Thursday, March 7, 2024

Blog Post No. 4600: Anatol Kovarsky's A Midsummer Night's Dream Scarf for Richard A. Farrar

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. 
As You Like It


These, of course, are the opening lines of a famous Shakespeare soliloquy spoken by the character Jacques. Those words run frieze-like around the border of today's subject, a Shakespeare-themed scarf that was designed by New Yorker cartoonist Anatol Kovarsky (1919-2016) and produced by Richard A Farrar in the 1940s or, more likely, the 1950s. The scarf depicts scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream and so bears the play's title on the central pediment. Nevertheless, the "All the world's a stage" lines properly belong to As You Like It.
Photo by Wendy Powers

An entire line of Farrar's scarves were designed by New Yorker artists. Charles Addams, Sam Cobean, Helen E. Hokinson, Anatol Kovarsky, Mischa Richter, Otto Soglow, William Steig, and James Thurber were all recruited for the project. Kovarsky himself created no fewer than three scarf designs in this series. Here he evocatively captures the mood of Shakespear's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Kovarsky proves himself the perfect choice to illustrate the classical Athenian setting. We experience music, romance, and fairy magic. The play's three couples are shown framed by the atlantes columns. We also get a parade of energetic goings-on in the dark. Incidentally, Bottom can be seen wearing the donkey's head at center left. Snout the tinker is dressed as a wall at center right.

Photo by Wendy Powers

The scarf was printed in at least two color schemes. The first is blue and red (plus black and white). 
Photo by Wendy Powers

The reverse:
Photo by Wendy Powers

Strictly speaking, the yardstick belongs to Measure for Measure.
Photo by Wendy Powers

The other known color scheme for the A Midsummer Night's Dream scarf is green and brown, again on black and white.

The Richard A Farrar tag:




Note:  My thanks to Wendy Powers for sharing photos of her beautiful scarf, the one in red and blue. The photos of the Kovarsky scarf in green and brown come to us courtesy of the artist's daughter Gina, to whom I am also grateful.

There are now a great many scarves by Richard A. Farrar designed by a number of New Yorker artists in a variety of color schemes to be found in the blog archives here. I am always eager to add new designs and color schemes to these posts. The elusive scarf by the wonderful Helen E. Hokinson remains sadly undocumented. James Thurber's scarf depicting dogs with falling leaves has yet to be seen here in any of its five colors.



The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts 💯
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story
 


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