Arranging Flowers Helen E. Hokinson Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

From an auction house in Woodbury, Connecticut comes a rough watercolor illustration attributed to The New Yorker's Helen E. Hokinson (1893-1949). The interior scene shows two women, a matron and her domestic servant, using cuttings from the garden to create a floral arrangement. Though unsigned, the art is in Hokinson's characteristic style and it depicts her typical subject matter. The strap along the left edge of the artwork indicates that this piece was conceived as a potential New Yorker cover. A notation on the backing documents a plausible and exceptional provenance: it originally belonged to James Reid Parker (1909-1984), Hokinson's longtime gag writer and collaborator. The artwork was given by his widow Ruth L. Parker to a Betty Greene in 1986. 

The watercolor was offered with an estimate of $50 to $5,000, a broad range. Bidding opened at just $20.

A day and a half before the sale, the bidding had reached only $30.

Helen E. Hokinson
Schwenke Auctioneers listing accessed October 29, 2023

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/163433043_attr-h-hokinson-wc-cartoon

Helen E. Hokinson
Schwenke Auctioneers item description

It sold on October 31 for $200.

Though it was never published, the above artwork possibly could have led to a 1940 New Yorker cover coinciding with the flower show and showing us the ultimate destination of the floral arrangement:

Helen E. Hokinson
The New Yorker, March 16, 1940

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The Poet: Madeline S. Pereny Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

Madeline S. Pereny illustrated three New Yorker covers between 1930 and 1932, but she tried for more. A sale last month of works on paper from the estate of Marvin Oleshansky has brought one of her cover proposals to light. Quinn's Auction Galleries of Falls Church calls it The Poet, which seems reasonable enough.

Something is written on the back, but what?

...Again, what?

The lot's presale estimate was $120 to $240. The bidding started at $60.

Madeline S. Pereny
Quinn's Auction Galleries listing accessed before the sale

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/madelaine-pereny-the-poet-c-1930s-watercolor-46-c-84d4f2a937?objectID=176250750&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=93f0e19bebe4a6406db5952b1514df4b#

The lot sold for $90.

Pereny's three published New Yorker covers appeared in three consecutive calendar years. The landscape on her first cover of May 24, 1930 bears a resemblance to the rolling hills of The Poet.

What's in the last box? The gifts on Pereny's cover of December 26, 1931 share a common theme.

Grand Central Palace hosted the annual Flower Show as seen on the New Yorker cover of March 19, 1932, Pereny's last.

Note:  Details of the life of Army psychiatrist and art collector Marvin Oleshansky may be found here.

This is the first original art by Madeline S. Pereny to appear on the blog; indeed it is her very first mention here. Anyone who wishes to send additional examples of her work can probably persuade me to create a second post.

For more on New York's annual flower show—it can't come soon enough—see my report on artist Roger Duvoisin's preliminary and finished cover art from 1937 here.

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Flower Show: Roger Duvoisin Preliminary New Yorker Cover Art

Roger Duvoisin's oil on canvas of the flower show at the Grand Central Palace in New York may have been painted at the opening of the 1937 flower show. By the time it was revised and published on the cover of The New Yorker, there were only three days remaining in the show. The composition was revised significantly between the preliminary and the finished art. Most importantly, as observed by the seller on eBay, a strip of brown ceiling was added at the top of the image so that the upper gallery would not be obscured by the magazine's logo. The pagoda in the center of the exhibition space has acquired a brown door, presumably to unify the prominent color in the ceiling and in the columns at the borders of the work.

Roger Duvoisin
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, March 20, 1937

A great many elements were changed between the preliminary and the finished art.

Roger Duvoisin
The New Yorker, March 20, 1937

Roger Duvoisin
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, March 20, 1937

Roger Duvoisin's signature

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Back of frame

Roger Duvoisin
eBay Listing Ended October 16, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROGER-DUVOISIN-ANTIQUE-THE-NEW-YORKER-COVER-FOLK-ART-MASTERPIECE-OIL-PAINTING-/401011938729?hash=item5d5e2c95a9%3Ag%3AcX0AAOSw3xJVf01m&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Roger Duvoisin
eBay Item Description

Roger Duvoisin
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, March 20, 1937

Roger Duvoisin
The New Yorker, March 20, 1937

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1937-03-20#folio=CV1

The New Yorker, March 20, 1937, page 6

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1937-03-20#folio=006

The Annual Flower Show at the Grand

Central Palace in New York City

Note:  The 44th annual Macy's Flower Show begins today at Macy's Herald Square and runs through April 6. The Grand Central Palace closed in 1953 and was demolished in 1964. Today the site is occupied by 245 Park Avenue.

Attempted Bloggery seeks out the work of artist Roger Duvoisin (1900-1980) as well as other examples of preliminary New Yorker cover art—that is, roughs—by any and all New Yorker artists. Please submit high-resolution scans or photographs to the blog's handy email address. 

I report sales prices when I am able. Posts with the keyword price? are lacking this essential information. To those who know, please fill me in, if you don't mind.

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