What ever became of the dinner party? Richard Taylor's New Yorker cartoon of November 17, 1943, is set at a formal gathering where one guest seems to be out of his element.
Parties have been known to create social anxiety. We all want to feel we are masters of any given situation, and that conviction might grow when others appear more ill at ease than we ourselves are. So humor can be mined from our watching someone behave more embarrassingly than we would in the same circumstance. Still, there are times we might feel uncomfortable laughing at another person's awkwardness or ineptitude. At such times, it may be easier for us to laugh at truly eccentric individuals rather than the merely hapless.
Posture is so important. Professor Merton is hunched forward into his book, shifting his head below the line of heads on the far side of the dinner table. That's a good part of the reason he stands out.
Eye contact is also important. Two men have open mouths here, yet there is no question who is speaking. The man with the mustache leans toward his dinner companion and looks directly into her eyes. She returns his gaze. We are clearly listening in on their conversation. The man in the glasses is rendered without visible eyes and we don't get to see whom he is talking to.
The professor is also drawn without eyeballs, but we know what he's looking at. The woman on the left is Merton's dining companion. She stares expressionless across the table; she might as well be alone. For added emphasis, the woman on the far side of the prof is isolated from her partner, who is talking to the woman on the far right. Thus Taylor has contrived to leave the two women on either side of the professor with no one to interact.
As we get farther away from the professor, the conversation gets decidedly more lively.
The caption is written in Taylor's hand:
Note: Original art by Richard Taylor is always worth a good look. Collectors may submit scans or photos of Taylor art to this blog.
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| "Professor Merton is a brilliant man in his field, but he has absolutely no small talk." Richard Taylor Original art The New Yorker, November 27, 1943, page 27 |
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The professor is also drawn without eyeballs, but we know what he's looking at. The woman on the left is Merton's dining companion. She stares expressionless across the table; she might as well be alone. For added emphasis, the woman on the far side of the prof is isolated from her partner, who is talking to the woman on the far right. Thus Taylor has contrived to leave the two women on either side of the professor with no one to interact.
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| Detail |
As we get farther away from the professor, the conversation gets decidedly more lively.
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| Detail |
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| Caption |
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| Verso |
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| Richard Taylor's signature |
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| Verso New Yorker partial stamp |
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| Richard Taylor eBay listing ended December 16, 2018 |
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| Richard Taylor eBay item description |
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| Richard Taylor eBay Bid History Eight bidders place fifty-five rather tentative bids. |
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| [End of eBay listing] |
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| "Professor Merton is a brilliant man in his field, but he has absolutely no small talk." Richard Taylor Original art The New Yorker, November 27, 1943, page 27 |
 Cartoons by Mischa Richter and Richard Taylor https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1943-11-27/flipbook/026/ |
I am available most evenings for dinner parties provided I can write my next post between courses.
Thanks to David from Manhattan for pointing out to me that Taylor himself wrote the caption on the matte. David is a longtime contributor to this blog and has set me straight on any number of topics.
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