Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Artist: Maxfield Parrish (American, 1870–1966)
Date: 1912
Medium: Oil on canvas mounted on panel
Collection: Private American collection
Description
The magic and spirit embodied in Sleeping Beauty in the Wood is the result of Parrish's unique and intricate approach to painting. He possessed a calm and patient disposition that was perfectly suited to the arduous and time-consuming work his pictures demanded. He began with a white base that served to illuminate the image from the first layer up through to the last. Over this pigment was layered with varnish over and over to heighten the vibrancy of the colors and create a smooth, enamel-like surface. Parrish felt strongly about the purity of color and the resulting effect it made on the picture as a whole. In an unknown article, the artist expresses his aims concerning color, "Probably that which has a greater hold on me than any other quality is color. I feel it is a language but little understood; much less so than it used to be. To be a great colorist that is my modest ambition. I hope someday to express the child's attitude towards nature and things; for that is the purest and most unconscious." (Maxfield Parrish, Maxfield Parrish Papers, Hanover, New Hampshire) Employing his masterful use of glazes, the end result of Sleeping Beauty in the Wood is Parrish's keen ability to convey surface textures, most clearly demonstrated in the delicately rendered faces, the crispness of the marble stairs, the surface of the tree bark, the lush flowers and greenery and the voluminous folds of the dresses.
















