id: 119922 accession number: 1940.723 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.723 updated: 2021-07-15 09:00:07.195000 Alarums and Excursions, 1899. Maxfield Parrish (American, 1870-1966). Brush and black and gray wash, with white gouache, over graphite, framing lines in pen and black ink; sheet: 37.5 x 24.8 cm (14 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.); image: 27.9 x 17.7 cm (11 x 6 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of James Parmelee 1940.723 title: Alarums and Excursions title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1899 creation date earliest: 1899 creation date latest: 1899 current location: creditline: Bequest of James Parmelee copyright: --- culture: America, 19th century technique: brush and black and gray wash, with white gouache, over graphite, framing lines in pen and black ink department: Drawings collection: DR - American 19th Century type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Maxfield Parrish (American, 1870-1966) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 37.5 x 24.8 cm (14 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.); Image: 27.9 x 17.7 cm (11 x 6 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: beige wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: signed in image, lower right, in black watercolor: M . P; lower left, by artist, across bottom margin, in graphite: "Alarums and Excursions." . . . Once again were damsels rescued, dragons / disembowelled, and giants . . . etc.; verso, by artist, in top half: no. 225 [inside a box] / Maxfield Parrish. / "The Oaks" / Windsor: Vermont. / June of 1899.; on fragment of old mount, now removed, in brown ink: Original pen + ink drawing by Maxfield Parrish. / Being one of the illustrations of "The Golden Age" / by Kenneth Grahame (John Lane Co. 1899); on fragment of old mount, now removed: B[ought?] of Frd'k Keppel Co. / 1899-$50- translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe opening date: 1974-05-31T04:00:00 Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe. Brandywine River Museum of Art (organizer) (May 31-September 2, 1974). title: America Draws opening date: 1984-12-28T05:00:00 America Draws. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1984-March 17, 1985). title: American Drawings from the Permanent Collection opening date: 1998-04-19T00:00:00 American Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 19-July 12, 1998). title: Maxfield Parrish: 1870-1966 opening date: 1999-06-19T00:00:00 Maxfield Parrish: 1870-1966. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Museum of American Art (June 19-September 26, 1999). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Exhibition of Maxfield Parrish’s drawings for book commissions, including The Golden Age, held at Keppel Gallery, New York, NY (1899). --- PROVENANCE (Frederick Keppel & Co., New York, NY.) date: 1899-? footnotes: citations: James C. [1855-1931] and Alice W. [1862-1940] Parmelee, Cleveland, OH, bequest to The Cleveland Museum of Art. date: ?-1940 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH. date: 1940- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Parrish employs a technique called sgraffito (“to scratch”) on the serpent’s tongue, producing its mottled texture by scraping away the upper layer of paper. digital description: Alarums and Excursions is one of nineteen illustrations the young Maxfield Parrish created for Kenneth Grahame’s The Golden Age, a children’s book published in 1899. In the chapter Alarums accompanies, the narrator persuades a friend to join him in a make-believe of Arthurian legends. Parrish depicted one of the boys in the midst of their playful fantasy, as the he prepares to strike an enormous, coiled serpent. Parrish rendered the scene in crisp detail, using flat, delicate washes of monochrome ink, strong linear contours, and scintillating pricks of white gouache on the boy’s chainmail. Parrish’s designs found mainstream success in a variety of print media, making him one of the best-known illustrators of the twentieth century. wall description: One of the most popular illustrators of all time, Maxfield Parrish produced posters and illustrations that were circulated in the millions. His designs combine meticulous realism with a strange sense of whimsy and fantasy. In June 1899, he made this fanciful sheet to illustrate a children's book, Kenneth Grahame's The Golden Age. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Grahame, Kenneth. The Golden Age. John Lane Co.: London & New York [printed], 1899. page number: Reproduced: opp. p. 42 and in 1904 edition. url: Ludwig, Coy L.. “From Parlor Print to Museum: The Art of Maxfield Parrish.” Art Journal 25, no. 2 (Winter 1965-1966): 143-146. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 143-144, fig 2. url: Ludwig, Coy L., Diane Casella Hines, Robert Fillie, and James Craig. Maxfield Parrish. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1973. page number: Mentioned: pp. 28-29, 206; Reproduced: p. 32, fig. 20. url: Brandywine River Museum, and Maxfield Parrish. Maxfield Parrish, Master of Make-Believe: An Exhibition, June 1 Through September 2, 1974. 1974. page number: Reproduced: pp. 40-41, no. 105 url: Bharucha, Fershid and Rosalie Gomes. Black & White: Being the Early Illustrations of Maxfield Parrish. New York, NY: Thumbtack Books, 1982. page number: Reproduced: p. 85 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 138 url: Yount, Sylvia, Mark Bockrath, Serena Rattazzi, Daniel Rosenfeld, and Maxfield Parrish. Maxfield Parrish, 1870-1966. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1999. page number: Mentioned: p. 54, Reproduced: p. 56 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 92, p. 5, pp. 220-221; p. 296 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.723/1940.723_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.723/1940.723_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.723/1940.723_full.tif