Edward Sorel: The Aviary

Edward Sorel today can be regarded as one of the great living caricaturists. Back in 1966, though, he was earning his bona fides in Ramparts magazine with his Bestiary series. 

The Aviary [Hawkus Caucus Americanus] illustration concluded the sequence as a full wraparound color cover for the July 1966 issue. 

The original art has faded somewhat, but perhaps not as much as our memories of the Vietnam era hawks and doves who provided the intellectual justification for and refutation of our national fiasco in Southeast Asia. Heritage Auctions, the seller of this work in its November 4 Illustration Art sale, was good enough to include a scan of the published magazine cover.

When I checked in on the bidding action some thirteen hours before the sale, the online price was well over $5,000 for this signature piece at Heritage Auctions. 

Edward Sorel
Heritage Auctions Illustration Art sale of November 4, 2025

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/edward-sorel-american-1929-the-aviary-hawkus-caucus-americanus-ramparts-magazine-cover-july-1966/a/8224-71069.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-MyTrackedLots-101116

Edward Sorel
Heritage Auctions item description

Sold!

Ramparts magazine included a key of sorts, full of puns rather than names, but the identities of the various birds are apparent.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364116809810

05166

David Levine: Marcel Proust

Yesterday, I came to the end of Marcel Proust's seven-volume masterwork Remembrance of Things Past, as I still tend to call it. Nevertheless, by the last book it seems clear that In Search of Lost Time is truly a better and more meaningful translation of the title. So today I celebrate the author of this longest of novels about whom so much has been written. At least two essays on his work appeared in The New York Review of Books of January 9, 1964, and April 6, 2006. Four decades apart, both were illustrated with the same caricature by David Levine, dated 1963. It shows a weakened if not bedridden Proust raising a cup of steaming hot tea, smelling its essence, and, behind glassy eyes, no doubt recalling and reinterpreting some aspect of the life he has lived. 

I think it is an extraordinary drawing, capturing Proust in a setting we have all read about but haven't been able to actually see. The original art was sold Thursday in Swann Galleries's Illustration Art sale. Its estimate before the sale was $500 to $700, but understandably there was quite a lot of bidder interest in the piece.

David Levine
Swann Galleries Illustration Art sale of December 4, 2025

https://www.swanngalleries.com/auction-lot/_F6618C2C9A

David Levine
Swann Galleries Illustration Art item description

Note:  My reading is now moving on to Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon, whom I'm quite certain David Levine never drew.

05147

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

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/eight-caricatures-of-stephen-sondheim-237-c-14c4435b61?objectID=189111447&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=892c36dd40f196a000e9db97625bc6e7

Stephen Sondheim
Doyle item description

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

04676

Mischa Richter on the Silk Trade

The Japanese silk boycott of 1937-1940 was a protest against Japan's invasion of China. In the Marxist periodical New Masses of July 11, 1939, Mischa Richter draws a fashionable Western woman aiding Japan through her continued support of the silk trade. The grotesque caricature of Japan is heavily armed with both traditional and modern weapons, his shoes are spiked, and his cloak is patterned in swastikas, just in case you don't get the message. The Japanese figure has more of a skull than a living head. Contrast his depiction with that of the pretty, coiffured white woman in silk stockings.

Tear sheet

Mischa Richter
eBay listing accessed April 29, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/385489825698?hash=item59c0fbefa2:g:oLUAAOSwe-BkF2TJ&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8P%2BOQ4U1Pwc%2BQIi6%2FmEyQLzK6Y6%2Bz7nW%2FIagae%2BPncoz6Hq0T%2FZDVcJVxL2gUlmhXS%2BCJj9s9P7SYWlDRhhn08NBf7vYVIJ%2FJUauA9FKJPOutzMNrN%2B7X9dBR78M

8AXNlWy24Es9GlgDBOF2PIpjhIxZLQcaQwThqbxGL1tyFcBEWE9AeLCkQsNYGFF04%2FlDamBDZIE%2BBAlxYRs5awO3yHh6PmTpBF%2BwLZbK%2Fw3Bpfek6pdSHhiAYqTzhO9uAh9ElpFGj9y0ogrAw8a86WWtgti9%2FwTvIGz9hdNzJpqzdVphlSvFgLE4vlCwrSFw5KyCEQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_LSzdv5YQ

Mischa Richter
eBay item description

May 8, 2023 Update:  Sold!

Mischa Richter
eBay bid history
Three of the five bids came in the final thirteen seconds.

04305

Miguel Covarrubias: A Self-Portrait on a Doily

One of these was bound to turn up eventually:

Miguel Covarrubias
AbeBooks listing accessed December 18, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=15234865553&searchurl=kn%3DCovarrubias%26sortby%3D1&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp3-_-title5

04185

Al Hirschfeld: Danmarks Films-Serie

Tom Bloom writes, sharing a scarce foreign entry in the Al Hirschfeld canon. He describes Danmarks Films-Serie as a movie industry book, published circa 1948. The heart of the book is twenty-five pages containing approximately one-hundred fifty color-tinted photo portraits (1.75 x 2.5") of movie stars of the day. The actors are named and their studio affiliations provided. There is a half page introduction in Danish as well as an index. The front cover features Hirschefeld's caricature of Clark Gable and the back cover has Robert Taylor and Van Johnson, all leading men with MGM. Three more Hirschfeld drawings are inside: Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon on the front paste-down and Esther Williams on the introductory page.

 

Note:  My thanks to Tom Bloom for treating us to his nineteenth contribution here.

03715

David Levine: Hearing No Evil

A drawing by caricaturist David Levine gathers the personalities from the Watergate scandal in a circle. There is a lot of finger-pointing going on in a clockwise manner. The image appeared on a printed insert included in the tenth anniversary issue of the New York Review of Books in the summer of 1973. The listening devices in the drawing are unmistakeable references to the White House tapes recorded by President Nixon in the Oval Office. Caricaturist Bado points out on his blog that Levine's image is based on a Thomas Nast political cartoon of Boss Tweed and the Tammany Ring. The eight Nixon Administration caricatures were familiar figures on the nightly news then, but they are not so familiar to us today. Left to right they are (to the best of my and my friend's and family's recollections): Alexander Butterfield[?], unidentified, John Mitchell, Richard Nixon, John Ehrlichman, John Dean, unidentified, and H. R. Haldeman.

David Levine
New York Review of Books Tenth Anniversary Issue, October 18, 1973

Thomas Nast
"Who Stole the People's Money?" 'Twas Him
Harper's Weekly, August 19, 1871

https://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon-Large.asp?Month=August&Date=19

Royal Books, which offers this print for sale as a "broadside," makes some other interesting assertions as well. To be clear, the New York Review of Books is not in any way related to the New York Times Book Review, Vice President Spiro Agnew does not appear in this print, and "passing the buck" does not fully convey the degree of moral turpitude permeating the Nixon White House.

David Levine
Royal Books Listing Accessed March 17, 2019

https://www.royalbooks.com/pages/books/126004/richard-nixon-david-levine-cartoonist-watergate/broadside-depicting-richard-nixon-spiro-agnew-and-others-passing-the-buck-issued-in-honor-of-the

Thomas Nast
Two Great Questions
Harper's Weekly, August 19, 1871

https://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon-Large.asp?Month=August&Date=19

Note:  I'm afraid I've come up a bit short in my ability to recognize all the coconspirators from the Nixon Administration. My thanks to my father for being able to recognize John Dean without his, Dean's, glasses on. Political junkies are invited to help me identify the remaining unnamed figures in the Levine drawing. Avid historians are also welcome to identify the individuals in the Nast drawings standing with Boss Tweed.


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03171

Miguel Covarrubias: Miss Shirley Temple Signs a New Contract

Child star Shirley Temple's parents negotiated a new movie contract for her in 1934.

After the success of her first three movies, Shirley's parents realized that their daughter was not being paid enough money. Her image also began to appear on numerous commercial products without her legal authorization, and without compensation. To get control over the corporate unlicensed use of her image and to negotiate with Fox, Temple's parents hired lawyer Loyd Wright to represent them. On July 18, 1934, the contractual salary was raised to $1,000 a week and her mother's salary was raised to $250 a week, with an additional $15,000 bonus for each movie finished. Temple's original contract for $150 per week is equivalent to $2,750 in 2015, adjusted for inflation. However, the economic value of $150 during the Great Depression was equal to $18,500. The subsequent salary increase to $1,000 weekly had the economic value of $123,000 and the bonus of $15,000 per movie (equal to $275,000 in 2015) was equivalent to a staggering $1.85 million in a decade when a quarter could buy a meal.[note 2] Cease and desist letters were sent out to many companies and the process was begun for awarding corporate licenses.

—Wikipedia entry on Shirley Temple

Retrieved January 6, 2017

Shirley Temple's new contract was big news in the world of entertainment. Vanity Fair covered the July signing in its November 1934 issue with a full-page color illustration by Miguel Covarrubias. The child star, age six, is rendered as happy and incredibly adorable, while the Hollywood studio executives who crowd around her are depicted as greedy and mercenary. All are smiling, but in Shirley it is owing to her cheerful disposition and with the executives,it is all about their avarice. Furthermore, Covarrubias goes out of his way to include a signet ring with a Star of David on the hand plying Miss Temple with an oversized piece of candy, a detail which demonstrates that at least one of the studio bosses is Jewish, reinforcing a stereotype about Hollywood power and money that persists to this day. The original artwork was sold at Christie's New York in 2014 for $15,000.

Miguel Covarrubias
Original art
Miss Shirley Temple signs a new contract
Vanity Fair, November 1934, page 33

Miguel Covarrubias
Christie's Sale 2853, Lot 100, May 28, 2014

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/miguel-covarrubias-mexican-1904-1957-shirley-temple-5793834-details.aspx

Miguel Covarrubias
Original art
Miss Shirley Temple signs a new contract
Vanity Fair, November 1934, page 33

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/miguel-covarrubias-mexican-1904-1957-shirley-temple-5793834-details.aspx

Here's how the illustration looked when published in Vanity Fair:

Miguel Covarrubias
Miss Shirley Temple signs a new contract
Vanity Fair, November 1934, page 33

https://photos.vanityfair.com/2014/11/08/545e2e3daa2a6274565a143b_image.jpg

Oddly, Covarrubias soon after published a nearly identical image of Shirley Temple—from her facial expression, the angle at which she tilts her head, the bows on her outfit, right down even to the placement of her individual locks of hair—also in Vanity Fair. It appeared as part of the Impossible Interviews series. Perhaps this similar appearance is owing to the illustrator having the pressure of a deadline or perhaps Covarrubias created them at the same time as alternative illustrations believing only one would be published. Frances Perkins was the Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the "interview," she voices her strong commitment to protecting Shirley with the child labor laws until she learns that Miss Temple is making $1,250 a week. The text refers to the Academy Award Miss Temple, still six, received in 1935, almost certainly dating the publication to that year.

Miguel Covarrubias

Impossible Interview:  Frances Perkins vs. Shirley Temple

Vanity Fair, circa 1935, page 33

http://www.acontinuouslean.com/2014/10/02/miguel-covarrubias-impossible-interviews/

Finally, Covarrubias also provided the cover illustration for the November 1934 Vanity Fair in which the contract-signing illustration appeared. Here President Franklin D. Roosevelt serves up the National Recovery Administration's Blue Eagle symbol for Thanksgiving in place of the traditional turkey. That just seems wrong.

Miguel Covarrubias
Vanity Fair, November 1934

https://condenaststore.com/featured/a-vanity-fair-cover-of-roosevelt-at-thanksgiving-miguel-covarrubias.html

Note:  Can anyone tell me in which issue of Vanity Fair the Impossible Interview illustration appeared?

Just a reminder:  Attempted Bloggery is always looking for scans or photographs of original works of art by the great Miguel Covarrubias.


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