He was one of the most popular illustrators of his day and his work remains immediately recognizable more than forty years after his death. Their rich, deep hues and fantastic imagery appeal to both children and adults.

Now Maxfield Parrish is being honored with a major retrospective at the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island. "Maxfield Parrish: The Retrospective" brings together works from his seventy-year career as an illustrator, from early illustrations of Mother Goose and Grimm's fairy tales to his later advertising images.

One good example is this painting titled "The Dinky Bird" from 1904, seen here in this image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. It illustrated the Eugene Field poem of the same title in Field's book "Poems of Childhood" and captures the joy, innocence and make-believe setting of that poem: "the land of Wonder-Wander, whither children love to go." This major exhibition promises to be a land of Wonder-Wander itself.

"Maxfield Parrish: The Retrospective" runs until September 2.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, North America, United States