Lot Essay
The present work initially illustrated the December 2, 1920 cover of Life magazine. According to Coy Ludwig, "A Merry Christmas...was based on an earlier design for a Harper's Weekly cover or poster made in 1898...Rather than a single comic figure with a tureen, as in the Harper's Weekly design, there were now three, marching in studied rhythm across the page. When the painting arrived at the Life Art Department, the excited art director could not wait until the next day to show it to his boss, so that evening he carried it to [Life's president, Charles Dana] Gibson's house, where they and several dinner guests spent the evening enjoying the rich colors of the painting placed on a stand before them." (C. Ludwig, Maxfield Parrish, New York, 1973, p. 98)
The painting was given by Parrish to Louis Evan and Ellen Biddle Shipman, fellow members of the Cornish Art Colony, and is inscribed to them on the reverse. Louis was a playwright and author, who wrote the 1905 Masque of the Golden Bowl, a production in which both Parrish and his wife Ellen performed. The work was likely a Christmas gift from the artist to these close friend and collaborators, and it has descended in their family until the present day.
The painting was given by Parrish to Louis Evan and Ellen Biddle Shipman, fellow members of the Cornish Art Colony, and is inscribed to them on the reverse. Louis was a playwright and author, who wrote the 1905 Masque of the Golden Bowl, a production in which both Parrish and his wife Ellen performed. The work was likely a Christmas gift from the artist to these close friend and collaborators, and it has descended in their family until the present day.