Sunday, June 30, 2024

Eight Caricatures of Stephen Sondheim

There's another lot in Doyle's recent Stephen Sondheim sale that caught my attention. It contained eight caricatures from the composer's estate. The songwriter kept many framed likenesses of himself. Some are original art and some are reproductions.


Martin Kreloff

Naturally one of the original works caught my eye right away, an original mock-New Yorker cover. The unsigned caricature here is, alas, not a good likeness. The rhyming dictionary may well have been one of Sondheim's tools, but he could hardly have relied on it enough to merit its inclusion front and center. This seems to detract from his accomplishment, which countless other musical composers with countless other rhyming dictionaries could hardly approach. The chess board on which the master writes music has gotten the dark and light squares all wrong, the graphic equivalent of a lyric that doesn't quite scan. I suppose this was something made as a personal gift and never actually submitted to the magazine, but anything's possible. The presence of the frame, at least, suggests That Sondheim himself was pleased with it, as he must have been pleased with all these pieces.





Trog (Wally Fawkes)


John Minnion

The lyrics in the Squigs picture are from "Anyone Can Whistle," "A Little Night Music," "Company," "Sweeney Todd," "Marry Me a Little", "Into the Woods," and "Sunday in the Park with George." There  may be other shows represented as well.
Justin "Squigs" Robertson


Stephen Sondheim
Doyle sale of June 18, 2024


Stephen Sondheim
Doyle item description


Note:  I have yet to identify half these artists. Any help would be appreciated.




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Saturday, June 29, 2024

Saul Steinberg, et al.: From the Library of Stephen Sondheim

Earlier this month, Doyle New York sold off some select items from the estate of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021). For those of us who were never invited into Sondheim's living room, this was a rare chance to view, among other things, some of the songwriter's library.

A shelf full of some twenty-five art monographs included three essential books by Saul Steinberg (1914-1999): The Passport (1949), The Labyrinth (1960), and The Inspector (1973). 

It's no surprise that the composer of "Sunday in the Park with George" (1984) should have several books about Georges Seurat on the shelf, but what about Georges de La Tour? Based on the number of books, Sondheim seems to have really appreciated his work. Christopher Finch's The Art of Walt Disney is the source of much of what I know on the subject. Sondheim also kept many of Dover's excellent Gustave Doré editions.



Looking further down to the next lot, there's The Best of H. T. Webster (on the bottom shelf in blue). On the fine arts side, there's a fair helping on Botero and Van Gogh, among many others.

I do love to sneak the occasional peak into people's libraries. I can't be the only one.
Stephen Sondheim books
Sale of June 18, 2024
It's great that the cataloguer chooses to single out different art subjects than I did.






Stephen Sondheim books
Sale of June 18, 2024






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Tuesday, June 25, 2024

The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 181

It's time for another round of the CartoonStock Caption Contest. In contest number 181, two identically-dressed eggs stand at the base of Humpty Dumpty's wall. One of them is injured from, apparently, a great fall and it is he who speaks.


The rules of the monthly cash prize contest have not changed (and neither has my description of them): five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $130 into the first twenty-six pay-to-play contests and this twenty-seventh challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $135. Having achieved runner-up status with two previous entries, I've collected $200 from CartoonStock, so I'm still playing with the house's money, thank goodness. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds are generally favorable even for us less-gifted caption writers. My three hard-boiled entries are shown below. The cartoonist is Mick Stevens.

"Don't tell Mother Goose it was rough sex."
"Apparently I insulted all the king's horses."
"Now will you properly dispose of all banana peels?"








July 7, 2024 Update:  The Winner





The Judges Deliberate
Video added June 29, 2024





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Monday, June 24, 2024

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #902

The shrink shirks in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #902 from the issue of June 24, 2024. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Niall Maher.
"And why do you think you push people away?"



This caption was unprofessional:

"Just keep talking."






July 7, 2024 Update:  The Finalists




July 15, 2024 Update:  I voted for the caption from Atlanta.


July 27, 2024 Update:
  The Winner







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Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Before the Kisses: J. C. Duffy 2001 Exhibition Art

An original drawing by J. C. Duffy was created in 2001 for a gallery exhibition. Enjoy the show.


J. C. Duffy
eBay listing ended February 20, 2017


J. C. Duffy
eBay item description

J. C. Duffy
eBay bid history
A single bid is placed late in the game.






Note:
  As you can see, I've waited seven years to post this eBay sale. I hope it was worth the wait.

But if you've got original art by J. C. Duffy and you would like to have it posted here, I promise to get to it in less than seven years.






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Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Claude Smith: An Immersive Competition

A six-panel color cartoon by Claude Smith appeared in the February 1958 issue of Playboy. The original art was sold at auction in Brooklyn over the weekend by Antique Arena, Inc. The panels are numbered top to bottom, left to right, and the wordless cartoon must have been printed across two facing magazine pages:

This multi-panel cartoon shows a wealthy, middle-aged man sitting at his swimming pool while hosting a couple of attractive female companions. Over the wall, he observes his neighbor's well-attended pool party and feels compelled to outdo him. It's an example of keeping up with the Joneses while following the supposed Playboy lifestyle. The young women in bathing suits, then, are commodities the men use to compete against each other. 
There's an assumption in a great many cartoons of this type that money buys sexual success. It's a belief of which many a young and impoverished man is easily convinced. It might even be true.






Claude Smith
Antique Arena, Inc., listing of June 15, 2024



Note:  Sure I'd love to see your original cartoon art by Claude Smith, who signs his art Claude. Thanks for asking. And thanks for the invitation to your pool.


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Monday, June 17, 2024

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #901

Technological innovation is really big news in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #901 from the issue of June 17, 2024. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Christopher Weyant.

"At this rate, we'll never feed the world."




June 30, 2024 Update:  The Finalists






July 7, 2024 Update:  I did not get to vote, alas. But I do like the caption from Victoria.


July 15, 2024 Update:  The Winner





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Sunday, June 16, 2024

Charles Addams: A Sort of Self-Portrait

Addams had long claimed that he looked like the Addams Family's toothless grinning ghoul, Uncle Fester, "only with more hair."
—Linda H. Davis
Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life (2006, 2021), p. 11


Charles Addams's biographer got it right. He alludes to the resemblance again in a 1957 presentation drawing dedicated to a Mr. Wiggins. The drawing was sold a decade ago at RR Auction.

Charles Addams
RR Auction listing of June 26, 2014

Charles Addams
RR Auction item description


Note:  Got an original Charles Addams drawing like this one? Send me a picture and I just might post it.




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Saturday, June 15, 2024

Charles Addams: Congratulations!

A classic original New Yorker cartoon by Charles Addams was sold last fall at Heritage Auctions. Father's Day weekend seems a good time to dust it off and present it here.
Published as "Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21


In the published caption, the punctuation has been cleaned up a bit. The cartoon is reproduced in Brendan Gill's indispensable Here at The New Yorker (1975) in chapter 20. Gill tells an anecdote about a macabre caption which may have been falsely attributed to this very drawing or one like it. I won't repeat it here.
Published as "Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21


We learn from the listing that this drawing was in the collection of legendary New Yorker editor Katharine White (1892-1977). It must have been passed down to her son Roger Angell (1920-2022) and been sold off after he passed away.

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions listing of October 6, 2023




"Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21

Published as "Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21

With an illustration by Ludwig Bemelmans and a cartoon by Charles Addams

Heritage is too fond of classifying cartoons as interior illustrations. For the record, here is what should be called an interior illustration:
Illustration for "The Homesick Busboy of the Splendide."
Ludwig Bemelmans
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 20






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