God Creating Autumn may have been Edward Sorel's original title for what would become The New Yorker's cover of October 13, 1997. This name is being used by London's Chris Beetles Gallery in its listing of the preliminary art, Sorel's satirical take on Michelangelo'sThe Creation of Adam relocated to the leaf-changing season in New England. The angels have been transformed into tourists with their cameras loaded, no doubt, with color film. Beetles has been offering this one for ten years. It is priced at 1,750 pounds sterling.
The changes that were made for the final cover are meant, I think, to serve the narrative flow. Sorel flipped the composition around, moving away from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel masterpiece while somehow keeping the familiar Creation imagery. The New Yorker gave the cover the understated title Fall Colors but the art is anything but understated. As we tend to read pictures from left to right and from top to bottom, we can now methodically make our way, following God's finger and Sorel's pen, down to the divine blaze of autumn glory.
Edward Sorel Fall Colors The New Yorker, October 13, 1997
A work of original Charles Addams art was sold this past weekend at Heritage Auctions. A man is seen running frantically across a lawn and the neighbors out raking the autumn leaves believe they know what that means.
"I'll bet he wants to borrow something." Charles Addams Original art Out of This World, November 6, 1955, The McClure Syndicate Nightcrawlers, 1957
It is not, as the auction house listing states, an "illustration" and it is not from The New Yorker. The drawing is actually a single-panel cartoon for Out of This World distributed by the McClure syndicate to newspapers for the date November 6, 1955. Two years later it was collected in the Addams book Nightcrawlers. The caption was not initially identified by Heritage, but the auction house located it before the sale—and very nearly got it right. I've provided the caption here exactly as it appears on page 86 of Nightcrawlers.
"I'll bet he wants to borrow something." Charles Addams Original art Out of This World, November 6, 1955, The McClure Syndicate Nightcrawlers, 1957
Starting the bidding early and low encourages bidder interest.
Charles Addams Heritage Auctions listing accessed August 28, 2023, twenty days before the sale
Charles Addams Heritage Auctions item description accessed August 28, 2023
The description was modified by the time of the sale to add the (slightly incorrect) caption.
Charles Addams Heritage Auctions item description accessed September 16, 2023
Bidding as of August 28, 2023, twenty days before the auction
The final sale price was an even $10,000 plus the $2,000 buyer's premium:
Charles Addams Heritage Auctions listing at the close of bidding on September 17, 2023
The drawing, as it appears in Nightcrawlers, is cropped on both sides, eliminating the head of the rake on the left and most of the house over the hill on the extreme right. As a result the woman and the running man are at the very edges of the image. Not surprisingly, the composition works better as Addams originally drew it.
September 23, 2023 Update: Blog reader and contributor David from Manhattan informs me that this piece was offered by Taraba Illustration Art back in 2019. Fred Taraba had the correct caption and knew where the cartoon was first published, so it's strange that this basic information wasn't passed along to Heritage. In 2019, the artwork's appearance was considerably different:
"I'll bet he wants to borrow something." Charles Addams Unrestored original art Out of This World, November 6, 1955, The McClure Syndicate Nightcrawlers, 1957
The paper has since undergone considerable restoration as was suggested by Fred Taraba in his listing and the overall look of the piece is now markedly improved. Some of the printer's pencil markings may have been removed as well. I've decided to give this conservation work my seal of approval, because the art can now be displayed fully as Addams drew it without the distracting rubber cement residue on either side of the crop lines. While I am unaware of the cost of the paper conservation, it appears to me the Heritage seller was perilously close to the break-even point.
Note: There's a lot of outstanding original Charles Addams art out there. Send me images of what you've got and I just might dedicate a future blog post to it. Maybe I'll even let you borrow something.
October 22 found your blogger exploring Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It was the perfect time to observe the changing leaves and Mount Greylock would have been the perfect vantage point for taking photographs. Some unfortunate navigation and a lack of available parking at the summit forced a change in plans. So instead I offer views of Pontoosuc Lake.
The first two photographs were taken from what is now my favorite Dunkin' anywhere.
Away from the lake, the sun set over another part of Pittsfield:
Belgian illustrator Jean-Michel Folon (1934-2005) shows off his fall fashion sense in an color photograph, apparently published in a magazine. The image is signed and dedicated to an admirer by the artist. The item has been available from a Brussels autograph dealer at least since last summer, priced at 89.99 Euros.
Jean-Michel Folon AbeBooks listing accessed June 21, 2020 and translated into English by Google Chrome
Tourists flock to the country every autumn to experience the abundance of fall colors. Barbara Shermund's undated cover proposal for the New Yorker celebrates these colors and some of the signs that await tourists in their travels. But these are not your ordinary country road signs; instead they seem to have multiplied out of control. No fewer than three different signs welcome tourists, and written labels have been applied by the artist to just about everything in sight. The resulting artwork is sumptuous but very busy indeed—perhaps a bit too unfocused for use by the editors of the New Yorker.
Barbara Shermund proposed New Yorker cover art
Barbara Shermund James Cummins, Bookseller Listing as of July 16, 2017
January 7, 2019 Update: The price is higher on eBay but it remains the same on the bookseller's website.
Note:Attempted Bloggery is a blog for all seasons. I seek scans or photos of high-quality original art by Barbara Shermund and other New Yorker artists. I'm also looking for proposed cover art like this that didn't quite make the cut. Think of me winter, spring, summer, or fall.
In an annual rite of passage, eager college freshmen are moving into dormitories on campuses all over the country. This raises a concern, namely: are they prepared, musically, for the oldest college student's song of them all?
Probably not. "Gaudeamus Igitur" is a traditional student song dating from the days when almost everyone studied Latin. It's been in its current form for well over two centuries. Christian Wilhelm Kindleben published his version of the verses in 1781 to be sung to a well-known melody of the time. The serious nature of some of the material did not preclude its use as a drinking song. In fact, it is the first line that sets the devil-may-care tone of the piece, and not the morbid musings on life's brevity.
I leave it to the reader whether "Long live all young women" is a faithful translation of Vivant omnes virgines.
My personal introduction to the song was in the operetta "The Student Prince" (1924). The score is by Sigmund Romberg and the lyrics are by Dorothy Donnelly, but in addition there is that one traditional student's song. It's quite enjoyable and quite the showstopper. Tenor Mario Lanza, who does not himself appear on screen in the 1954 MGM movie, reportedly performed each track of the recording in just one take:
Is this traditional song still performed? Yes, I'm sure it is, but probably not as much as in years gone by and probably only rarely with all ten verses. Even "The Student Prince" doesn't get past the first verse, which is sung a total of three times.
Speaking from my own experience, I'm pleased to report that "Gaudeamus Igitur" was performed at the Vassar College Fall Convocation on August 31, 1983. Don't worry if you don't have a program; I saved mine. Note that in this arrangement four verses were performed in the order 1, 4, 3, 10.
Vassar College, Fall Convocation August 31, 1983
"Gaudeamus!" Vassar College, Fall Convocation August 31, 1983
A lovely sound can be heard from the Men of the Robert Shaw Chorale, who consider "Guadeamus Igitur" to be a "Glee Club Favorite." The verses sung are 1 and 10.
"Gaudeamus Igitur" Men of the Robert Shaw Chorale From "23 Glee Club Favorites" (1962)
The famous student's song is even quoted in an orchestral showpiece. Brahms's Academic Festival Overture concludes with the triumphant theme, which begins in the finale at around 9:11 on this video recording.
Johannes Brahms, Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80, 1880
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, 1983
Leonard Bernstein, Conductor
Johannes Brahms, Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80, 1880
In 1953, the year prior to the release of the movie "The Student Prince" when the operetta was on no one's mind in particular, The New Yorker published a cartoon by Eldon Dedini of a monk singing in the shower. At this point, I bet you can guess what he's singing.
"Gaudeamus igitur, Juvenes dum sumus; Post jucundam juvenutem, Post molestam senectutem Nos habebit humus." Eldon Dedini The New Yorker, February 14, 1953, p. 40
The Robert Israel score to Harold Lloyd's "The Freshman" (1925) features the theme at about 7:01.
Harold Lloyd, "The Freshman" (1925)
Video added February 22, 2016
Most recently, the traditional school song appeared in the soundtrack for "Monsters University." The melody of "Gaudeamus Igitur" is prominent at the beginning of this clip as Mike and Sulley chase Archie the Scare Pig, the stolen mascot belonging to Fear Tech, Monsters University's rival college. Got that?
"Monsters University" (2013)
Animation Progression
Disney/Pixar
Sulley and Mike chase Archie the Scare Pig to the tune of "Gaudeamus Igitur" in Disney/Pixar's "Monsters University" (2013). The traditional school music during the early part of the chase is a really deft touch, and it's too bad they didn't put the same care into crafting a satisfying ending for this movie.
OK, you now know what I know about this song, and if you're musically inclined, you can even sing it, which I can't do for love or money. All together, now!
Note: Here's another handy Latin phrase for the college bound: "Dimidus Asinus Genius." Does it mean half-assed genius? Not exactly, but still that might have been the inside joke among Disney's top brass. I am the current owner of former Disney President Donn Tatum's Ludwig von Drake cufflinks bearing those inspiring Latin words and if you agree that that's certainly worth a blog post, check it out here.
My pleas to have Attempted Bloggery's contents inform our nation's college curricula have gone unheeded, perhaps because I chose to run my entire academic campaign on April Fools Day and I don't think it was taken seriously. Nevertheless, I would love to hear all about it if this blog should ever be referenced in any college syllabus or other academic course materials. Look, it could happen. There's got to be secondary source material for a senior Comics thesis in here somewhere. Yes, they teach courses in Comics now. I believe the subject has replaced Latin.
Original New Yorker cover artwork by Abe Birnbaum has been captured on a Kodachrome slide from 1955. Note how important the small squirrel is to the success of the composition. The published cover appears somehow to have deeper red highlights than the image of the original painting preserved on the slide.
The eBay seller, after listing three previous such slides unblemished, has finally remembered to mar the image with a watermark. Rather than using the watermark to brand the image with his seller name, an ugly but widespread commercial practice, he's instead used the word watermark itself, the defacement of this rare image for the non-purchaser being the sole objective.
Abe Birnbaum, Original Artwork for The New Yorker, October 8, 1955
Abe Birnbaum,The New Yorker, October 8, 1955
Note: It occurs to me that some of the original New Yorker cover art I'm discussing this week, including this fine seasonal cover by Abe Birnbaum, isquite probably still around somewhere being enjoyed in private collections. If you know of the current whereabouts of any of these pieces and would like to give this blog's readers an update on them, including perhaps notes on their condition or their personal meaning for you, please contact me at my email address.
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