Showing posts with label Swann Galleries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swann Galleries. Show all posts

Sunday, March 8, 2026

Maurice Sendak: Chicken Soup (With Rice?)

In the December 4 Illustration Art sale, Swann Auction Galleries offered a charming drawing by Maurice Sendak that was there called Chicken Soup—for one very obvious reason. It is clearly inspired by his book Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months from 1962, a part of The Nutshell Library. The drawing is inscribed by Sendak to Lynn Caponera, who was Sendak's longtime housekeeper and caretaker, and is now the Executive Director of the Maurice Sendak Foundation. Swann gives its date as circa 1962.


Maurice Sendak
Swann Auction Galleries listing of December 4, 2026


Maurice Sendak
Swann Auction Galleries listing






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Saturday, February 14, 2026

Blog Post No. 5200: A Charles Addams Movie Theater Scream

Original Charles Addams art published in The New Yorker issue of February 8, 1947 shows a theater full of moviegoers and their shared reaction to a big screen scream.

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27


Seventy years after publication, the artwork to this classic cartoon was sold at Swann Auction Galleries in the Illustration Art sale:
Charles Addams
Swann Galleries listing of December 14, 2017
Swann, it will be noted, did not provide the publication date in The New Yorker, or even the year. They did document the drawing's appearances in three Addams collections, but the 1947 book is correctly titled Addams and Evil.

Charles Addams
Swann Galleries item description

With such a classic original selling for $31,200 (including the 30% buyer's premium), well above the 2017 presale estimate of $12,000 to $18,000, one might wonder what an Addams rough drawing of the same subject might be worth in today's market. Well, thanks to Swann Galleries's recent Illustration Art sale, we actually can provide the answer. An unusually detailed pencil study from a Vermont collection went up on the auction block in December of 2025. Perhaps the owners were aware that Swann had sold the original finished drawing eight years earlier.

Charles Addams
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Charles Addams
Swann Galleries listing of December 4, 2025

Despite the above, the correct date of publication in The New Yorker is February 8, 1947, as I've already indicated.


Note that in the intervening years, Swann's top buyer's premium has come down from 30% to 27%. There's something to be said for competition. Still, $9,525 with said premium is a remarkable price for a New Yorker rough. Indeed, many Addams New Yorker originals in this blog's archives have sold for less than that. Today, though, Addams's work continues to appreciate and that seems to be carrying over even to the roughs.


Here's the relevant page from Addams and Evil (1947):

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/HumorMagazines/Addams%20And%20Evil%20(1947).pdf



And here's a grouping showing how the drawing appeared in rough form, in the original art, and finally in the pages of The New Yorker:
Charles Addams
Preliminary art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

Charles Addams
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 27

With a spot drawing by Morris Neuwirth and a cartoon by Charles Addams


* * *

I have a fair degree of confidence that the spot artist on the page opposite the Addams drawing is Morris Neuwirth (1912-1985) and that the toll lanes depicted here relate to something built by Robert Moses.  Some of Neuwirth's work is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Stop Pay Toll
Morris Neuwirth
The New Yorker, February 8, 1947, p. 26



The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts 💯
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story




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Friday, August 29, 2025

Thomas Nast: The Home Market Fallacy

In 1888, cartoonist Thomas Nast had a lot to say against tariffs. Theys were imposed to generate revenues and ostensibly to protect domestic producers, such as farmers, against inexpensive foreign imports. Nast asks whether Uncle Sam would be able to swallow all the farmers' surplus produce on the home market. He makes the case that "The people must be relieved, not burdened." Who knew?



Thomas Nast
Swann Auction Galleries Illustration Art sale of December 14, 2023





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Saturday, August 23, 2025

Edward Sorel: A Swarm of Taxicabs

Contributor David from Manhattan writes of illustrator Edward Sorel's take on New York City taxis:


Edward Sorel's appearances in American Heritage have always been welcome. In December 1992 the editors made that clear with a spread of eight pages of drawings, each in pen & ink and watercolor with accompanying text, in addition to an eye-catching front cover, all with a New York City flavor for "Our Checkered Past."


Described as "A fond ride through the bright high noon and on into the sad twilight of the American taxicab," it begins with motorized vehicles in 1896 designed to resemble horse-drawn carriages, and ends in 1982 with the title "Onward and Downward" when the Checker Motor Corporation made its last cab. The artwork for the opening page, however, immediately drops the reader into a maelstrom of taxi traffic.


Perhaps with a photo in mind taken just before the May, 1937 unveiling of the Father Duffy statue in Times Square by Mayor LaGuardia, Sorel added taxis, rich color and a sense of humor. His well-lit vision of a Manhattan rush hour has it all: Mr. Peanut, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, hotels, and best of all a swarm of taxicabs--circling in a frenzy of yellow, orange and red, around Father Duffy and several sidelined pedestrians.

A smaller version of this same scene was given the written title, "Duffy Square, 1937" by the artist, the drawing just as frenzied and colorful but looser in execution. 


Apparently unpublished, it was offered, matted and framed in 2014 at Swann Auction Galleries. I have no information on provenance, but any viewer examining the lot beforehand would have noted a label on the back from Jack's Art Gallery, a reliable walk-in still in business on Broadway in Harlem, and not so coincidentally just a short distance from the artist's apartment.

That said, anyone searching for this issue on eBay or elsewhere may wonder about the drawing on the front cover, which seems to exist in a dreamy world quite separate from the story inside. Titled by the magazine's editors, "Edward Sorel's Christmas Carol to the Lost American Cab," the artist added a sprig of holly to a woman with a haunting stare, which for some collectors may be faintly familiar. 


Fortunately American Heritage and Sorel, having a little holiday fun, provide the  answer at the bottom of the contents' page inside. "Edward Sorel pays homage to a golden age of both taxis and fashion: those eyes first shown from a 1919 Vogue cover by Georges Lepape." 


Lepape, Parisian-born and credited with 114 Vogue covers, would not have minded sharing the spotlight with a gifted, taxi-loving artist from the Bronx.









You can see the rest of Sorel's fabulous illustrations for the American Heritage article here. Tipping is not required.



Edward Sorel
Swann Galleries sale of January 23, 2014






Note:  I am exceedingly grateful to David from Manhattan for once again writing of the outstanding work of Edward Sorel. Some might call him Superpen—Sorel, that is.

Superpen (1978)
Edward Sorel




If you can recognize Vice President Spiro Agnew patriiotically grasping the American flag in Sorel's 1973 drawing on the back cover, I salute you. I expect everyone can recognize the superhero referenced on the front cover. 

Incidentally, for those keeping score, this is David's seventy-first contribution to this blog. For me, that's seventy-one days off!







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Friday, July 4, 2025

Lee Lorenz: A Cookout With Uncle Sam

The original New Yorker cover art for the July 4, 1988, issue by Lee Lorenz was sold at auction on June 17. Here we have Uncle Sam manning the barbecue. His apron says it all.

Lee Lorenz
Original art
The New Yorker, July 4, 1988

Lee Lorenz
Original art
The New Yorker, July 4, 1988




This artwork carried an auction estimate of $2,000 to $3,000. When the gavel fell, it sold for of $6,000, which comes to $7,500 with the premium.
Lee Lorenz
Swann Auction Galleries listing of June 17, 2025






Lee Lorenz
The New Yorker, July 4, 1988

Lee Lorenz
Original art
The New Yorker, July 4, 1988



Note:  After today's barbecue, collectors might consider sending me additional images of original cartoon art by Lee Lorenz. Let freedom ring.




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Thursday, July 3, 2025

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



Lee Lorenz
The New Yorker, July 3, 1989

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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Friday, May 23, 2025

Saul Steinberg: Window Upright Eiffel Tower Center

Even after all these years, Saul Steinberg's still lives can simply take one's breath away. Just about the only think not to like about the 1979 colored pencil drawing sold yesterday in Swann Auction Galleries' Modern & Post-War Art sale is its title: Window Upright Eiffel Tower Center. But one could learn to live with it.



Saul Steinberg
Swann Galleries Modern & Post-War Art listing of May 22, 2025


Sold, for a hammer price of $19,000.



Note:  Your original Saul Steinberg artwork too can be shared on this blog, especially if it has a good title.




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Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Richard Taylor: The Metamorphosis

Richard Taylor's illustration The Metamorphosis gives us a cartoonist's interpretation of the opening scene of Franz Kafka's 1915 novella. Taylor renders the face of the "monstrous vermin" of the book as something akin to cute. The original art was sold on May 2 at Heritage Auctions. It had previously been sold at Swann Galleries in 2022. 





Richard Taylor
Heritage Auctions listing of May 2, 2025


Richard Taylor
Heritage Auctions item description






In the Swann Illustration Art sale of December 15, 2022, the very same artwork was sold for $600, or $750 with the buyer's premium.



The handwritten title, which omits the article The, is hidden under the matte at Heritage, but it was previously photographed by Swann.

Richard Taylor
Swann Galleries sale of December 15, 2022


Note:  I'd like to hear from knowledgeable readers who may know where this was first published.

I'd also like to hear from collectors willing to share other original art by Richard Tayler, with or without the insect legs.



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