitting my rut now while I'm still able."
He continues: "Magazine and art editors—and the critics, too—are always hunting for something new, but they don't know what it is. They guess at what the public will like, and, as we all do, they guess wrong about half the time. My present guess is that landscapes are coming in for magazine covers, advertisements and illustrations...."
"There are always pretty girls on every city street, but a man can't step out of the subway and watch the clouds playing with the top of Mount Ascutney. It's the unattainable that appeals. Next best to seeing the ocean or the hills or the woods is enjoying a painting of them."
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From Associated Press, April 27, 1931, quoted in the book Maxfield Parrish by Coy Ludwig, page 129.
3 comments:
How did that work out for him?
"That's the peril of the [fanart] game. It tempts a man to repeat himself. It's an awful thing to get to be a rubber stamp. I'm quitting my rut now while I'm still able"
Edited for modern artists :-D :-D
T, it worked out pretty well for him because he worked out a deal to paint whatever he wanted and the calendar company could choose to use the piece for a year if they liked it and pay him a hefty sum, after which he got the original and all the rights back.
Kessie, Yes, and that pressure to endlessly repeat commercial success can affect one's thinking in the gallery space too.
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