Jessie Willcox Smith (American, 1863-1935). May I Have the Pleasure, Good Housekeeping cover, November 1926. Watercolor,...

Description

Jessie Willcox Smith (American, 1863-1935)
May I Have the Pleasure, Good Housekeeping cover, November 1926
Watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper laid on board
22 x 15-3/8 inches (55.9 x 39.1 cm) (sheet)
Signed lower right: Jessie Willcox Smith
Titled on the reverse: May I Have the Pleasure

PROVENANCE:
Kendra Krienke, New York;
Private collection, New York, acquired from the above, 2002;
By descent to the present owner.

As Jessie Willcox Smith biographer S. Michael Schnessel has aptly observed, "Jessie Willcox Smith was the creator of the ideal child. She pictured a child that was without equal in reality--innocent, unblemished, never naughty, always perfect. Smith's touching, sensitive portraits of children at play won her the hearts of millions of Americans."

Smith was the predominant cover artist for Good Housekeeping during the magazine's golden period. Her charming covers were a major factor in the magazine's astounding success. Sales exceeded one million copies in the mid-1920s, and Good Housekeeping became the most profitable magazine in the Hearst Corporation's empire. The magazine was three-times more profitable than Hearst's other eight magazines combined in this era.


More information about Jessie Willcox Smith. See also: Smith, Jessie Willcox Artist.



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