Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)
La Palazzina (Villa Gori), Siena, 1903
Illustration for Italian Villas and Their Gardens by Edith Wharton (NY: The Century Co., 1904)
Oil on board
Society of Illustrators, Purchase Fund, 089.005
In 1902, Century magazine asked Edith Wharton (1862-1937) to write a series of articles about Italian villas and their gardens. To that end, Wharton visited some fifty villas traveling around Rome, Florence, Siena, Genoa, in Lombardy and the Veneto. Many were closed to the public. Maxfield Parrish was commissioned to create 26 color illustrations to accompany the articles; subsequently the publisher turned the work into a popular book that cost $6 in 1904. This was one of the first of Parrish’s illustrated books to be published in color. (more…)
