Maurice Sendak: Madama Butterfly Poster

Illustrator Maurice Sendak's poster for the Houston Grand Opera's 1997-1998 season, their forty-third, features an image from Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Cio-Cio-San is seen from behind near the end of the third act. Her gesture indicates agitation as Dolore, her love child by U.S. Naval Lieutenant Pinkerton, waves the stars and stripes she has just given him as a final farewell.

Detail of upper half

Detail of lower half

Maurice Sendak's signature

A signed example is available from Blank Verso Books of Napa, California. It is priced at $300. It's possible the HGO production may have been called Madame Butterfly.

Maurice Sendak
AbeBooks listing accessed October 16, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/MAURICE-SENDAK-SIGNED-POSTER-MADAME-BUTTERFLY/32013284023/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

Maurice Sendak
AbeBooks item description details

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William Steig: Loose Talk Can Cost Lives

We've all heard the phrase "Loose lips sink ships." It was created by the War Advertising Council for American propaganda posters in World War II. The British equivalent, according to Wikipedia, is "Careless talk costs lives." The English version is clunkier and less memorable.

In 1942, the British and American Ambulance Corps published a poster with the words "Loose talk can cost lives," a hybrid of the Anglo and American slogans. The illustrator was New Yorker cartoonist William Stieg. A copy was sold this past Saturday in Cleveland. Just don't breathe a word of this to anyone.

William Steig's printed signature

William Steig
Rachel Davis Fine Arts listing accessed September 16, 2023, fourteen days before the sale

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/after-William-Steig-WWII-poster-192-c-37449EC8A1?utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=artistalerts&utm_content=199624

William Steig
Rachel Davis Fine Arts item description accessed September 16, 2023

Sold!

Note:  If you should happen to be the proud owner of any obscure published material by master cartoonist William Steig, you don't have to keep it under your hat. Just send some good images to the blog, care of me. Don't send them to our adversaries.

It turns out I mentioned this very poster five years ago here. I covered much of the same ground. To my consternation, the earlier post is much better written and more visually interesting as well. You owe it to yourself to check it out.

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Ronald Searle: The Coming of the Great Cat God

The Coming of the Great Cat God is a 1968 color lithograph by Ronald Searle. It combines his popular cat imagery with one of those calamitous urban landscapes he was rendering at the time. A colossal smiling cat radiating garish colored light towers over the imposing cityscape and extends its right front paw downward. Terrified men in business suits jump from buildings and flee from the cat. It is not unusual for Searle's lithographs of this period to contrast elements from nature with an overbuilt urban landscape featuring panic-stricken inhabitants.

The Coming of the Great Cat God
Ronald Searle
Original lithograph no. 86/95, 1968
Gurlitt catalogue no. 34
EE cat. no. 94

Ronald Searle
Swann Galleries listing ended May 22, 2014

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/SEARLE-RONALD-The-Coming-of-the-Great-Cat-God-Color-lithogra?saleno=2351&lotNo=250&refNo=689681

The 1971 Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt catalogue lists the four-color lithograph (no. 34) and two black-and-white exhibition posters (nos. 35 and 36) from 1968 made from the same plate.

The Gurlitt catalogue does not list a promotional poster for Editions Empreinte. The poster does not have Searle's signature or his distinctive writing, but it does attribute copyright to him in small printing at the bottom:

Ronald Searle
Quinn's Auction Galleries listing ended December 20, 2022

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/roland-searle-lithograph-poster-1968-237-c-55d482cafe?objectID=176250941&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=5f78cbb9aa93f70f04630c19a515ee67

The color lithograph was included in Ronald Searle's Big Fat Cat Book (1982):

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Jean-Jacques Sempé: From Mao to Mozart Poster

Cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé (1932-2022) was completely at home in the world of music. His movie poster for the French-language version of From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China (1979) expresses the joys and challenges of music making in the monumental shadow of Mao. An example came up for auction yesterday at Eldred's in Hanover, Massachusetts. Spoiler alert: It did not find a capitalist buyer.

Jean-Jacques Sempé
Eldred's, July 21, 2023, accessed July 20, 2023

https://www.eldreds.com/auction-lot/movie-poster-by-new-yorker-cartoonist-jean-jacque_C6A4F8FBD8

There was no activity on July 9, twelve days prior to the sale.

There were still no bids on July 20, fifteen hours before the sale.

Ultimately, there was no sale:

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Ronald Searle: Two Lemon Hart Rum Posters

It isn't easy finding posters of the tall and spindly Mr. Lemon Hart, Ronald Searle's popular 1950s creation for a very successful advertising campaign in support of Lemon Hart Rum. It is even more impressive to find such posters in good condition retaining their vibrant colors. One would expect a strong market for these in Great Britain, where Searle's advertising images once created a sensation and where his art is still prized today. But this pair of posters came to auction last year in Italy, and the response was lukewarm at best.

Ronald Searle
Aste Bolaffi auction ended October 20, 2022

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ronald-searle-1920-2011-lemon-hart-1960-71-c-acb406ea98?objectID=174279455&algIndex=undefined&queryID=413dbc0be481d9c54cdbbaf9a5d34101

Ronald Searle
Aste Bolaffi auction ended October 20, 2022
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ronald-searle-1920-2011-lemon-hart-1960-72-c-0574a82a22?objectID=174279456&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=dd49e86c1fb2fa2eda9c3b424bd369dd#

Note:  If you'd like to know more about Ronald Searle's extraordinary ad campaign for Lemon Hart Rum (and Lamb's Navy Rum), check out Matt Jones's post here. 

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Paul Degen: Discovering the Sciences

An original gouache painting by Swiss artist Paul Degen was sold on eBay two months ago for $500. It almost certainly was intended for publication, perhaps as a poster or a magazine illustration. It is a celebration of youthful discovery, depicting divers topics in the sciences including astronomy, biology, geology, natural history, physics, aviation, sailing, and space exploration. Such an illustration could have been commissioned by a museum such as, for example, the American Museum of Natural History or the Smithsonian, among the many, many possibilities.

Paul Degen
eBay listing ended June 6, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134088485008?hash=item1f384be890%3Ag%3Av%7EoAAOSwyd9iW3Cx&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Paul Degen
eBay item description

Note:  Has anyone come across this painting in published form? Do tell.

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