Parrish, (Frederick) Maxfield

(born July 25, 1870, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died March 10, 1966, Plainfield, N.H.) U.S. illustrator and painter. Trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Drexel Institute of Art, he was the highest-paid commercial artist and muralist in the U.S. by the 1920s. He is best known for his depictions of fantasy landscapes populated by attractive young women. He used meticulously defined outlines and intricately detailed natural backgrounds; his unusual colours, especially the luminous “Parrish blue,” give his pictures a dreamlike quality. Though his popularity declined in the late 1930s, appreciation of his work revived in the 1960s and '70s.

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