Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) was an American artist and illustrator known for his prints and paintings of whimsical mythological scenes. During his career, Parrish produced work for Harper's Bazaar, Life, General Electric, and illustrated books by L. Frank Baum. The artist deftly captured light with a precise yet surreal intensity by using many layers of saturated glazes over a tonal underpainting, as evinced in his work Daybreak (1922).

Born Frederick Parrish in Philadelphia, PA, he was the son of painter Stephen Parrish. His father exposed him to architectural and artistic masterpieces while traveling through Europe at a young age. Parrish went on to study under Robert Vonnoh and Thomas Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia as a young man. Over the following decades, the artist helped define the Golden Age of Illustration in America alongside N.C. Wyeth and Norman Rockwell.

Today, Parrish's works are held in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, among others.