Maxfield Parrish illustration from "Poems of Childhood" (1904): beautifully framed antique

Coy Ludwig reported in his 1973 illustrated biography of MP that “Poems of Childhood was the first book in which Maxfield Parrish’s paintings were reproduced in full color. As with prior illustrations, he allowed the author’s text only to suggest the subject, and from that point the interpretation was his. This led Edward Bok, the Editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal, to remark that there was more of Parrish than of Field in some of the illustration, but that the artist should not be blamed for that. It was, in fact, a sign of Parrish’s artistic integrity and inventiveness that he did not take the ore conventional, easier approach toward the interpretation of the texts that he was commissioned to illustrate. 

The Dinkey-Bird, by far the most familiar of the illustrations in the Poems of Childhood, was conceived by Parrish as a composition to show “the spirit of the swing, just the catch in the turn of the motion.” The nude figure of a youth, a symbol of freedom and innocence, heightens thesense of abandon and joy that seems always to be a part of swinging. In expressing the spirit of the swing, Parrish also captured the spirit of the poem.” [Maxfield Parrish. Watson-Guptill Publications. 31.]