Some Early Posters of Maxfield Parrish

SARAH FAUNCE

NE OF THE most valuable collections presented to the
Libraries in recent years is that of the late Solton Engel
(1916c) and his wife, Julia Engel. Included in this gift
of first editions, manuscripts and original drawings is an impres¬
sive collection of late 19th and early 20th century posters. This
large collection represents the work of more than a hundred dif¬
ferent designers, including such internationally renowned artists
as Aubrey Beardsley and Alphonse Mucha. As the cataloging pro¬
ceeds, new names will come to light. Such a collection is of espe¬
cial interest today, when we are witnessing a revival of good poster
design and in particular of the Art Nouveau style both in typog¬
raphy and illustration. Many of these posters show the widespread
and fertile effect of Art Nouveau.

One of the designers who is well represented in the collection
is Maxfield Parrish, who died only recently after a very long
career as a popular illustrator and decorator and whose best-known
work in New Y'ork is the mural which he did in 1902 for the
King Cole Bar in the St. Regis Hotel. The group of posters repro¬
duced in the following pages date from from this period—1895 to
1903—when Parrish was in his late twenties and establishing his
style. The posters are advertisements for such popular periodicals
as Scribner's and Harper^s Weekly. A glance at the magazines
themselves shows that Parrish had freed himself from the fussy
anecdotal realism that characterized many of his contemporary
illustrations and was open to the new currents of design from
Europe.

The poster for the fiction number of Scribner's of August, 1897,
brings Beardsley to mind, with clear linear silhouette of the figure,
complicated patterning of the foliage, and faint air of pagan deca-

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