Largest Collection of Original 'Sleeping Beauty' Art Highlights Auction

DALLAS – The largest collections of one-of-a-kind production cels from the 1959 Disney classic Sleeping Beauty, as well as animation drawings, storyboards, concept art, backgrounds, model sheets and original art from renowned Sleeping Beauty artist Eyvind Earle ever offered will land in new collections when they are sold in Heritage Auctions’ Animation Art Auction August 6-8.

Also featured will be original artwork from all the major studios and all the animation greats, including Chuck Jones, Mary Blair, Gustaf Tenggren, Winsor McCay, Ub Iwerks, Ham Luske, Walt Peregoy, Peter and Harrison Ellenshaw and even a section of lots that are signed by Walt Disney.

The event is Heritage’s third Animation Art Auction of 2021 and its first vintage Animation Art Signature auction of the year.

One of Eyvind Earle’s “Sleeping Beauty” artworks offered is Princess Aurora’s Cradle with 3 Good Fairies concept painting (Walt Disney, 1959), with an estimate of $25,000+.

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

“This auction includes more than 1,700 lots of incredible artwork that represents the stories and characters so many of us know and love,” Heritage Auctions Vice President & Animation and Anime Art Director Jim Lentz said. “Eyvind Earle was such a pioneer in the evolution of background artwork. It’s easy to take for granted when watching an animated film, but when done at the level he did, it can enhance the entire viewing experience.

“He was an exceptionally important artist, so much so that places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Rahr West Art Museum and the Phoenix Art Museum have purchased some of his works for their permanent collections.”

One of Eyvind Earle’s “Sleeping Beauty” works offered in the auction, this production cel and master pan production background setup, 1959, has an estimate of $20,000+.

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Eyvind Earle

The collection of work by Eyvind Earle includes 37 lots, mostly from Sleeping Beauty, but also from Lady and the Tramp and one from Pigs is Pigs. The trove includes production cels, concept painting original art, production cel and master pan production background setups, concept and color key paintings, and study paintings from the artist who joined Walt Disney Studios in 1951, originally as an assistant background painter. A Disney Legend inductee, he caught Disney’s eye a couple of years later when he created the look of Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, an animated short that won an Academy Award and a Cannes Film Festival Award. Highlights include:

Chuck Jones’ Hair-Raising Hare Gossamer Production cel, Warner Brothers, 1946, carries an estimate of $10,000+.

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Chuck Jones

Among the most recognizable images in the auction is Hair-Raising Hare Bugs Bunny and Gossamer Production Cel (Warner Brothers, 1946), by Chuck Jones, who wrote, produced, and/or directed many classic Animated Cartoon shorts starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Pepé Le Pew, and Porky Pig, among others. This sale includes the largest assemblage ever offered by Heritage Auctions of work by the three-time Academy Award winner, who also directed the first feature-length animated Looney Tunes compilation film, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979). This hair-raising production cel, with a pre-auction estimate of $10,000+, captures the first encounter between Bugs and Gossamer, who technically was unnamed in the film.

Chuck Jones’ Michigan J. Frog oil painting, 1996, has a pre-auction estimate of $50,000+.

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Other Chuck Jones highlights include: – estimate: $50,000+

Mary Blair’s Peter Pan Mermaids and Jolly Roger Pirate Ship concept painting, 1953, has an estimate of $15,000+.

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Animation Artists

No animation art event would be complete without a selection of works by Mary Blair, the artist, animator and designer known best for creating concept art for such films as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Cinderella. She also created illustrations for children’s books, Disneyland’s It’s a Small World exhibit and even an enormous mosaic for Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

Among her highlights in the auction are: