Here’s a Helen Hokinson original drawing we’ve had in the Spill archives for a while. Because of the Christmas tree theme it tends to get more attention around here at holiday time (meaning it’s hung on a wall). As you can see, the piece is in rough shape — I’m glad it survived whatever it went through.
The drawing is a mystery to me as it has no identifying marks on either side indicating where it was published (if anyone knows, please let me know!). It does not appear in The New Yorker’s database. Several pencil crop marks and instructions as to size indicate it was intended to be published (but where?!). The Spill library has a number of books illustrated by Ms. Hokinson (but not all of the books she illustrated — I think we’re missing three of them) — it’s nowhere to be found in the ones we have. I’ve always thought the piece could’ve accompanied a magazine article.
The most interesting mark is the vertical pencil line to the far right running the height of the piece. Indicating, perhaps, that the maid to the far right was to be left out of the published picture. The most unusual feature of the drawing is the double signature, one under the maid closest to the woman in red, and the other beneath the maid in the middle.
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Helen Hokinson’s A-Z Entry:
Helen Hokinson (above) Born, Illinois,1893; died, Washington, D.C., 1949. New Yorker work: 1925 -1949, with some work published posthumously. All of Hokinson’s collections are wonderful, but here are two favorites. Her first collection: So You’re Going To Buy A Book! (Minton, Balch & Co, 1931) and what was billed as “the final Hokinson collection”: The Hokinson Festival (Dutton & Co., 1956). According to a New Yorker document produced during Harold Ross’s editorship (1925-1951) rating their artists, Ms. Hokinson and Peter Arno occupied a special category unto themselves above all others.