Frederick Maxfield Parrish was born into a Philadelphia Quaker family.  His father, Stephen Parrish, was a successful landscape painter and etcher.Initially interested in architecture, Maxfield Parrish studied in France, England; at Haverford College; at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; and at Drexel Institute.

Parrish contracted tuberculosis in 1900 and began to focus more on oil painting than illustration. The method he used was to apply many layers of thin oil, alternating with varnish, over stretched paper. Maxfield’s patrons included Vanderbilt, Whitney, Astor, Du Pont and Hearst.  Parrish spent time in Arizona to convalesce from Tuberculosis and you can see the Arizona landscape influence on  his later work.

In 1905, Parrish met Susan Lewin, a 16-year old girl who he hired to help with their children. Lydia and Maxfield had waited to begin their family until the artist was cured. She was in her early thirties when her first child Dillwyn was born, and was close to forty when Jean, their final child, was born. Susan Lewin’s image appears often in paintings from 1905 through the 1920s. Over time, she became Parrish’s assistant, model for his paintings, and eventually allegedly his lover.

“The Musician” (oil on canvas board 12 x 9) sold for $2,000 in June 2009 on ebay with 13 bids.