Fireworks on Home Video: Lee Lorenz Preliminary New Yorker Cover Art

Two weeks ago, Swann Auction Galleries sold some artistic gems from the estate of Lee Lorenz, the accomplished cartoonist who served as art editor of The New Yorker from 1973 to 1993, and then as cartoon editor from 1993-1997. Preliminary art for his 1989 Independence Day cover sold for a hammer price of $600 or $750 with the buyer's premium. Given the $1,000 to $1,500 presale estimate, that's not a bad deal. Lorenz shows us an enthusiastic Uncle Sam lighting the fireworks while Lady Liberty captures the moment on video.

Lee Lorenz
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, July 3, 1989

Lee Lorenz
Swann Auction Galleries listing of June 17, 2025

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/(NEW-YORKER)-LEE-LORENZ-(1932---2022)-Cover-study-Independen?saleno=2709&lotNo=139&refNo=829875

Lee Lorenz
The New Yorker, July 3, 1989

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1989-07-03/flipbook/CV1/

Lee Lorenz
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, July 3, 1989

Note:  For future posts, this blog seeks original art by Lee Lorenz, original New Yorker Fourth of July art, and original cover studies. I hit the trifecta today.

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Mischa Richter: Sporting Lady Liberty

Cartoonist Mischa Richter included Lady Liberty—usually accompanied by her partner Uncle Sam—as a recurring character in many of his New Yorker cartoons. Back in a 1977 cartoon, he showed her sporting side. Now, as the U.S. Open gets under way in Forest Hills, it seems a good time to revisit the original art, which was just sold on eBay.

Mischa Richter
Original art
The New Yorker, August 8, 1977, page 28

The item is marred by cracked glass in the corner of the frame.

Detail showing the paper has signs of handling

Detail

Mischa Richter
eBay Listing Ended June 4, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Signed-Mischa-Richter-NEW-YORKER-artist-ORIGINAL-drawing-Cartoonist-/361993122643?hash=item544878b353%3Ag%3ACsQAAOSwqM1YmmeB&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Mischa Richter
eBay Item Description

Mischa Richter
The New Yorker, August 8, 1977, page 28

Mischa Richter
Original art
The New Yorker, August 8, 1977, page 28

Mischa Richter
The New Yorker, August 8, 1977, page 28

Cartoons by Mischa Richter and James Stevenson
The New Yorker, August 8, 1977, pages 28-29

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1977-08-08#folio=028

Note:  Attempted Bloggery seeks scans and photographs of original cartoon art by Mischa Richter and other New Yorker artists. If you are in possession of such artwork, the ball is in your court.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Mischa Richter

Original New Yorker Cartoon Art

Tennis

Attempted Bloggery's Ace of an Index

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Mischa Richter: As American as...

Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam frequently appeared together in Mischa Richter's cartoons for the New Yorker. Two original gag cartoons with these characters were sold in January by Swann Auction Galleries, which chose to photograph only one of them, twice.

Mischa Richter, "Not apple pie again!"
Original art. The New Yorker, May 25, 1992, page 39

Mischa Richter, "Not apple pie again!"
Original art. The New Yorker, May 25, 1992, page 39

Swann Galleries, January 22, 2015
Sale 2372, Lot 202
Hammer Price $275

http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullcatalogue.asp?salelot=2372+++++202+&refno=++698780&image=1

Mischa Richter, "Not apple pie again!"
The New Yorker, May 25, 1992, page 39

Mischa Richter, "Not apple pie again!"
The New Yorker, May 25, 1992, page 39

The original artwork for the second drawing was not included in the catalogue:

Mischa Richter, The New Yorker, August 24, 1992, page 21

Mischa Richter, The New Yorker, August 24, 1992, page 21

Note:  Did you know that I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy? Attempted Bloggery's most patriotic posts make great reading for Independence Day. Call it macaroni.

Mischa Richter was born in Russia, but who wouldn't still call him a great American?

Original cartoon art published in the New Yorker is one of the mainstays of this blog. Another is cottage cheese.

Did you see what happened here? Swann Galleries sold two original drawings, and photographed only one of  them. That means this blog now has a deficit of one original drawing. The good news is that you, Kindly Reader, can balance the budget and eliminate this unseemly deficit by submitting a scan of just one original New Yorker drawing for publication here. Help make this blog whole again. If only politicians could solve their budget problems this easily!

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Leading Schoolboys: Mischa Richter Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

A color illustration by Mischa Richter features Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty leading a few well-off schoolboys in private school uniforms to America, or at least to a map of the lower forty-eight. We are told by Swann Auction Galleries that this is a proposed NewYorker cover illustration, but what exactly is being depicted? It doesn't seem to be a commentary on public schools, integration, or immigration, to name a few of the hot-button topics of the postwar decades. It can't simply be about school uniforms. It does look as if Lady Liberty is speaking and Uncle Sam is reacting to her statement. Perhaps this is a color gag cartoon not intended for the New Yorker at all that has come down to us missing its caption. The problem with that conjecture is that there is clearly enough space for a magazine logo across the top.

Mischa Richter. Proposed New Yorker cover art

Swann Auction Galleries, January 22, 2015
Sale 2372, Lot 199
Unsold

http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2372+++++199+&refno=++698775&saletype=

Note:  Whenever you're feeling rejected, just take a look at some of the great proposed New Yorker cover art that the magazine turned down.

Mischa Richter's art can be enjoyed at various places around the blog but by itself should not be used as an introduction to America.

Finally, here's how to get ready for the 4th of July. Hint: it involves appropriately-themed patriotic posts on this blog.

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Peter Max: Statue of Liberty Serigraph

This serigraph entitled Statue of Liberty by Peter Max caught my eye because it's from the same U.K. eBay seller with the original Ilonka Karasz New Yorker cover art I wrote about just recently here. The serigraph is dated 1994, yet it bears a 2005 Peter Max copyright stamp, which concerns me just a tad. The seller has a slightly less-than-ironclad disclaimer as well regarding authenticity. Nevertheless, for my purposes, which is to celebrate America's independence in a colorful way, this will do just fine.

Peter Max, Statue of Liberty Serigraph, 18/300, 1994

Peter Max Signature

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Peter-Max-Statue-of-Liberty-Serigraph-Limited-Edition-Hand-Signed-/140987206281?pt=UK_art_prints_GL&hash=item20d37e0a89

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Peter-Max-Statue-of-Liberty-Serigraph-Limited-Edition-Hand-Signed-/140987206281?pt=UK_art_prints_GL&hash=item20d37e0a89

Note:  See more interpretations of the Statue of Liberty here.

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Minnie Liberty

Back in 2005, five and a half years before I started this blog, I snapped a few pictures in the Disney Store and enthusiastically posted them on flickr. As it turns out, I did not keep posting on this site for long, but I did show an early (for me) interest in using the Internet to share with the world some of what I happened upon. Now, as Independence Day approaches, I am delighted to be able to recycle these pictures on a site I can call my own. Well, mine and Google's.

Minnie Mouse as the Statue of Liberty
The Disney Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City
December 18, 2005

Torch and Plush Versions of Minnie Mouse as the Statue of Liberty
The Disney Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City
December 18, 2005

More Merchandise Featuring Minnie Mouse as the Statue of Liberty
The Disney Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City
December 18, 2005

Minnie Mouse as the Statue of Liberty
The Disney Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City
December 18, 2005

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Sequestration: No Honeymoon in Niagara Falls

Mischa Richter, Uncle Sam and Miss Liberty in a Barrel

I purchased this drawing by cartoonist Mischa Richter in 2008 on a whim purely because I liked it. It's a cartoon rough, of course, rather than a finished drawing, and it resembles a series of published New Yorker gags from the early 1990's in which Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty trade quips, much like an old married couple. I have no idea what contemporary events prompted Richter to conceive this one, with Sam and Miss Liberty going over a waterfall together in a barrel, but it seems it wasn't deemed quite right for the magazine at the time.

Today the news from Washington shows our elected representatives facing a dire crisis entirely of their own making. The current battle over sequestration is one of a series of increasingly reckless, self-inflicted wounds that threatens our security, our economy, and our government's ability to meet its most basic obligations. This sad situation has come about not out of necessity but by choice, with one political party putting its ideology above the needs of the country. Again.

Perhaps our representatives will come to an agreement before Friday's deadline, and perhaps this time they won't. Perhaps they'll do a temporary fix again and we'll face another artificial crisis in a few weeks. Either way, our fragile democracy seems increasingly dysfunctional. Anyway, this just might be a good time to share Mischa Richter's once-again relevant cartoon, in the increasingly vain hope that it will not reflect our nation's true condition come Friday.

Mischa Richter, Uncle Sam and Miss Liberty in a Barrel

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