Maxfield Parrish's First Sold Work to be Offered by Heritage!

Dallas, Texas: Heritage Galleries and Auctioneers (HGA) will offer Clowns, believed to be the first work sold by the important painter and illustrator Maxfield Parrish, in their upcoming Fine Arts auction, to be held May 11, 2005, in their Dallas, Texas headquarters.

"Maxfield Parrish spent many of his formative years in Philadelphia including two years at Haverford College and art classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he studied with Howard Pyle," said Lucas Rigby, Consigment Director for HGA. "From there, Parrish launched his career as an illustrator accepting various local commissions and his first national magazine cover for Harper's Bazaar in 1895."

"During this early phase of his career," Rigby continued, "he completed many commissions for posters and programs from local colleges including the Mask and Wig Club of the University of Pennsylvania, a regular client of Parrish and possible source for this work. His work from this period is typified by humorous caricatures of fanciful people often densely grouped in busy compositions. Jesters and clowns were popular subjects."

Rigby added, "Clowns was originally sold to Philadelphia architect Walter Cope who was a great fan of things medieval and who designed many gothic style buildings including Blair Hall at Princeton and several buildings at Bryn Mawr College. It is possible that Parrish and Cope were acquainted from Parrish's architecture studies at Haverford. In fact, the back of the frame features a handwritten note inscribed 'This painting is by Maxfield Parrish. It was bought by Walter Cope when MP was a student in Philadelphia and is reputed to be the first work that MP sold.'"

This piece carries a pre-auction estimate of $20,000 - $30,000.

For more information about Heritage's auctions, and a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HeritageGalleries.com.

Prospective consignors and sellers of top-end illustration and fine art are invited to call Lucas Rigby at 1-800-872-6467, ext. 483 or Ed Jaster at 1-800-872-6467, ext. 288 to discuss their material. Or visit HeritageComics.com and click on the "consign" tab. Or simply email Lucas Rigby at LucasR@HeritageGalleries.com or Ed Jaster at EdJ@HeritageComics.com.

To order the next three sale catalogs, visit Heritage's website to pay by credit card, or send a check or money order payable to Heritage Galleries in the amount of $100 (a fraction of Heritage's actual cost-to-produce the catalogs) to: Nicole Jewell, c/o Heritage Galleries, 3500 Maple Avenue, 17th Floor, Dallas, TX 75219.