It seems impossible that an image so common it reportedly hung in one in four homes in the 1920s would bring more than $7.6 million at auction for the original. Such though is the enduring mystique of Maxfield Parrish. At various stages of his life his work was whimsical, dreamy, classical, and in his final long phase of landscapes from the mid-1930s it was downright serene. Through it all, his work was understood, appreciated and desired by the masses.

Daybreak, Parrish’s most recognizable work painted in 1922, sold at Christie’s New York in September 2006 for $7,632,000 including premium to a private party, a record for the artist. It broke his prior record of nearly $4.3 million — for the same painting 10 years earlier. It was his first painting done solely for reproduction as an art print produced by House of Art, New York, not for a calendar or book illustration. He sold the original in 1925 for the goodly sum of $10,000.

Coming in at a distant second to Daybreak at the same auction, so fleetingly looking like a bargain, was Parrish’s The Lantern Bearers from 1908. It sold for $4,272,000 including premium to an American museum against an estimate of $1.5 to $2.5 million. The image appeared as the frontispiece for the Dec. 10, 1910 issue of Collier’s, where Parrish was under exclusive contract from 1904 to 1910.

Do the auction prices for these major pieces mean all Parrish paintings have values in the stratosphere? No way. But did they get the juices and the interest flowing for prints as well as paintings? Well, just maybe. Such enormous amounts at the top and the added attention is likely to lift all boats at least a little.

Born Frederick Parrish in Philadelphia in 1870, the artist chose instead to be known by his paternal grandmother’s maiden name. His father Stephen Parrish was also an artist and encouraged his son. Maxfield Parrish began making money from his art in the 1890s, beginning with program covers and posters for college events, then advertising for magazines. His first major commission came in 1894 with the Old King Cole mural in the Mask and Wig Club at the University of Pennsylvania, and his first book illustrations were for Mother Goose in Prose published in 1897. The next year he began building The Oaks in Plainfield, N.H., which would be the family home and his studio until he died in 1966 at 95.

Michelle Ferretta of San Leandro, Calif., has been collecting and selling Maxfield Parrish items for more than 30 years, primarily books and prints and some early posters, where the bulk of collectors reside. Occasionally she sells an original painting. The last one, A Christmas Toast with a self-portrait of the artist lifting his champagne glass, 10 by 14in circa 1910, sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2006 for $130,000.

The famed Daybreak print, released in 1923, came in three sizes, said Ferretta. The smallest at 6 by 10in sells for $75, while the largest at 18 by 30in can sell for $700 with top color. “If it’s faded, it shouldn’t sell for $200 — a lot go for nothing.” That’s the biggest buyer beware, she said, people are constantly buying faded prints. And she values the print itself rather than what surrounds it. “It doesn’t matter what the frame is. People love the frame it’s in, but wind up with a poorly faded or damaged print.” She also cautions that some sellers are taking new prints, putting them in old frames and adding old paper to the back. “It’s very tough, sad. Somebody pays too much on eBay and finds out later it’s bogus.” Buy from a reputable dealer, she urges.

Edison Mazda advertising calendars for General Electric, published from 1918 through 1934, are in the top-tier of desirable Parrish items. “Some customers are trying to get the whole series,” said Ferretta, which included 17 in the small size, 15 in the large, and they generally range from $700 to $10,000 in top condition. The hardest to get, she said, is the 1919 small Spirit of the Night, worth about $15,000 if pristine. Although some in the series are found complete with calendar pad, many original owners cut the calendars off the bottom when the year was over and framed the image. When the Edison Mazda relationship had run its course, Parrish, now in his 60s, began illustrating calendars for Brown and Bigelow in his choice of subject this time —landscapes. Those are worth less. Rare items are posters from near the turn of the century, said Ferretta, which can bring $3,500 to $4,000. The ultra-rare Toyland poster has brought more than $20,000.

Although there are many books on Parrish’s life and work, the most referenced is Maxfield Parrish by Coy Ludwig, 1973, Watson-Guptill, and Schiffer publishers. He was given access to Parrish’s extensive papers and records. It’s organized by type of work — advertising, posters, book and magazine illustrations, prints, murals and paintings, rather than chronologically, and meticulously catalogs the use of images, tying them to a numbering system started by the artist in 1910 and expanded by Ludwig. Ludwig’s book also includes an essay by Parrish’s son, Maxfield Parrish Jr., explaining the laborious multi-layered glazing technique used by his father to obtain the luminescent quality of his paintings.

In 2003, Jim and Connie Williams bought The Parrish House, in Denver, a 20-year-old gallery, from Dr. John G. Stuart, author of The Young Maxfield Parrish and The Art of Maxfield Parrish, and producer of a CD-ROM containing more than 900 Parrish illustrations. “It’s important to me to have some lower-end things, like bookplates,” said Connie Williams, “so people can start collecting and don’t have to mortgage the house.” Her inventory ranges from $35 for bookplates to $950 for “a perfect large Daybreak.” Williams will be loaning some of her personal collection of Parrish prints for an exhibition titled Fantasies and Fairy-Tales, Maxfield Parrish and the Art of the Print, organized by the Trust for Museum Exhibitions, D.C., opening at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento May 2009, and traveling to several other venues through January 2011.

Original works of major American illustrators can be viewed at the National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, R.I., founded in 1998 by Laurence S. Cutler and his wife Judy Goffman Cutler to house their extensive collection from the “Golden Age of American Illustration,” definied as 1895-1945. Judy Cutler is also founder and executive director of the American Illustrators Gallery, New York City, offering original works since 1965. At any time 225 to 250 works are hanging out of more than 2,500 works in the collection, said Laurence Cutler, and they have “by far the largest collection of Parrish.” How does he rank Parrish with other great American illustrators in terms of talent? Three come in dead even, he said, Parrish, Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth. But Parrish trails Rockwell in the popularity contest.

Resources:

Maxfield Parrish Collectibles, Michelle Ferretta, San Leandro, Calif.,

(510) 522-1823.

The Parrish House, Denver,

www.parrish-house.com,

(303) 722-6036.

The National Museum of American Illustration, www.americanillustration.org, (401) 851-8949.

Trust for Museum Exhibits, www.tme.org, Washington, D.C., (202) 745-2566