This blog is written as a part of the sem-2 assignment, submitted to the Department of English, MKBU.
Name: Avani Jani
Roll: 3
Semester: 2
Enrollment number: 4069206420220014
Paper 6: The Twentieth Century Literature: 1900 to World War II
Topic: Significance of Francis Cugat’s painting ‘Celestial Eyes’
Submitted to: Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English, MKBU.
Explain the significance of Francis Cugat’s painting ‘Celestial Eyes’ which is used as the book cover in the first official publication of the novel - The Great Gatsby.
Introduction:
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald)
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is widely considered to be one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century. The novel explores the themes of wealth, love, and the American Dream in the context of the Jazz Age, a time of great social and cultural change in the United States. The novel's first official publication in 1925 featured a cover design that has since become iconic: Francis Cugat's painting, 'Celestial Eyes.' The cover art has been praised for its ability to capture the essence of the novel's themes and mood and has become a symbol of the novel's enduring popularity and cultural significance. This essay will delve into the significance of Francis Cugat's painting and how it relates to the themes and characters of The Great Gatsby.
A Brief Life of Fitzgerald:
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896. He was named after his second cousin three times removed, the author of the National Anthem. His parents were Catholics. His father, Edward, was from Maryland and had an allegiance to the Old South and its values. Fitzgerald's mother, Mary (Mollie) McQuillan, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who became wealthy as a wholesale grocer in St. Paul.
Edward Fitzgerald failed as a manufacturer of wicker furniture in St. Paul and became a salesman for Procter & Gamble in upstate New York, where he was later dismissed in 1908. The family returned to St. Paul, and Fitzgerald attended the St. Paul Academy. His first writing was a detective story in the school newspaper when he was thirteen.
From 1911-1913, Fitzgerald attended the Newman School in New Jersey, where he met Father Sigourney Fay, who encouraged his ambitions for personal distinction and achievement. As a member of the Princeton Class of 1917, Fitzgerald neglected his studies for his literary apprenticeship. His college friends included Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop. Fitzgerald joined the army in 1917 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. He wrote the novel, "The Romantic Egotist," convinced that he would die in the war. The novel was rejected by Charles Scribner's Sons, who praised the novel's originality and asked that it be resubmitted when revised.
In June 1918, Fitzgerald was assigned to Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama, where he fell in love with Zelda Sayre, the youngest daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge. After revision, Fitzgerald's novel was rejected again. The war ended just before he was to be sent overseas; after his discharge in 1919, he went to New York City to seek his fortune. Fitzgerald quit his job in July 1919 and returned to St. Paul to rewrite his novel "This Side of Paradise," which was accepted by editor Maxwell Perkins of Scribners in September.
Fitzgerald became famous almost overnight with the publication of "This Side of Paradise" on March 26, 1920. A week later, he married Zelda Sayre in New York. They settled in St. Paul for the birth of their only child, Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald, who was born in October 1921. After the failure of his play, "The Vegetable," the Fitzgeralds moved to Great Neck, Long Island, to be near Broadway. Fitzgerald wrote his way out of debt with short stories. His reputation as a drinker inspired the myth that he was an irresponsible writer, yet he was a painstaking reviser whose fiction went through layers of drafts. The chief theme of Fitzgerald's work is an aspiration, the idealism he regarded as defining American character.
F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure. The obituaries were condescending, and he seemed destined for literary obscurity. The first phase of the Fitzgerald resurrection “revival” does not properly describe the process that occurred between 1945 and 1950. By 1960 he had achieved a secure place among America’s enduring writers. The Great Gatsby, a work that seriously examines the theme of aspiration in an American setting, defines the classic American novel. (“A Brief Life of Fitzgerald - University Libraries”)
Explain the significance of Francis Cugat’s painting ‘Celestial Eyes’ which is used as the book cover in the first official publication of the novel - The Great Gatsby:
. 1]
Book jackets and cover art are, more than anything, advertising tools used to attract consumers, promote book sales, and establish a company identity. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a staple in the canon of American literature whose cover art has drastically transformed in the ninety years since its original publication. This thesis traces these changes over time, focusing specifically on publishing history, art history, American culture, and thematic interpretations. In doing so, I found that the most substantial influences on these covers were publishing house identity, design trends, and available artistic techniques. Ultimately, The Great Gatsby’s cover art can shift readers’ expectations and comprehension, enabling it to have its own type of influence in contrast with the novel itself.
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is widely considered to be one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century. The novel explores the themes of wealth, love, and the American Dream in the context of the Jazz Age, a time of great social and cultural change in the United States. The novel's first official publication in 1925 featured a cover design that has since become iconic: Francis Cugat's painting, 'Celestial Eyes.' The cover art has been praised for its ability to capture the essence of the novel's themes and mood and has become a symbol of the novel's enduring popularity and cultural significance. This essay will delve into the significance of Francis Cugat's painting and how it relates to the themes and characters of The Great Gatsby.
Charles Scribner III, Class of 1973, writing in the Princeton University Library Chronicle 53, no.2: 141-155, explains how he came to own the original dust jacket design for The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). Scribner’s cousin, George Schieffelin discovered the gouache sketch, painted in 1924 by Francis Cugat (1893-1981), in a trash can of publishing “dead matter” and took it home. Eventually, Scribner inherited the painting, enjoyed it at home for several years, and then donated it to the Princeton University Library for the Graphic Arts collection. According to Scribner’s research, Francis Cugat was born in Spain and raised in Cuba. His brother, Xavier Cugat, became a musician and an orchestra leader. Francis worked as an illustrator in the 1920s, performed in New York City in the 1940s, and then moved to Hollywood, where he is credited as a technical color consultant on sixty-eight films from 1948 to 1955.
Cugat received the commission for the Fitzgerald dusk jacket in 1924, while the book was still unfinished. Originally titled “Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires,” Fitzgerald also toyed with calling it “Trimalchio in West Egg,” “On the Road to West Egg,” and “Gold-hatted Gatsby.” The author liked the design Cugat proposed (for which he was paid $100) and wrote to his publisher, “For Christ's sake don’t give anyone that jacket you’re saving for me. I’ve written it into the book.” Cugat called his design “Celestial Eyes.” (Mellby)
The iconic painting by Francis Cugat featuring a face without a body hovering above the bright lights of New York City has become the most renowned and celebrated book cover in American literature. Even before F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel was released, his publisher, Maxwell Perkins, recognized the significance of the image and declared it to be "a masterpiece for this book" in a letter to Fitzgerald. However, little is known about Cugat himself, as he only painted The Great Gatsby's book cover and how he got the attention of Fitzgerald's publisher remains uncertain. The origins of the "Celestial Eyes" image are also unclear, but readers may identify the image with Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, a gigantic advertising billboard with two eyes peering through glasses that do not have a nose, or with Fitzgerald's portrayal of Daisy as the "girl whose face without a body floated along the dark edges and blinding signs."
it is quite possible that rather than Cugat being inspired by Fitzgerald’s imagery, the reverse is true, as Fitzgerald stated that he had “written it [the cover] into the book”.
Observing Cugat’s preliminary drafts for the cover only strengthens this hypothesis, as we can clearly see that his early sketches depict the disembodied face over a desert-like wasteland, similar to T. J. Eckleburg’s home. Cugat was working from one of Fitzgerald’s early titles at the time, Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires, suggesting something of a collaborative process between cover artist and author: perhaps Fitzgerald inspired Cugat with his landscape image, and Cugat in turn inspired Fitzgerald with the “Celestial Eyes”. This possibility is reinforced in Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast when he recalls seeing the cover for the first time. Although Hemingway describes it as “garish”, he also reveals Fitzgerald’s explanation that “it had to do with a billboard along a highway”. The fact that Cugat’s final cover clearly does not depict T. J. Eckleburg, yet Fitzgerald still points to a thematic linkage, once again implying that Cugat provided the seed of inspiration for the Eckleburg figure. As well as possibly providing imagery for the book, Cugat’s cover also mirrors Fitzgerald’s own themes, thereby acting almost as a kind of pictorial prologue. For example, Cugat includes the famous green light in his painting, but its positioning and shape are reminiscent of a falling tear, foregrounding the exposure Gatsby’s of misplaced idealism. Likewise, Cugat subtly hides a pair of nudes in the gigantic eyes, perhaps reflecting Gatsby’s objectification of Daisy or her own awareness of Tom’s affair.
Although it may never be known how much Fitzgerald took from Cugat’s imagery, the painting remains a masterpiece in its own right. It provides a fine illustration of the fact that not only is all art necessarily created collaboratively, as creators learn from and draw from one another, but also that different art forms can interact with one another and color our interpretations in deeply meaningful ways. -Christian Kriticos Sources The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway “Celestial Eyes: From Metamorphosis to Masterpiece” by Charles Scribner III (MUSEUM)
Conclusion:
In conclusion, book jackets and cover art are essential tools in advertising, used to attract customers, promote sales, and establish a company's identity. Francis Cugat's iconic cover art for F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has undergone significant changes over the past 90 years since its original publication. The cover art's transformation is mainly influenced by the publishing house's identity, design trends, and available artistic techniques. While the origins of the "Celestial Eyes" painting are uncertain, it has become a symbol of the novel's cultural significance and enduring popularity. The painting's relevance to the themes and characters of The Great Gatsby is evident in its ability to capture the essence of the novel's mood and themes. Furthermore, it is possible that Cugat's painting inspired Fitzgerald's portrayal of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg and the "girl whose face without a body floated along the dark edges and blinding signs." Ultimately, The Great Gatsby's cover art's ability to shift readers' expectations and comprehension makes it influential in contrast with the novel itself.
words: 1938
Images: 4
work cited: Works Cited
“A Brief Life of Fitzgerald - University Libraries.” University of South Carolina, https://sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/university_libraries/browse/irvin_dept_special_collections/collections/matthew_arlyn_bruccoli_collection_of_f_scott_fitzgerald/life_of_fitzgerald/index.php.
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Crack-Up. Edited by Edmund Wilson, New Directions, 2009.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition. Innovative Eggz LLC, 1925.
Mellby, Julie L. “Celestial Eyes - Graphic Arts.” Princeton University, 4 May 2010, https://www.princeton.edu/~graphicarts/2010/05/celestial_eyes.html.
MUSEUM, AMERICAN WRITERS. “Stories Behind Classic Book Covers: The Great Gatsby.” The American Writers Museum, 19 October 2017, https://americanwritersmuseum.org/stories-behind-classic-book-covers-the-great-gatsby/.
1 comment:
Good work
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