Maxfield Parrish died sixty years ago on March 30, 1966. I’d kind of forgotten that fact with various other things going on. However, his birthday falls on July 25 and my Facebook friend, Susan Alpaugh. reminded me of that. Recent events have pointed out to me even more strongly that an awareness of Parrish’s work is important.

Frederick Maxfield Parrish was born in 1870, the son of a talented painter. A Pennsylvanian--like many other culturally significant American creators from that period, such as Zane Grey and A. Merritt--Parrish was taken on a tour of Europe by his parents as a teenager. He attended several art and architectural schools before studying under Howard Pyle at Drexel University, thereby placing him within the 'Brandywine School' lineage. Maxfield would make the Brandywine Valley his lifelong home. The distance from Chadds Ford in Delaware to the Frazetta Museum in the Poconos is just over one hundred miles. Something in the air...

The feeling one gets from much of Parrish's most iconic work is that of 'hyper-reality' and 'enchantment'. His intensely vibrant paintings are like photos taken in high definition in a dimension slightly more magical than ours. Myself, I look for that quality in fantasy films. I think that John Boorman--and his cinematographer, Alex Thomson--absolutely nailed that particular quality in Excalibur.

A film--despite a far bigger budget--that appears to have completely failed in that regard is the current 'Odyssey' movie by Christopher Nolan. Nolan's palette seems to be varying shades of drab, desolate and bleak. Where are the cerulean and/or wine-dark waters of the Mediterranean? Where are the rosy-fingered dawns and dryad-haunted groves of Hellas?

Maxfield had no problem seeing all of that and painting it. One of his most iconic works is of Circe:

True to Homer, but a far cry from the raddled harridan in Nolan's IMAX extravaganza.

Parrish’s work has inspired artists as diverse as Norman Rockwell and Don Maitz.

Below, you can find a gallery of Maxfield Parrish's paintings. He was certainly no blood-and-thunder artist...but he did see the enchantment in the world around him and strove to put that to canvas. The world is a richer place for it.

“Princess Parizade Bringing Home the Singing Tree” from Arabian Nights (1906).

“Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth” (1908).

“Jason and His Teacher, Centaur—Chiron”, (1909).