Garth Williams: Happy New Year?

A drawing by illustrator Garth Williams that failed to make it into The New Yorker in the mid-1940s was sold a year ago on eBay for an undisclosed best offer. Let the revels begin.

Garth Williams
eBay listing ended December 28, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/295151153290?hash=item44b861308a%3Ag%3Arw0AAOSwSc9i9Fnk&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4AH6Hhpxrp2zC1b%2FWsv3Yz3c9tQrhZwUdI1v2km5OkjMLo9zJljCWTiQQrJ1kwOkWblIq2L%2F63eyx99W8YK54

x7QCzhJDtNRFjl%2FUd363u4NnX3TflAbR4DCSpoeJUBMvA%2BrAhuO0y%2FnG3ZZ0lDdm5kxSryVhiQ%2BoS%2FbFK%2FfQxcA56aX%2F0UXj5WYUSyq3QnjjjAnxlujiKmXNXsyXwkxSbcrUfB4lXM1qxgl539IocdVzJwE06ChUXjI5j67evSCBPNZ

gj1EX71%2FnseCnSmJGmuZnZLS%2BlIcsb%2B2RmsVu9Ck%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5ziovfcYQ&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

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Richard Taylor Goes to War

The June 9 auction of Illustration Art at Swann Galleries included three works by Richard Taylor dating from the second World War, none of them known to be published, but all likely intended for The New Yorker. The proposed cover art of a "Worried Hitler" clearly dates from a time when the war was going badly for Germany, presumably between late 1943 and early 1945. The cover was rejected.

Richard Taylor
Proposed New Yorker cover art

The lot also includes a proposed New Yorker cartoon:

"The Captain says he'd like the potatoes with their jackets on."

That rough for The New Yorker needed a little editorial work on the caption, which it received. The drawing was reworked as well, changing the setting to one far more claustrophobic, and surely more true to life. Still, it is hard not to admire the sweeping view of the rough.

"The Captain thinks it would be nice to have them boiled in their jackets tonight."
Richard Taylor
The New Yorker, February 24, 1940, page 21
"The Navy Relief Show" program, Madison Square Garden, March 10, 1942, page 71

One assumes this cartoon was also intended for The New Yorker:

"I certainly wish my family wasn't so damn sure I'd been sent to Iceland."

Richard Taylor
Swann Galleries
Hammer price

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/SearchResult?filter_value=Taylor&datefilter=All

A spot drawing by David Preston and a cartoon by Richard Taylor

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1940-02-24/flipbook/020/

Bowling spot by David Preston

Note:  In 2014, Michael Maslin wrote about editor Harold Ross's determination not to put "specific people," i.e., recognizable individuals, on the cover of The New Yorker. There were, apparently, only three exceptions to this, two for Halloween issues, and all included images of Hitler's face. This is a good time to review the Ink Spill post here. Nowadays, of course, the magazine puts images of specific individuals, especially political figures, on innumerable covers. Many of these soon lose their relevance when the context of the week's current events is forgotten.

While I'm pretty certain none of these drawings were published in the form seen here, I can never be absolutely certain, particularly with that last gag, which might have appeared anywhere. I would like to hear from anyone who can prove me wrong or add something of relevance to this post or, indeed, to any post in the archives.

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Charles Addams: A Fender Bender

Beginning around 1946, the young Frank Modell served as assistant to New Yorker cartoon editor James Geraghty. Working at The New Yorker, he acquired some early original works by Peter Arno that had never been published in the magazine. Possibly, some of these forgotten works were left unclaimed in the office, or they may have been gifts received personally from Arno. 

Now we see that Modell also came to possess an early original drawing by Charles Addams. Apparently, this also was submitted to The New Yorker but not published. The cartoon, somewhat elongated in its proportions, shows two hunters involved in an unusual head-on car accident, no pun intended. The estate of Frank Modell attempted to sell this original at Bonhams, twice.  The auction house listing does an admirable job of summarizing other Addams cartoons on similar subjects. In June, the drawing was given an estimate of $6,000-8,000. Unsold, it was offered again in December with a lower presale estimate of $5,000-7,000. The minimum bid was set at $5,000 but once again the Addams work did not find a buyer.

Charles Addams
Bonhams, December 15, 2021

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26898/lot/77/

The earlier June 2021 sale:

June 25, 2022 Update:  Having twice failed to sell this cartoon at Bonhams, the consignor took this Addams piece to Swann Galleries, where it found a buyer in the June 9 Illustration Art sale at a more reasonable price. A souvenir drawing of Uncle Fester, on the other hand, sold remarkably well.

Charles Addams
Hammer price
Swann Auction Galleries June 9, 2022 Illustration Art sale

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/CHARLES-ADDAMS-(1912-1988)-Rack-Wreck?saleno=2608&lotNo=177&refNo=796606

Note:  The blog archive has two posts about Peter Arno cartoons from the estate of New Yorker cartoonist Frank Modell. Find them both here.

03860

Was a Hitchhiking Cartoon by Charles Saxon Killed by a Fact-Check?

Last week Michael Maslin's Ink Spill published a photograph of an original Charles Saxon cartoon hanging on the wall of the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The drawing shows a couple seated in a car approaching a nattily-dressed hitchhiker eager to be driven toward Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra located in Lenox and Stockbridge.The drawing gives every appearance of having been created for the New Yorker, but there is no evidence it was published in the magazine.

"Couldn't we break our rule about hitchhikers just this once?"
Charles Saxon
Unpublished?

Photo by Bruce Crocker

https://michaelmaslin.com/livenew-yorker-cartoonson-late-night-with-seth-meyers-and-david-remnick-a-saxon-in-stockbridge-mon-tues-wed-s-daily-cartoonists-cartoons/

I have a thought, just a speculation really, that this cartoon may have been readied for publication in the New Yorker and then subjected to a routine fact-check. Such scrutiny would have revealed an earlier gag cartoon by Syd Hoff from 1959, a different yet related hitchhiking scenario with a strikingly similar caption. Could the discovery of this similarity effectively have killed the Saxon drawing, rendering it unsuitable for publication in the New Yorker?

"I suppose we could relax our rule about never picking up hitchhikers."
Syd Hoff
The New Yorker, June 6, 1959, page 44

Note:  I would like to hear from anyone with additional information about the history of this drawing.

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03056

Anatol Kovarsky: Leda and the Swan

In Greek mythology, Zeus disguises himself as a swan and seduces Leda. This union produces two offspring, Helen of Troy and Polydeuces. Two unpublished roughs on this mythological subject by cartoonist Anatol Kovarsky were certainly submitted to The New Yorker in the 1950s and, alas, rejected. Mr. Kovarsky's daughter provides us with the images and writes:

Mythology was one of my dad's favorite themes, and I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that he was European-born and raised, and before coming to the U.S. as a refugee studied art in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and at the Académie Lhote. My dad relished the flights of artistic invention the myths had inspired through the ages. When I was a child, we would often go to the Greek and Roman vases section of the Metropolitan Museum as one of our favorite destinations. He would take me to the galleries with European paintings and we would admire the enormous scale and expressive details of various masterworks of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, many of which of course depict mythological subjects. I think the focus on human foibles was part of what drew dad to myths and fables. They hold the mirror up to human nature not unlike cartoons! Later in life, my father immersed himself further in the Greek and Roman myths, writing verses and creating accompanying drawings. He felt a kinship with other humorists drawn to such material, for example André Dubout, the French artist who updated the Greek myths and made the most of their ribald content.

I don’t know if a variant of my dad’s drawing ever appeared in print. Judging by the paper and style, it looks like he drew this idea around 1953-59, the years when he was publishing other myth-based cartoons in The New Yorker.

The first of these remarkable drawings renders the surface of a Greek vase as a framing device. Leda, we learn, has a vexing decision to make.

Anatol Kovarsky, Leda and the Swans, c. 1953-1959, unpublished

Images copyright the Estate of Anatol Kovarsky

It's clear from his pencil annotation on the second drawing of the Leda myth that Kovarsky considered presenting this one in a similar way, but really no vase is necessary this time. That incorrigible Zeus does have a wandering eye.

Anatol Kovarsky, Leda and the Swan, c. 1953-1959, unpublished

Images copyright the Estate of Anatol Kovarsky

What a beautiful drawing this is—and it's only a rough! It's a shame it wasn't taken by The New Yorker. These two cartoons featuring Leda, so far as we know, were never published anywhere and remained hidden from public view until now. And that's their story, save for one intriguing postscript.

A decade or so later, New Yorker cartoonist Frank Modell, a longtime friend of Kovarsky's, published a somewhat similar gag in the pages of The New Yorker. It is unclear, though, if there is any formal connection between the two drawings or if it is just one of those coincidences.

Frank Modell
The New Yorker, November 16, 1968, page 116

I asked Mr. Kovarsky's daughter about this Modell gag and she graciously replied:

Attempted Bloggery has discovered a similar gag by Frank Modell, published in 1968 in The New Yorker. I love the fact that despite the similarity, each drawing offers its own nuance in the gag’s take-away. In Kovarsky’s drawing, Leda notices with displeasure that Zeus’s attention has wandered, whereas in Modell’s, sweet innocent Leda is oblivious, her idyll undisturbed. Kovarsky’s version sets itself against classical depictions of Leda and the swan amorously entwined, and instead invites us to imagine a far more prosaic lovers’ quarrel-in-the-making. In Modell’s version, Leda’s idyll remains intact as far as she’s concerned—but the reader sees what’s what.

Yes, we certainly do.

http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1968-11-16#folio=116

Note:  I am indebted to the artist's daughter for the two scans of Anatol Kovarsky's original Leda and the Swan drawings and for the informative commentary. These images remain copyright the Estate of Anatol Kovarsky.

"Kovarsky's World: Covers and Cartoons from The New Yorker" will be on view at the Society of Illustrators from January 4 to March 3, 2018. The exhibit is co-curated by John Lind and Gina Kovarsky with an appreciation by Mo Willems. How cool is that? There will be an opening reception on January 12 from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. which your humble blogger is planning to attend. Incidentally, the forthcoming exhibition contains only drawings and covers from The New Yorker and will not include these two drawings.

On his blog Ink Spill, cartoonist Michael Maslin has been showing quite a lot of Kovarsky's unpublished work of late. If you missed it, you can catch up with it all here.

How much of Kovarsky's artwork has made it into private hands we can only guess. Still, if you happen to find original work of his hanging on the walls of your home, you might want to take a photo or two and send it this way with a few lines. You never know what might happen.

Perhaps you've seen a variant of Kovarsky's Leda drawings in print somewhere. Do tell. Of course, if you can add anything about the uncertain connection between the Kovarsky and Modell Leda drawings—if there even is any real connection—please give a honk.


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02412

Charles Addams Witch's Cauldron

Fred Taraba's website offers for sale this preliminary cartoon sketch in charcoal of witches at a cauldron.  It is, of course, by the legendary Charles Addams, master of the macabre. It has been available for over a year now, so the comment that it's "Just in time for Hallowe'en" is once again accurate.

Charles Addams, “Funny – the recipes never come out looking
like they do in the pictures”

Artist: Charles Addams (1912-1988)

Description: Witches at cauldron

Caption: “Funny – the recipes never come out looking like they do in the pictures”

Publication information: Preliminary drawing for New Yorker cartoon. Apparently not published.

Medium: Charcoal

Size: 17.5 x 14”

Signature: signed, lower right.

Condition: Light horizontal creasing, overall very good, framed.

Comment: Just in time for Hallowe’en… a classic example of the master of the season, Charles Addams.

Price: $1,400.

March 11, 2012 Update:  The price has been reduced to $1,100.

October 18, 2012 Update:  The price has been reduced to $975.

http://www.tarabaillustrationart.com/art73.shtml

Note:  My most recent post about Charles Addams is here.

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