june on the lawn

From The New York Public Library http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

Here's what you would have seen on the cover of your Harper's Magazine in June 1897:  another in a long series of bold, seasonally appropriate graphics by Edward Penfield, the master of American poster and graphic art.  If this looks a lot like Toulouse-Lautrec to you, you're quite right.  Penfield adapted Toulouse-Lautrec's bold approach, as well as the celebration of the simple fleeting moment found in Japanese prints. (The 1890's were a prime decade for the Western adaptation of the "new" Japanese art influence - we call that "Japonisme.")  Here's an essay on Penfield, and here's a cover I adore (it's for March - get it?).