The Chefs at the Table: Heading for The Knave of Hearts
Maxfield Parrish is widely considered one of America’s greatest illustrators, having successfully published a wide variety of work during his illustrious career, including magazine illustrations, commercial advertisements, calendar images, murals for public spaces and children’s book illustrations. Perhaps best known for the latter category, Parrish’s most celebrated book illustrations are those he completed for Louise Saunders' The Knave of Hearts of 1925.
The degree to which Parrish reveled in The Knave of Hearts commission is clearly evident in his charming heading illustration The Chefs at the Table. Here, the painter has rendered the amusing theme with characteristic bold design and rich color. Partially as a result of the story’s initial conception as a play, in combination with the target audience being children, Parrish executed each vignette for the illustrated book in a theatrical manner, as if its characters were actors upon a stage. In the case of the present work, Parrish’s chefs were quite literally puppets being controlled by a stage manager in the story. The characters are the first that readers encounter as the manager literally pulls back the curtain on the forthcoming tale, and their exaggerated postures clearly speak to their role as marionettes on a miniature stage.
The amusing subject, complex design and gem-like surface of Chefs at the Table combine to create an incredibly charming and successful work of art that is quintessentially Parrish. For these reasons, works from Parrish’s celebrated Knave of Hearts series have transcended time, remaining as poignant and enjoyable for today’s audiences, as they did many years ago, and as they surely will for generations to come.
