The 2025 Winter Exhibition, The Ethereal Worlds of Maxfield Parrish, from the National Museum of American Illustration, on view January 21st through April 20th, features 25 original works of art by Maxfield Parrish illustrating his genius for evoking a dreamlike world between reality and reverie. Parrish’s work is often associated with the Golden Age of Illustration and falls both within the realms of Romanticism and Fantasy, with some influence from the Aesthetic Movement. Not strictly confined to any single movement, his work is a blend of idealized realism, with lush landscapes and figures that evoke both a romantic and fantastical sense of beauty. His mastery of ethereal colors, especially the famous “Parrish Blue,” were essential in conveying his dreamlike vision.

While Parrish’s style includes mythological and allegorical themes, straddling the line between fine art and illustration, his work is both coveted by art collectors and is nearly ubiquitous as magazine covers, books, calendars, and souvenirs of all kinds, making his distinct vision widely accessible and beloved.

Maxfield Parrish was born Frederick Parrish on July 25, 1870, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Stephen Parrish, an acclaimed etcher/painter within the “American Etching Revival,” grew up in a Quaker family who condemned art as a sinful practice, forcing him to practice sketching in secret. In contrast to his own restrictive upbringing, Stephen actively encouraged his son Maxfield to pursue his artistic talents. In later years, the father-son duo would go on to share a seaside art studio together. Maxfield studied architecture at Haverford College, but later shifted to studio art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Drexel Institute of Art. At the Drexel Institute, Parrish fell in love with painting instructor and author, Lydia Austin, marrying her in 1895 following a relatively brief courtship.

Parrish’s work appears throughout a broad range of media readily available to the general public. By 1925, one out of every four households in America possessed reproductions of his art in some form. During his long career, he produced about 900 works for prominent book/magazine covers, illustrations for children’s books, stage sets, stationery, and murals. His art combined a whimsical elegance and a vibrant color palette to create compositions of otherworldly landscapes, idealized figures, and fairytales. His most notable pieces were influenced by his travels. Suffering from typhoid fever as a young adult, doctors recommended that he travel as a method of recovery. Parrish spent much of time in upstate New York, Arizona, and Italy, producing illustrations and garnering inspiration from his ever-changing environments. After enjoying a very successful and long career, Parrish passed away in 1966 amidst a revitalization of interest in his work.

The exhibition is an immersion in Parrish’s most evocative works, an invitation to pause, to reflect, and be drawn into a world where beauty reigns supreme.

(The previously announced exhibition, Oh Florida!  Florida Landscapes from the Harn Museum’s Vickers Collection, has been rescheduled for winter 2026.)

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Jeanne H. Olofson 

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