Interlude: Two Lute Players

Interlude; Two Lute Players

Interlude: Two Lute Players by Maxfield  Parrish

by Kitty Jospé

Interlude is one of the most popular works by Maxfield Parrish, an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the twentieth century.  He is known for his distinctive saturated hues (without relying on computer enhancements) and idealized neo-classical imagery.  He lived in the time of American Renaissance, where symmetry and harmony framed dreamy nostalgia about ancient beauty and myth, with an eye for social betterment.  Parrish captured a rhetoric of universality and was indeed “the common man’s Rembrandt.” He was a master at creating a fantasy world where medieval dragons and castles can live simultaneously with ancient Greek mythology, in a balanced Italian landscape.  He gives us art that is not snobbish or intellectual,  although the outer proportions and internal divisions of Parrish's compositions were carefully calculated in accordance with geometric principles such as root rectangles and the golden ratio.

His popular illustrations in children’s books, ladies’ journals, advertisements and New York clubs made his work part of the fabric of the collective soul of America in post World War I.    One out of four American families owned a copy of a Parrish lithograph.

His large work, Interlude: Two Lute Players was originally conceived for the Eastman Theatre to celebrate the collaboration of music and dance to accompany the showing of films, six days a week.   A photographic reproduction now hangs in the theatre, but the painting hangs in the Memorial Art Gallery to better protect it.

George Eastman wanted a picture that was strong, forceful and simple.  He believed that music was the international language of emotions, and although he called himself a “musical moron,” he wanted to promote music as a fruitful way to spend leisure time and to make music a factor in a happy community life.  Eastman, knowing of the popularity of Maxfield Parrish, commissioned him to create the fantasy land with idealized figures. Apparently dancers would go up to the foyer in the balcony to genuflect in front of it before performing!  The title Interlude refers not only to music, but a short entertainment between parts of a longer play or composition.  The painting has been mass-produced in both horizontal and vertical formats.

One of the trademarks of Parrish is his careful composition.  He was meticulous in his preparation of the final pieces, using photographs of models and mock landscapes, with every detail of line, color, and placement arranged with great thought.  The viewer will see that his technical skill is accurate to the point of being photographic. 

The iconic rocks, which mark Parrish lithographs in the beginning of the 20^th century, were inspired from his visit to  the West where he fell in love with the bold colors and forms under the immense expanse of sky.  They speak to the

vigorous life demonstrated by Teddy Roosevelt, and the opening of knowledge of a land very different from the

wooded landscapes and busy cities of the East.  It is said Parrish was inspired by Titian, as well as the far west in his theatrical sense of color.

Indeed, his trademark cobalt blue was coined Parrish Blue by F. Scott Fitzgerald.   He achieved the results by means of a technique called “glazing,” where bright layers of oil color separated by varnish are applied alternately over a base rendering. (Parrish usually applied a blue and white monochromatic underpainting).  He would build up the depth in his paintings by photographing, enlarging, projecting and tracing half- or full-size objects or figures. Parrish then cut out and placed the images on his canvas, covering them with thick, but clear, layers of glaze. The result is realism of elegiac vivacity. His work achieves a unique three-dimensional appearance.

Interlude shows an intimate trio of women at rest with two lutes with a fanciful cliff backdrop.  The sunlit landscape seeps through the heart-shaped detail in the wide neck of one lute, shimmering in rich coral and peach colors of the approaching evening.  The lute, as the most intimate of instruments, has been played; one lute player cradles it with a caressing touch in her arms, the rock behind seeming to form a pair of angel wings.

 The right-hand lute echoes the purity of wings in between the intimate look of the player and non-player under downcast eyes and understanding smiles.  A natural cloak in the waterfall of rock draws the eye to the soft drape of the costumes of these muses. Funneling leaves spill like copper coins out of sky, and combine with the shimmer of spotlights of peach to  dapple skin and rock, enlivening what seems inanimate.

Parrish disavowed any personal romance in his painting--“It doesn’t mean an earthly thing.” Whatever we make of his work, he sums up Interlude this way: “The endeavor is to present a painting which will give pleasure without tiring the intellect – something beautiful to look upon.  A good place to be in.  Nothing more.”

Parrish was part of no traditional movement or school, and developed an original and individual style. His work has been highly influential and he was commemorated along with Rockwell Kent, Norman Rockwell, Frederic Remington and others in a U.S. Post Office commemorative stamp series honoring American illustrators.  The bold colors and designs employed by Parrish still beguile us today and his art still exerts an influence on  contemporary CD design, book jackets and movies.