James Thurber, noting that "Marriages Are Made in Heaven," makes an appropriately celestial drawing on stationery of the École des Beaux-Arts. The composition and the figures are delightful, but note how oddly Thurber has linked the arms of the couple as if they are ribbons. There's no point where one person's arm ends and the other's begins. While this could be mere shoddy draughtsmanship, the looping arms might instead be meant to represent lines of orbit, something that would be in keeping with the heavenly theme of the drawing.
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James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven |
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James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven |
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| James Thurber's signature |
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James Thurber
eBay Listing accessed November 13, 2017
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James Thurber
eBay item description |
February 27, 2021 Update: The Thurber art has new photos, new frame, new price, and a new eBay seller, apparently, in the same town:
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James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven |
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James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven |
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James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven |
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James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven |
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James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven
eBay listing accessed February 27, 2021
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James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven
eBay item description |
December 28, 2022 Update: Plot twist! I just found out that this drawing was sold back in 2017, not on eBay where I had been following it and not in Gilbert, Arizona where the eBay sellers were both located, but at a Newark, Ohio auction house approximately forty miles from Thurber's home town of Columbus. It went for a shockingly low $450 plus a 20% premium. This is an all-too-common scenario wherein the seller of a minor treasure initially asks too much, gets frustrated by the almost predictable lack of interest, and ultimately holds a fire sale and accepts too little. It reads like a morality play.
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James Thurber
Apple Tree Auction Center
September 7, 2017
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ames Thurber
Apple Tree Auction Center item description |
Note: I would love to see any other example of a drawing by James Thurber in which arms are linked in this strange manner, if such a thing exists anywhere else. Of course, any Thurber drawing is always welcome here, even an anatomically correct one, again if such a thing exists.
Happy 26th anniversary to my wife!
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