Peter Arno: Cyrano de Bergerac

In the midst of Peter Arno's cartoon collection Man in the Shower (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944), he provides an interlude with four full page illustrations of literary Classics: "The Three Musketeers," "Romeo and Juliet," "MacBeth," and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." They are not typical Arno cartoons and I don't believe they appeared in print prior to this book. Arno must have felt a fondness for them, but they are far from the most memorable drawings in the volume.

The illustration entitled "Cyrano de Bergerac" depicting an important scene from the 1897 play by Edmund Rostand has to belong to the same series. The piece didn't make the cut for Man in the Shower and probably wasn't published elsewhere. 

Peter Arno's signature

Handwritten title

On December 10, the Arno drawing was offered for sale by Clarke Auction Gallery of Larchmont in the lot right after his composition Mother's Little Helper. Together they came out of an estate in Rye. The presale estimate for each was $1,000 to $1,500.

Peter Arno
Clarke Auction Gallery listing accessed December 5, 2023

https://clarkeny.com/auctions/?a=317&search=lot%2081

The artwork was sold with a hammer price of $700.

Note:  This drawing by Peter Arno was apparently never published, but anyone who can demonstrate otherwise should get in touch. Collectors take note: unpublished Arno is always worth a blog post here.

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