"The Oaks" is now a privately owned estate, and is no longer open to the public, nor is there any museum there any longer. To share some of the beauty of the grounds, we will try to publish photos from time to time and change them seasonally. These are some traditional photographs of the spring season and the famous Lydia Parrish hundred year-old spirea bushes.
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) was born in Philadelphia, studied at Haverford College and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and worked as an illustrator in Philadelphia until 1898, when he settled in Plainfield, New Hampshire. He lived and painted at his beloved estate there from that time on, and all of his famous works were created in the studio building located in the rear of the main house.
Parrish painted until he was ninety-one. He died at his home, "The Oaks," in Plainfield, in 1966, having lived to see a strong revival of interest in his work. Parrish pictures are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Detroit Art Institute, and the M. H. De Young Museum in San Francisco, among others.
