Peter Arno: The Fireman's Farewell

In a 1939 New Yorker cartoon, Peter Arno's firefighter bids farewell to a befuddled homeowner:

"Well, if you ever need us again just give us a ring."
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 18

The cartoon reads left to right, foreground to background. The firefighter is the most prominent and the most illuminated figure. He is leaving the scene, but he leans back into the cartoon panel with a raised arm. You can't miss him. The poor, portly homeowner in his robe is seen next seemingly trying to lean back out of the frame. There is no place for him to go. The smoldering ruins of the home are behind him. The firemen have left behind great reflecting puddles of water in the middle ground. The birdcage is a fine comic detail which may or may not be noticed later. Anyone whose eyes linger over an Arno drawing can expect to be rewarded.

The original art, framed and matted, was sold yesterday at Heritage Auctions. It was the useful practice of Barbara Nicholls of the Nicholls Gallery in the 1970s and 1980s to write the caption on the matte in a calligraphic hand. No doubt Irvin Greif, Jr., purchased the artwork from her. Her ink has faded over the years more than Arno's.

"Well, if you ever need us again just give us a ring."
Peter Arno
Framed original art
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 18

On the back of the artwork, The New Yorker's founding editor Harold Ross approved the drawing with his customary R. 

Verso with Ross's R

Bidding opened at $1,250 some three weeks before the sale with no reserve. The first bid appeared quickly, proof, if any were needed, that Arno's star continues to shine bright in the firmament of New Yorker cartoonists.

Peter Arno
Heritage Auctions Mainstream Illustration listing of February 6, 2026

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/peter-arno-american-1904-1968-just-give-us-a-ring-new-yorker-cartoon-june-17-1939ink-and-wash-on/a/15263-17108.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116

Peter Arno
Heritage Auctions Mainstream Illustration item description

The work sold for $5,000 plus a 25% buyer's premium of $1,250. In other words, the final buyer's premium was the same as the amount of the opening bid.

Here's how it appeared in the magazine:

"Well, if you ever need us again just give us a ring."
Peter Arno
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 18

"Well, if you ever need us again just give us a ring."
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 18

With a cartoon by Peter Arno and a spot drawing by Victor de Pauw

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1939-06-17/flipbook/018/

* * *

On the page opposite, Victor de Pauw's spot drawing of a railway station is as unassuming as Arno's cartoon is bold.

Spot drawing of a railway station
Victor de Pauw
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 19

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A Century of The New Yorker at the New York Public Library

On Sunday I visited the New York Public Library to catch the exhibition "A Century of The New Yorker." The show's banner is behind the library lion known as Patience.

It's always best to start at Beginnings, but I will not be strictly chronological here.

Introduction with some of the magazine's library covers:

Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant started it all in 1925 (with the financial backing of Raoul Fleischmann).

The magazine's prospectus sold the idea of The New Yorker.

Rea Irvin's original artwork of the dandy we call Eustace Tilley is iconic.

A spot drawing of showgirls is by the pioneering cartoonist Barbara Shermund.

Some drawings of the city by Reginald Marsh circa the 1930s adorn the show as well.

What! No Pie Charts? has text by humorist Corey Ford and pictures by Julian de Miskey.

Preliminary art from 1934 is by Reginald Marsh for "It's her first lynching."

Giddap is a 1930 etching by Hale Woodruff.

J. D. Salinger gets his start in the pages of The New Yorker:

 

A spot drawing of a bus stop sign by K. Sterne:

A 1939 photograph of Dorothy Parker:

A lovely 1947 spot drawing by Susan Flint:

A 1946 pony edition of The New Yorker sent to servicemen overseas has a cover by James Thurber featuring several varieties of his dogs.

A 1940 photograph of "Letter from Paris" correspondent Janet Flanner, or Genêt, is by Carl Van Vechten.

A Fact Checking Department banner by Anne Mortimer-Maddox, c. 1970:

A 1948 photograph of New Yorker staff members and a fact checking memo from Frederick Packard to Ross:

An after-hours spot drawing by Garth Williams:

"This is going on all over!" The magazine increases its circulation outside of New York City.

A synchronous spot drawintg by Virginia Snedeker:

Original cartoon art by Helen E. Hokinson:

"I want to report a winking man."

And original art by Charles Addams, c. 1945. You may recognize the witch as Morticia, but this is well before Addams Family members had been given names.

"Oh, I couldn't make it Friday—I've so many things to do. It's the thirteenth, you know."

A full issue in 1946 was dedicated to John Hersey's "Hiroshima."

Copycat!

Cover by Charles Alston:

A dynamic 1948 spot drawing by Esther Pressoir:

Onward!

A 1975 spot drawing by Tom Funk:

A weighty 1982 spot drawing by Margit Steig:

Lillian Ross and William Shawn in an undated photograph:

Office typewriters of Lillian Ross and William Shawn:

Hannah Arendt's draft of "Eichmann in Jerusalem:"

A 1987 letter from Si Newhouse to the New Yorker staff announces William Shawn's resignation as editor.

Subsequently, staff writers at The New Yorker urge Robert Gottlieb not to accept his new post as editor:

Floor plan (2020) by Luci Gutierrez:

Kara Walker develops a cover:

Art by Barry Blitt and Roz Chast from the collection of the current editor David Remnick:

A poster by Bruce McCall for The New Yorker Festival, 2001:

Art Spiegelman:

Saul Steinberg. You may have seen this one.

Edward Koren's cartoon represents The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest:

A 1973 spot drawing by David Preston:

Don't forget to look up.

Outside the exhibition, there's Rembrandt Peale's portrait of George Washington after Gilbert Stuart:

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