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Richard Lippincott Denison Taylor

Smile

Maker

Richard Lippincott Denison Taylor (American, 1902 - 1970)

Title

Smile
from the *The New Yorker*, December 2, 1939

Year

1939

Medium

  • pen and ink,
  • brush and wash,
  • and white gouache on board

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • pen and ink,
  • brush and wash,
  • and white gouache on board

Materials

wash technique

Supports

  • illustration board

Dimensions

45.9 x 35.7 cm (18 1/16 x 14 1/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed, UL:R. Taylor

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Jesse Metcalf Fund

Object Number

40.095

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Exhibition History

Changing Poses
The Artist's Model
Nov 12, 2010 – Jun 06, 2011

Label copy

With their distinctive pointed noses, Richard Taylor’s cartoon figures satirized numerous aspects of American society in the pages of the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, Playboy, and most often, The New Yorker. This image presents a humorous collision between stereotypes of the slow and labor-intensive practice of stone-carving and the speed and accessibility of photography as a rival form of image-making. Before achieving fame as a cartoonist, Taylor studied at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, where his training included life-drawing classes.

Draw Me a Story
Illustration from the Permanent Collection
Apr 14, 2006 – Jul 23, 2006

Label copy

Richard Taylor began contributing to The New Yorker in 1935. His body of work frequently addressed the art world, its idiosyncrasies, its influence on pop culture, and the social and sexual innuendos that art and its viewing could embody. In this cartoon, which appeared with the caption, “Smile,” Taylor compares the dissonant art forms of sculpture, with its time-consuming manual labor, and photography, with its instant exposure, to poke fun at the ironic, modern relationship between artist and model.

"New Yorker" Drawings from the Museum's Collection
Feb 26, 1947 – Mar 10, 1947

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Richard Lippincott Denison Taylor (American, 1902 - 1970)
Smile; from the *The New Yorker*, December 2, 1939, 1939
Pen and ink, brush and wash, and white gouache on board
45.9 x 35.7 cm (18 1/16 x 14 1/16 inches)
Jesse Metcalf Fund 40.095

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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