Richard Taylor: The Fish

New Yorker cartoonist Richard Taylor's watercolor The Fish was sold at auction yesterday in Bloomfield. It is signed R.T. rather than R. Taylor, as befits its diminutive proportions. It is a humorous drawing but not a gag cartoon. The specific, unexplained scenario of a man in his pajamas kneeling at an island shore as a giant angry-looking fish swims past suggest this is a humorous illustration meant to accompany some explanatory text, perhaps a story. The man may have hoped to catch some breakfast with his bare hands, and then thought better of it.

The lot includes a completely unrelated print of St. Bartholomew being skinned alive in 69 A.D. It's hard to conceive of the collector who would want both these pieces.

Matte burn is clearly visible around the edges. Art dealer Maynard Walker established his gallery on E. 57th Street in 1935. He should have known about acid-free mattes.

The Fish
Richard Taylor
Original art

The original gallery label is from an unknown date. We do know that Maynard Walker lent a Taylor watercolor to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1941 for its Twentieth International Exhibition of Water Colors, Taylor representing Canada. It seems reasonable to date this label to the 1940s, give or take. The gallery price of $350 seems high, though, especially compared with the current presale estimate of $400 to $600 when adjusted for inflation.

Richard Taylor
Nye & Company listing accessed December 3, 2022

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/richard-taylor-new-yorker-watercolor-291-c-f064ca6915?objectID=175761719&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=9b8bcd2b9aa5eb9bb6d488128bff5176

Richard Taylor
Nye & Company item description

The lot was sold yesterday by Nye & Company for just over half the low estimate.

Note:  The Fish could be a magazine or book illustration, or it could be something else. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has seen this drawing in print.

I'm also interested in other original artwork by Richard Taylor. You can see the kind of things I like to post in the archives.

If you know something about the print depicting the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew and you want to tell me about it, go right ahead. I won't try to stop you. 

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