Showing posts with label Michael Crichton. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

I've previously shown a quintessential flag painting by Jasper Johns from the collection of the late author Michael Crichton. Crichton also owned some animation art of superlative quality. Here is a great cel from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence of Walt Disney's "Fantasia (1940) mounted on a Courvoisier Gallery background. Crichton could collect both high-concept Pop Art and outstanding Disney animation art—my kind of guy.

Walt Disney Studios

Images

ENLARGE & ZOOM

Price Realized

£6,000
($9,468)
Price includes buyer's premium

Estimate

£2,000 - £2,500

($3,164 - $3,955)

Sale Information

Sale 5570
Popular Culture: Film and Entertainment
25 November 2010
London, South Kensington

Lot Description

Walt Disney Studios
Fantasia, 1940
Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice greeting a broom carrying two buckets of water, gouache on celluloid applied to a watercolour production background, framed, accompanied by an originalWalt Disney Productions certificate
Image: Mickey: 5½x5¾in. (14x14.5cm.) Broom: 5x2in. (13x5cm.)
Overall: 18½x16½in. (47x42cm.)

Special Notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.

Saleroom Notice

Please note this cel is applied to a Courvoisier airbrush background and not a production background as stated in the catalogue

Pre-Lot Text

WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF MICHAEL CRICHTON

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5374866&sid=ae1f5587-be81-4705-97b2-7cc348dd7bd6

November 8, 2015 Update:

"Fantasia," 1940

Walt Disney

"Fantasia" Still 26:50
A match for Mickey, but not for the broom

Christie's Sale 5570, November 25, 2010

Note: My most recent post on Disney animation art is here.

0137

Sunday, July 3, 2011

A Flag by Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns, Flag

Price Realized
$28,642,500
Price includes buyer's premium

Estimate$10,000,000 - $15,000,000

Sale Information: Sale 2406 Works from the Collection of Michael Crichton 11 - 12 May 2010 New York, Rockefeller Plaza
Lot Description Jasper Johns (b. 1930) Flag signed 'Johns' (on the underside); signed again and dated 'J. Johns 1960-'66' (on the reverse) encaustic and printed paper collage on paper laid down on canvas 17½ x 26¾ in. (44.5 x 67.9 cm.) Painted in 1960-1966. Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner, 1973.

That word 'acquired' can mean so many different things. Last year this signature Jasper Johns Flag from the collection of the late Michael Crichton sold for an astonishing price. Back in 1973 when he obtained it, Crichton may already have been working on his book about Jasper Johns, and if so he had some personal contact with the artist on at least a journalistic basis. It's also possible that Crichton might have sought the artist out based on an appreciation of his work and only later decided to write the book. Crichton already had written his bestseller The Andromeda Strain, so he presumably had some money by this time in his life. It's not clear to me, then, whether Crichton acquired this painting by purchase or whether he received it as an outright gift, although I think this very unlikely for what must have been recognized as a very important work even back in 1973. Perhaps he just got it at a good price, or persuaded the artist to part with it at its market value based on their friendship. Whatever may have transpired, he obtained a fabulous and important work of pop art from a series that was soon to become nearly impossible to acquire. Regardless of the cost, Crichton was, it seems, well-rewarded by Johns for his coming efforts on the artist's behalf. Johns, meanwhile, has achieved an exceptionally high price for a work by a living artist.