Hunt Farm (Daybreak)

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, lower right: Maxfield Parrish / 1948; on reverse: "Hunt Farm" / Maxfield Parrish / 1948

Label

Through his illustrations for books, magazines, calendars, and greeting cards, Maxfield Parrish became perhaps the most familiar and popular American artist of the early 20th century. What was it about his readily recognized style that appealed to so many viewers? Perhaps it was because he often chose attractive, fanciful subjects. But it was also the way he rendered his compositions—even his pure landscapes— that gave them a storybook feel. In Hunt Farm, for example, which was based on a site that Parrish knew in Windsor, Vermont, the pristine buildings, theatrical lighting, and puffy, cotton-candy clouds lend a dreamlike quality to the scene.

Parrish achieved his precise forms and glowing surfaces through a laborious process. He would often start by building models of the buildings and landscapes he wanted to paint, which he would then light as desired. With photographs of his models in hand as references, he began each work with an underpainting rendered with blue, brown, or gray washes on a white, reflective ground. Rather than mixing his colors, he applied multiple layers of different-colored transparent glazes, drying each layer before adding the next. This meticulous, time consuming technique yielded the clear, luminous colors that became a hallmark of his work.

From the 2019 exhibition American Art, Colonial to Modern, curated by Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art

Course History

GEOG 7.13, New England’s People and their Landscapes, Past and Present, Abigail Neely, Spring 2015

Exhibition History

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

American Art, Colonial to Modern, Israel Sack Gallery and Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-September 12, 2021.

American Paintings from the Dartmouth Collection, 1910-1960, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 17-April 12, 1998.

American Viewpoints: Painting and Sculpture from the Hood Museum of Art, Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, California, May 5-August 31, 2003.

Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, March 17, 2016-June 30, 2018.

Director's Choice, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 10-July 10, 1966.

Exile from Eden, Graham Gund Gallery of Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, March 26-July 22, 2012.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 13, 2002-April 21, 2003.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 2, 2009-November 28. 2010.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 22-October 30, 1995.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 1, 2003-February 8, 2006.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 15, 2006-February 25, 2007.

Luigi Lucioni: Modern Light, Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont, June 25-October 16, 2022.

Maxfield Parrish Exhibition, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, April 2-May 1, 1964.

Maxfield Parrish Exhibition, Gallery of Modern Art, New York, New York, June 2-July 26, 1964.

Maxfield Parrish Exhibition, George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, January 15-March 15, 1966.

Maxfield Parrish Exhibition, The Emily Lowe Art Center, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, April 1-May 1, 1966.

Maxfield Parrish Museum, Windsor, Vermont, September 15-December 15, 1980.

Maxfield Parrish,Taylor Gallery, Kimball Union Academy, Meridan, New Hampshire, September 23-26, 1994.

Maxfield Parrish: 1870-1966, The American Federation of Arts, New York, New York; Museum of American Art of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pennsylvania, June 19-September 26, 1999; Currier Gallery of American Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, November 4, 1999-January 15, 2000; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, New York, February 18-April 30, 2000; The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, May 26-August 6, 2000.

Maxfield Parrish: The Art and Light of Illusion, New York State Historical Association / Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 23-September 7, 2015.

Maxfield Parrish: The Power of the Print, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire; October 9, 2015-January 10, 2016.

New Hampshire Illustrators, New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, New Hampshire, April 3-October 15, 1988.

Painting Summer in New England, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, April 22-September 4, 2006.

The Power of Place, Cornish Colony Museum, Windsor, Vermont, May 24-October 26, 2008.

Publication History

Yount, Sylvia, " Maxfield Parrish: 1870-1966 " , New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999, 160 pp., ill. p. 122.

Alma Gilbert, Maxfield Parrish: The Landscapes, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1998, ill.p. 95

Timeless Treasures, Hartford: The Hartford Courant, a Direct Mail piece, 1993, featured image

Print/Poster size reproduced by Shorewood Fine Art Reproductions, Inc., Sandy Hook, Connecticut

Peter B. Prunkl, Parrish in Museums, Hickory, N.C., 1991, 5 page paper listing Parrish holdings; Hunt Farm listed p. 5

Monadnock Music, Peterborough, New Hampshire, Monadnock Music 2000 Calendar, Concord, New Hampshire; Wallace Press/ Reprographics, 1999, cover illustration.

Alma Gilbert, Maxfield Parrish The Master Works, third edition, Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press, 2001 (also included in first and second editions, 1992 and 1995), ill. fig. 8.11 p. 196.

Patricia Harris, Art of the State of New Hampshire, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000, 96 p., ill.

Jeff Binder, New Hampshire, Compass American Guides, 1st edition, New York, NY: Fodor's Travel Publications / Random House, Inc., 2002, 300 pp., ill. p. 206.

American Viewpoints (brochure for exhibition), San Diego, California: Timken Museum of Art, May 9-August 31, 2003, 8 pp., cover (cropped) and inside, checklist no. 14.

Trevor Fairbrother, Painting Summer in New England, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2006, p. 21 and 23, ill. p. 23.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 111, no. 85.

Cornish Colony Museum Staff and guest essayists, The Power of Place: Paintings that Define the American Image (Exhibition Catalogue), Windsor, Vermont: Cornish Colony Museum, 2008, 23 pp., color ill. cover and p. 22.

Smantha Cataldo, Maxfield Parrish: The Power of the Print (brochure), Manchester, New Hampshire: Currier Museum of Art, 2015, p. 9 (not numbered).

Thomas Denenberg, "Stillness, Light, and Magic", in Luigi Lucioni: Modern Light, ed. Katie Wood Kirchhoff, Shelburne, VT and New York: Shelburne Museum and Rizzoli Electa, 2022, pp. 21-37, ill. p. 31, fig. 10.

Provenance

The artist; given to present collection, 1950.

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