Sotheby’s will auction Maurice Sendak’s original artwork for the inaugural “New York is Book Country” promotional poster with an estimate of $300,000-600,000.
The pen, ink and watercolor work on paper features one of the American illustrator’s beloved “Wild Things” characters sized to the scale of the Empire State Building, which it is depicted as leaning against while enjoying an apple and reading a copy of Charlotte Brontë’s novel Villette.
“That’s the first thing you think of when you think of Maurice Sendak and his legacy, is Where the Wild Things Are“, Sotheby’s books and manuscripts specialist Ella Hall told ARTnews.
The 27.5-inch by 23.5-inch signed work was produced for the “New York is Book Country” street festival on Fifth Avenue, an annual event celebrating literature from 1979 to 2010. Other artists commissioned to design promotional posters included Charles Schulz, Richard Scarry, and Keith Haring.
Hall told ARTnews she knew of “New York is Book Country” being in the current owner’s collection for many years. “I’ve always loved it, so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to bring it to the market,” she said.
In calculating the estimate, Hall and her colleagues considered existing auction records for comparable pieces featuring the “Wild Things” characters, the artwork’s large size, the inclusion of an iconic building in New York City, as well as recognition of Sendak as one of the the most important children’s book illustrators of the 20th century. “That has a huge impact on his market and on our pricing,” she said.
The work was also loaned to the Society of Illustrators Memorial for an exhibition for Sendak in 2013, after the artist’s death the previous year. “At the time, there was a book published by Abrams to coincide with the Society show and this was actually the cover art for that book,” Hall said.
Sendak’s New York is Book Country (1979) was acquired directly from the artist in 1996 and has been in a private collection for nearly three decades.
“He made the decision after some agonizing that it was time to pass it along to the next collector that might appreciate it,” Hall told ARTnews.
Sotheby’s expects broad interest in the artwork due to a current retrospective at the Denver Art Museum running until February as well as the artist’s original work being shown at other institutions. “I think you can really think of him as a great American artist at this point,” Hall said.
There’s also the chance New York is Book Country could set a new auction record for an original work by Sendak due to the ongoing popularity of Where the Wild Things Are. “It’s comparable to the current record in many respects, and the market has grown over the last 10 or so years since his death,” Hall said. “We’re really happy, and we think it could possibly set the record for his work at auction.”
The work will be sold as part of Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts auction on December 10, which also features a first edition copy of Brontë’s Vilette.
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