Thursday, December 6, 2018

Barbara Shermund: Art Appreciation

Cartoonist Barbara Shermund's fashionable young ladies demonstrate a keen appreciation of—let's call it art—in a vintage 1927 New Yorker cartoon. The original drawing, from Vermont dealers Carlson & Stevenson, demonstrates her concern for textural detail and exhibits a surprisingly generous use of correction fluid, more prominent now that the paper has faded.

It is somewhat jarring to see how this cartoon was laid out in the magazine, spanning the inside columns across two facing pages. It must have been thought this central placement at the upper part of the page would provide balance to the extra-long drawing by Helen E. Hokinson across the bottom with its odd segmented title. This placement does a disservice to the Shermund drawing, disrupting its careful interior spacing. 
"Go right on working—we won't mind!"
Barbara Shermund
Original art
The New Yorker, June 4, 1927, pages 22-23
Framed and matted, 27.5 inches high by 35 inches wide



Cartoons by Barbara Shermund and Helen E. Hokinson


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