J. B. Handelsman: Why Mr. Dobkin Is Not Walt Whitman

In yesterday's post on New Yorker cartoonist J. B. "Bud" Handelsman, I asked for additional pieces of original art to share here. Longtime contributor David from Manhattan came through with a fine New Yorker drawing. He writes:

The cartoon, 11" x 8", is from Feb. 2, 1987. I bought this years ago on eBay, with Condé Nast the seller for a client who owned that iconic Sam Gross frogs' legs cartoon that brought $30,000 at auction. The attraction for me was the poetry reference in the caption, though taking the photo I was reminded of the artist's care in making sure each man's clothing was rendered in a different shade, even managing a hint of brown in the prosecutor's suit and gray blue in the stubborn gentleman in the witness chair.

"Walt Whitman may well have contradicted himself, Mr. Dobkin, but chances are he wasn't under oath at the moment."
J. B. Handelsman
Original art
The New Yorker, February 2, 1987, p. 75

Detail of the witness

Detail of the judge and attorney

Here's what we see in print:

"Walt Whitman may well have contradicted himself, Mr. Dobkin, but chances are he wasn't under oath at the moment."
J. B. Handelsman
 The New Yorker, February 2, 1987, p. 75

"Walt Whitman may well have contradicted himself, Mr. Dobkin, but chances are he wasn't under oath at the moment."
J. B. Handelsman
Original art
 The New Yorker, February 2, 1987, p. 75

With a spot drawing by Tom Funk and a cartoon by J. B. Handelsman

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1987-02-02/flipbook/074/

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Spot drawing
Tom Funk

Note:  For those who don't recognize the poem "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman, the relevant lines are:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

My thanks to David from Manhattan for keeping the discussion of J. B. Handelsman going with today's post. This is David's sixty-seventh contribution to Attempted Bloggery and they're all worthwhile.

Let me repeat my call to action since it met with such success yesterday. There is a lot of original art by Bud Handelsman in private collections and very few blogs willing to put it out there for the world to see. Remember, this is a big blog. It can contain multitudes. 

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Robert Andrew Parker: Walt Whitman's Brooklyn Printshop

An original illustration by Robert Andrew Parker shows Walt Whitman's printshop at 99 Ryerson Street in Brooklyn where Leaves of Grass (1855) was completed. The watercolor was created for The New Yorker, but not published. In 2010, the art was sold by Antiquarian Auctions.

https://antiquarianauctions.com/lots/original-artwork-for-a-re-imagined-portrait-of-99-ryerson-st-the-house-where-whitman-wrote-at-least-part-of-leaves-of-grass

Then in 2020, it was offered for sale by Honey & Wax Booksellers of Brooklyn:

Robert Andrew Parker
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved April 5, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/Original-watercolor-depicting-Walt-Whitmans-Brooklyn/30607251936/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore

The New Yorker apparently declined to publish Parker's illustration, electing instead to publish a  pair of historic photos in the issue of June 12, 1995. Upon examination of the photo of 99 Ryerson, a problem with the watercolor illustration is immediately apparent: Parker has omitted the distinctive elevated profile of the building's center section. The poet Marianne Moore wrote, “Robert Andrew Parker is one of the most accurate and at the same time most unliteral of painters." In my opinion, and perhaps The New Yorker's, the most prominent architectural feature should not be rendered "unliterally."

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1995-06-12/flipbook/098/

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