Mary Petty , Class Struggle. Fay the Maid Cleans Henry Moore - New Yorker Magazine ?, ca. 1960s

Mary Petty gained fame as a cover artist for The New Yorker, illustrating a fictional upper-class Manhattan family called the Peabodys. One of the main characters was Fay the Maid in her proper uniform. This illustration has Fay stretching to dust a hard-to-reach part. In doing so, she physically inserts herself through an opening in the Henry Moore humanoid sculpture. It was the 1940's and sculpture with holes in it was a radical and newsworthy art idea. Petty's composition calls attention to the avant-garde nature of the sculpture. At the same time, her wry illustration impresses the viewer by juxtaposing a symbol of power and privilege of the effete with a dominated working-class maid. The composition shows the maid half prisoner and half free. The statue engulfs her. The huge head looms down on her upper body while her lower torso and legs are free. Petty makes a statement about the socio-economic struggle among the social classes. The rich control the poor. The elite own the common people. Fay the Maid is shown obediently cleaning the wealthy's feet. The illustration was an unpublished New Yorker cover. I base that on the composition where the artist left the top area empty for the magazine logo and text. For the record, most major magazines have multiple submissions for their cover art. So it is normal that a great illustration does not gain fame by gracing the magazine's cover. Many editorial factors determine what will run on a cover and what will not. The artistic merit of the work is usually not one of them.
Signed, lower right. Unframed. There are some printer marks on the verso. Perhaps Mary Petty pitched the work after it did not run in the New Yorker and someone else picked it up. After all, illustrators were freelancers whose goal was to sell their work.
Petty is a pioneering female illustrator and is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Wichita Art Museum. Most of her surviving artwork is in the collection of Syracuse University. She is a member of the Society of Illustrators.
Mary Petty, American, 1899–1976
Watercolor and Ink on paper
15.25 - 11.25 inches
US$20,000 Plus Shipping