Other Artists - Harrison Fisher

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SOLD "Maiden on an Island" - watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper

SOLD "This Marvelous Story-Teller" - pencil and charcoal on paper

SOLD "Picture-Writing" - pencil and charcoal on paper

 The Hiawatha series was a departure from Fisher's typical work.  The work is appealing on many levels, first as an example original work by one of the best known names from the golden age of American illustration, and also as the most beautiful illustration of the classic poem by Longfellow since the poem was illustrated in the 19th century by Frederic Remington.  In addition, the skillfully rendered Native American portraits and scenes are of interest to enthusiasts and collectors of Native American art.  Hiawatha is a moving tale in verse that portrays Indians not as savages, but as real people.  It is a love story set in the twilight years of Native American culture before European colonization of the Americas.

Harrison Fisher (1875 - 1934) was born into a creative family, the third generation in a line of artists beginning with his grandfather Felix Xavier Fisher. Harrison's father Hugo Antoine Fisher taught Harrison the art of drawing and painting. At age 16, he enrolled in the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art in San Francisco.  His drawings  were soon being published in the nation's leading  magazines and publications. He is best known for his illustrations of Victorian and Edwardian women, rivaling the works of Charles Dana Gibson. His work appeared on the covers of the Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, and several other magazines.  He illustrated and published a number books as well, including "A Dream of Fair Women", "Harrison Fisher's American Beauties", and "A Garden of Girls".  He also illustrated numerous novels and epic poems, the most ambitious of which is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha".  

Fisher is best know for images of "the American Beauty", idealized American women in period clothing, hats, and accessories.   In 1907 he published "The Harrison Fisher Book", which solidified his reputation as the pre-eminent illustrator of beautiful women, replacing the "Gibson Girl" as the popular definition of beauty.  The media declared him the official arbiter of American beauty, and thousands of women sought to become his models.

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