"Mr. Harkness Talking"
Date1929
Artist
John Held, Jr.
(American painter and illustrator, 1889–1958)
Illustration Citation"A Man of the World," Grim Youth (New York: Vanguard Press,1930)
MediumInk on illustration board
Dimensionssheet: 11 × 14 15/16 in. (27.9 × 37.9 cm)
Credit LineSpecial Purchase Fund, 1969
Object number1969-33
On View
On viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextGrim Youth is a short story collection written by the illustrator and cartoonist John Held, Jr. The common theme of the stories is the values of youth. In "Man of the World," Held describes the standing lamp at the far right of the picture: "The decorator had never intended that the carefully chosen bridge lamp should be used as a necktie rack. On it hung, perhaps, thirty cravats, only two being fit to be worn." The figure of Mr. Harkness—a college student—was a paradigm of the Roaring Twenties.After studying drawing in Salt Lake City with sculptor Mahonri Young (1877-1957), Held began selling drawings to Life magazine. In 1912, he moved to New York, where his illustrations appeared in that magazine, as well as in Vanity Fair and Judge. Critics recognized his 1920s work as a visual encapsulation of the period.
