Major Maurice Sendak Art and Literature Collection to Auction

Maurice Sendak’s illustrated Brothers Grimm tales and Where the Wild Things Are are among the significant works on offer in Heritage Auctions' June 30 Wild Things: The Art, Literature, and Theatre of Maurice Sendak auction.
 
“This extraordinary opportunity presents works from the full spectrum of Maurice Sendak’s career,” said Meagen McMillan, Heritage’s Senior Consignment Director of Illustration Art. “From his first available illustrations in 1947 to his last works created in the early aughts, it covers every aspect of his output. The price points, too, cover a range that welcomes new collectors as well as Sendak’s connoisseurs, everything from posters and toys to Sendak’s first drawings for Wild Things.”
 
“Sendak did not illustrate at children,” says Justin Schiller, Sendak’s close friend, collaborator and a children’s literature bookselling expert. “He illustrated for children, for the young adults they were becoming. He did not want to frighten them. He wanted to tell them the truth.” The June 30 sale is a continuation of Heritage’s longstanding relationship with Schiller as he parts with some of his most beloved Sendak works. 

Familiar characters and rarities are included in the sale. Sendak’s original and singular works on paper – studies and completed illustrations in pencil, ink, and watercolor – are among the top lots, including the only cover Sendak completed for the New Yorker magazine in 1993. We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy, with its worried-looking moon hovering over a chaotic New York City, joins Sendak’s New Year's Baby for The New York Times editorial illustration in 1976 in this event. An ink-and-pencil on paper alternative illustration of the baker for In the Night Kitchen, from 1969, proves Sendak’s mastery of robust and ever-dynamic composition, and his full-color watercolor illustration study of Moishe, a Wild Thing.