Daybreak and all that

Tiny washes her paw atop one of the Walpole tables on Goomp's terrace in the early morning light at Camelot-by-the-Sea. The light fantastic is exactly the same one Maxfield Parrish saw when he painted the most-reproduced image ever at that point in time, his evocative "Daybreak" (below):

The most successful of Parrish’s Art Prints, “Daybreak,” was published in 1922 and became the decorating sensation of the decade. The royalty on sales of this print alone amounted to $95,000, and the demand continued into 1925 when cheap imitations began to flood the market.

Did you know how famous this image was? If you are of a certain age, you know and will be delighted with the news:

Parrish's most famous painting sold at a New York auction in late May for $7.6 million US, and the anonymous California seller has agreed to give some of the proceeds -- $300,000 -- to finance a Vermont museum that houses what is believed to be the largest collection of the artist's works in the country.

Parrish's "Daybreak" -- like all of his work -- was a forerunner of the Photoshopped images of today. So far we haven't found anything online about it. We have a fab exhibition catalog at home with full explanation, but we're down Goomp's now and don't have access. Sigh.

Comments

[Teresa]

It always amazes me how you are able to put together artwork that draws on the same colors as your kitty pics. Once again we see how little I have in the way of an artist's eye OR better yet, the excellence of your artist's eye. I can see it when you post the pictures - I would never be able to find this kind of thing myself. *grin*

[GreenmanTim]

Maxfield Parrish attended the same undergraduate institution as I (Haverford) although generations before my time. A friend's band took the name Parrish Blue from that particular, luminous hue of his invention that is evident in "Daybreak".

[hNAV - 'We are the President']

it is gorgeous...