Attempted Bloggery: The Art of the Redraw: Sunflower Slow Drag by Whitney Darrow, Jr.

Friday, July 3, 2020

The Art of the Redraw: Sunflower Slow Drag by Whitney Darrow, Jr.

"And now for an encore, Scott Joplin's 'Sunflower Slow Drag'."
Whitney Darrow, Jr.
Redraw
The New Yorker, September 30, 1974, page 29
Published as "And now, for an encore, Scott Joplin's 'Sunflower Slow Drag.'"

Longtime contributor David from Manhattan writes with an interesting observation about an original cartoon by Whitney Darrow, Jr., currently listed on eBay:

Up on eBay is a nice Whitney Darrow cartoon: "And now for an encore, Scott Joplin's 'Sunflower Slow Drag'" with an inscription and tiny drawing. The cartoon was published [in The New Yorker of] Sept. 30, '74, but I was surprised to discover that the published version simply isn't as well drawn as the eBay offering. I can't believe Darrow thought the "final" version was his best effort. Is it possible he redrew the whole thing in '79, the date of the inscription? As you know, Darrow was pretty generous with his drawings in books, so I don't think it's completely absurd he would have gone to that trouble, especially if it was someone he knew. Anyway, I put that out there. The seller doesn't know the publication date.

Surely one could dedicate an entire blog to the things eBay sellers don't know. One would think a seller who could tell you that "Sunflower Slow Drag" was published in 1901 could just as easily google the full caption. But perhaps that's asking too much.

Darrow was indeed generous with his souvenir drawings. Even so, this redraw of a New Yorker cartoon in honor of the recipient Robin's birthday is awfully nice. Let's have another look.

Detail

Signature of Whitney Darrow, Jr.

Darrow must have deliberately omitted the comma after now, as published in the New Yorker. This improves the flow of the caption.

Caption

Inscription with drawing

The minuscule drawing is similar to the drawing by Darrow on the Nicholls Gallery poster seen in yesterday's post:

Drawing

Darrow's details remain remarkably clean and crisp:

Whitney Darrow, Jr.
eBay Listing Accessed June 30, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-New-Yorker-Magazine-Cartoonist-Artist-Whitney-Darrow-Original-Art-Signed/124207575874?hash=item1ceb593342:g:vKoAAOSw7Rde1BRN

Whitney Darrow, Jr.
eBay Item Description

[End of eBay Listing]

So now let's compare the published New Yorker cartoon with this redraw found on eBay. Which do you prefer?

Spot drawing by Henry Martin and cartoon by Whitney Darrow, Jr.

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1974-09-30/flipbook/028/

What should we make of this? Actually, it's not at all unheard of for an artist's redraw of a New Yorker cartoon to be more pleasing than the original. Why should that be? For one thing, the published version might have been drawn hastily under pressure of a deadline or the onus of certain editorial demands. Redraws, on the other hand, may be done at leisure for collectors who missed out on the original or for friends. The artist has the opportunity to rethink the work without concerns for the needs of the printer or the editors; the sole purpose is to please the recipient. A redraw which is better-drawn than the original is a worthy consolation prize for the recipient who cannot have the published original. It might also give the artist a chance to prove that he can produce better work without the demands of his editors.

Sunflower Slow Drag (1901)

by Scott Joplin and Scott Hayden

Piano Roll

At the time of posting, the Darrow redraw remains available on eBay.

December 18, 2021 Update: Sold!

Note: This is a topic which I'm hoping to elaborate on in a few posts with the heading The Art of the Redraw. Readers are invited to submit examples of redrawn cartoons that can be said to outdo in some way the published originals.

I've visited this topic before, as it turns out. Follow the aqua links for examples by Frank Modell, Liza Donnelly, and E. H. Shepard. Modell upped his drawing game while Donnelly and Shepard added vibrant color to their redraws.

My gratitude to David from Manhattan for bringing this eBay auction to my attention and doing all the research. This is his thirty-eighth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.