"As a Special Privilege the Zealot Bore it in Blazing" Lot no. 2678
By Jessie Willcox Smith (American- 1863-1935)
1903
24.25" x 15.50", Framed 31.35" x 22.50"
Mixed Media on Paper
Signed Lower Left
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Illustration for “Kitchen Sketches” by Elizabeth Hale Gilman for Scribner’s, published May 1903.
Rendered in charcoal with accents of pastel orange and yellow, the illustrations for the Kitchen Sketches beautifully capture the warm glow of a cooking flame and sunlight streaming through a window. The illustrations follow the daily rhythms of young homemakers as they go about their daily cooking chores. The charm of the images lies in their ability to elevate the everyday into something enchanting and captivating.
In the scene illustrated here, a young homemaker describes how at her Christmas dinner she was “too anxious for comfort until after the Christmas plum pudding was safely out of its cloth; it came out beautifully though, round and firm and black. I thrust the traditional holly sprig on top with a satisfaction that nothing can express except the superior, contented smile with which a woman looks out from behind her Christmas plum pudding. As a special privilege the Zealot bore it in blazing, and managed to get it on the table without singeing her hair.” (Scribner’s, May 1903, page. 586).
LITERATURE:
S.M. Schnessel, Jessie Willcox Smith, New York, 1977, no. 122.
Explore related art collections: Newly Researched / Food / Women Artists / Women as Subjects / Black & White / Magazine Stories / $20,000 - $50,000 / 1900s / Brandywine School / Christmas/ Holiday
See all original artwork by Jessie Willcox Smith
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jessie Wilcox Smith never married, but throughout her long career, specialized in drawing and painting mothers, babies and children. Her training was acquired at the School of Design for Women, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Thomas Eakins, and at the Drexel Institute under Howard Pyle.
She had begun as a kindergarten teacher but turned to an art career with the stimulus and assistance of Howard Pyle. Some of her best-known illustrations were for books: Little Women, Heidi, A book of Old Stories and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. She also painted a great many illustrations for magazines such as Collier's and McClure's, and did nearly 200 covers for Good Housekeeping. For several years, she shared house and studio with two other Pyle students, Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley. Working in close proximity they also strongly influenced eachother's work as well as that of several other Pyle - school women. This relationship is told in The Red Rose Girls by Alice Carter. Smith painted and exhibited widely, revieving many awards, a Silver Metal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. She was also commissioned to paint many portraits of children.
Two other biographies, Jessie Wilcox Smith by S. Michael Schnessel, and Jessie Wilcox Smith American Illustrator by Edward D. Nudelman (who also contributed A bibliography) have been published.