The Birth of a Great Idea

Artist / Maker Jay Norwood Darling (American, 1876 - 1962)

MediumDrypoint on paper

Dimensions9 5/16 x 7 7/16 inches (238 x 190 mm)

ClassificationsPrints and Printing Plates

Credit LineGift of the J. N. "Ding" Darling Foundation. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM84.168

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

EditionRestrike

Label TextJohn P. Darling (1909-1973) entered Princeton University in 1928 and graduated cum laude in 1932. He received his M.D. at the Rush Medical Center in Chicago. In 1939, while a fellow at the Mayo Clinic, he was seriously injured in an automobile accident, ending his promising medical career. He lived most of the rest of his life in Florida, where his parents spent every winter in order to be near him. The etching is a companion to "I can't give you anything but love-and Merry Christmas" datable to 1928. The "great idea" shown here being born is similar to something Darling once wrote about cartooning. "Most people think a cartoonist just sits around in his bedroom slippers and alounging robe, waiting for an inspiration. Sudeenly there is a Great Light, the heavens open, and an angle descends, touches him with the top of her wing, and out pops a brilliant idea, born full-armed like Minerva. Then, all the cartoonist has to do is to make a few passes with his crayon and sell his picture for a hateful of money." Printing plate extant.

Object Titles[com.gallerysystems.emuseum.core.entities.ObjectTitle@9b75]

Locations