Showing posts with label Anatol Kovarsky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anatol Kovarsky. Show all posts

Friday, July 3, 2026

Anatol Kovarsky: Fourth of July Fireworks at Coney Island

Anatol Kovarsky's New Yorker cover for the issue of July 6, 1963, shows a lone fireworks barge off Coney Island illuminating the night sky on the Fourth of July. The original art was sold by the CartoonBank on November 14, 2006 with a letter attesting that its value at the time was $9,000, presumably the selling price. This spring it came to eBay professionally framed alongside the printed magazine cover.


The colors in the waves off Coney Island may have faded over time. It is also possible that the colors were enhanced in The New Yorker's printing process.




The seller's asking price on April 1 was $12,000 or Best Offer. 
Anatol Kovarsky
eBay listing accessed April 1, 2026

Anatol Kovarsky
eBay item description



The seller was apparently new to the auction site. Within a day, the price was cut in half.
April 2


By April 7, the price was reduced another $200.
April 7

Next came $5,200:
April 9?


The seller next raised the price to $5,500, in order to make a seller offer of $500 off. Thus it sold on April 19 for the seller offer of $5,000.



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Thursday, February 20, 2025

Anatol Kovarsky at "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration"

The cartoonist Anatol Kovarsky is represented by one drawing in the current exhibition at the Society of Illustrators on East 63rd Street. It's a good one. The show is called "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration" and it is curated by Liza Donnelly.

Anatol Kovarsky
Original art
The New Yorker, September 6, 1947, p. 36

Anatol Kovarsky
The New Yorker, September 6, 1947, p. 36

With a cartoon by Anatol Kovarsky and an ad for American Railroads






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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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Friday, June 2, 2023

Park Avenue Plantings: Anatol Kovarsky Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

Anotol Kovarsky's elevated view looking south on Park Avenue shows the spring plantings on the median surrounded by pedestrian and automotive traffic. The design was proposed as a New Yorker cover circa 1960 but, for whatever reason, not accepted by the magazine. The original art is currently offered for sale by Honey & Wax Booksellers of Brooklyn for $3,600.






Rough sketch on verso

Anatol Kovarsky
Honey & Wax Booksellers listing accessed June 1, 2023



June 29, 2023 Update:  Sold (on or before June 20)!




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Thursday, June 1, 2023

The Third Avenue El: Anatol Kovarsky Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

Service on the IRT Third Avenue Elevated line was cut back  starting in 1950 and the Manhattan tracks were demolished by 1955. Anatol Kovarsky's vibrant cover proposal for The New Yorker shows the El where it passes over a crosstown street, possibly 23rd Street. The view is facing west after dark. Below the El, the image includes the city's bustle, the traffic, and the illuminated signs. The skyscrapers above the El stand majestically over the chaos. One can only speculate as to why the magazine wasn't interested. Perhaps, in 1950 or so when everyone knew the elevated tracks were slated for demolition, the editors wanted their cover art to be more forward-looking. The original art is available from Honey & Wax Booksellers priced at $3,600.




Detail of the Third Avenue El

Detail with the No. 15 bus heading east



Anatol Kovarsky
Honey & Wax Booksellers listing accessed May 31, 2023



June 29, 2023 Update:  Sold (on or before June 20)!




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Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Notre-Dame de Paris with Tourists: Anatol Kovarsky Preliminary New Yorker Cover Art

Anatol Kovarsky's cover study for The New Yorker issue of August 17, 1966 was created in New York. It depicts the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris from a high angle while the finished cover art showed a different top-down view. The original art for the study is available from Honey & Wax Booksellers while the published cover art, we learn, resides in the Morgan Library.

Anatol Kovarsky
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, August 17, 1966

Detail of buses

Detail with gargoyles

Detail of facade

Anatol Kovarsky
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, August 17, 1966

Anatol Kovarsky's signature

Anatol Kovarsky
Honey & Wax Booksellers listing accessed May 29, 2023

Anatol Kovarsky
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, August 17, 1966


Anatol Kovarsky
The New Yorker, August 17, 1966


The Morgan Library has not posted an online image of the original art and their issue date is off by a few days. "Title supplied by cataloger."
Anatol Kovarsky
The Morgan Library & Museum catalogue listing accessed May 31, 2023




June 29, 2023 Update:  Sold (on or before June 20)!





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Thursday, April 13, 2023

Anatol Kovarsky: Blind Justice?

Honey & Wax Booksellers of Brooklyn offers a splendid original New Yorker cartoon by Anatol Kovarsky. Impartial Justice is depicted holding her scales and blindfolded, mostly. No caption is needed. Most of the drawing is very precisely rendered; only in the lower part does Kovarsky permit himself some looseness.




Anatol Kovarsky
Honey & Wax Booksellers listing accessed April 12, 2023



Anatol Kovarsky
The New Yorker, January 21, 1956, p. 30

Anatol Kovarsky
Original art
The New Yorker, January 21, 1956, p. 30

Cartoons by Anatol Kovarsky and Mischa Richter

Which cartoon aged better? I don't think there's any contest.
"Where he wants moss green, she wants Sahara beige. Where
he wants coral pink, she wants powder blue. Where he wants
Stygian black, she wants butter yellow."
Mischa Richter
The New Yorker, January 21, 1956, p. 31





June 29, 2023 Update:  Sold (on or before June 20)!





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