Mary Petty (April 29, 1899 – March 6, 1976) was an
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
of books and magazines best remembered for a series of covers done for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' featuring her invented Peabody family.
Early life
Mary Petty was born in
Hampton, New Jersey
Hampton is a borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 1,401,[New York Law School
New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...]
, and Florence Servis, a schoolteacher.
In 1922, Petty graduated from the
Horace Mann School
, motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails
, address = 231 West 246th Street
, city = The Bronx
, state = New York
, zipcode = 10471
, count ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. She did not formally study art, but taught herself to draw.
Artistic career
Petty met ''New Yorker'' cartoonist
Alan Dunn around 1925 and he encouraged her to sell her work. Petty published her first drawing on October 22, 1927, in the ''New Yorker,'' which itself was only in its second year of publication. ''New Yorker''
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
Harold Ross
Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded ''The New Yorker'' magazine in 1925 with his wife Jane Grant, and was its editor-in-chief until his death.
Early life
Born in a prospector's ...
gave Petty's cartoons his top grade of "AAA."
Petty's
style
Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to:
* Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable
* Design, the process of creating something
* Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...
was characterized by her "gentle
satirization of New York City's
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
society." She portrayed
upper-class
Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is gen ...
families in scenes of wealth and privilege. While somewhat satirical, her drawings were also affectionate. One family recurred in her drawings, to which she assigned the name "Peabody."
Petty was a naturally reticent person, and while her work began appearing in the lauded new magazine, Petty herself did not come to ''The New Yorker'' offices for some time and thus "for a long time nothing at all was known about her—except that she regularly submitted a new and distinctive kind of drawing." Even after becoming a part of the office scene, few knew her well.
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' and collected in ...
said all he knew of her background was that she "was born in a brownstone house on
West End Avenue
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...
. Her father was a professor. She did not have a particularly happy childhood. That's all, brother."
["Mary Petty and Her Drawings"] Petty contributed to the ''New Yorker'' for thirty-nine years, publishing 273 drawings and 38 covers. Her last New Yorker cover was published on March 19, 1966, and showed elderly "Mrs. Peabody" pulling on a broken calling cord.
Petty illustrated several books, including one of her ''New Yorker'' cartoons, published in 1945.
Petty rarely took ideas from outside sources (only twice, according to Thurber
).
Roz Chast
Rosalind Chast (born November 26, 1954) is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for ''The New Yorker''. Since 1978, she has published more than 800 cartoons in ''The New Yorker''. She also publishes cartoons in ''Scientific American'' and ...
, a ''New Yorker'' cartoonist from a later era, is a great fan and proudly owns "an ancient book by that early, inimitable cartoonist" (along with "vintage Steig, early
Helen Hokinson
Helen Elna Hokinson (June 29, 1893 – November 1, 1949) was an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for ''The New Yorker''. Over a 20-year span, she contributed 68 covers and more than 1,800 cartoons to ''The New Yorker''.
Life and ...
, and, of course, all of
Charles Addams
Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters, signing the cartoons as Chas Addams. Some of his recurring characters became known as the Addams Fa ...
"; 39).
Personal life
On December 8, 1927, Petty and
Alan Dunn (1900–1974) were married. They had no children.
Later life and death
Petty was assaulted and beaten by a mugger on December 1, 1971, and was found three days after the incident on Ward's Island. She never wholly recovered and died five years later at the Pine Rest Nursing Home in Paramus, New Jersey.
References
External links
Alan Dunn and Mary Petty Papers 1907-1972at Syracuse University (primary source material)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petty, Mary
1899 births
1976 deaths
American women cartoonists
American humorists
Horace Mann School alumni
The New Yorker cartoonists
Artists from New York City
Writers from New York City
Women humorists
American cartoonists
20th-century American women