Dreaming

That enormous tree, with its bark rendered in cool blues and its roots spreading like melted wax over the rocks, is the real subject here. Maxfield Parrish painted "Dreaming" in 1928 for the Edison Mazda lamp calendar, a series General Electric commissioned from him for over a decade to sell light bulbs. Millions of Americans saw these images hanging in kitchens and garages, which made Parrish one of the most widely reproduced artists of his era, arguably more familiar to ordinary households than any museum painter of the time. The seated figure, small against the trunk, is thought to be modeled on Kitty Owen, granddaughter of politician William Jennings Bryan, who posed for Parrish during these years.

The glow comes from a technique Parrish worked out himself. He built his pictures in thin layers of pure color separated by coats of varnish over a brilliant white ground, so light passes through the paint and bounces back, the way it does through stained glass. He also worked from photographs and cut paper stencils rather than sketching freehand, which explains the crisp, almost cut out edges of every leaf. He grew tired of this kind of picture soon after, announcing in 1931 that he was done with what he called "girls on rocks" and turning to pure landscape for the rest of his long career.