Maurice Sendak

MAURICE SENDAK is generally considered the finest author and book artist of his generation. Having more than eighty books to his credit, his many awards have included the 1964 Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are ("Most Distinguished Picture Book of the Year: 1963") besides many other Caldecott Honor titles, first recipient of the Empire State Award for Excellence in Literature for Children, and he is the first American illustrator to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Award (1970) presented by IBBY: along with the American Book Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (1983), the President's Award Medal In the Arts for Lifetime Achievement (in 1996), the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecturer for 2003, and also in the same year was the recipient of the first Astrid Lindgren Award, a very prestigious international prize for children's literature established by the Swedish government, among many other accolades and citations.

Whereas illustrators look to create pictures from images and styles that influence them, Sendak the artist is unique as he adapts and blends these inspirations into his own forms which take on a vitality rather than shadow the work of others. From the spiritual mysticism of William Blake, the romantic artistry of Samuel Palmer and Philip Otto Runge, the Victorian ideals of Arthur Hughes and Randolph Caldecott, to the bold lines of William Nicholson and the delicate hues of Beatrix Potter, all these mix within Sendak's palette to present a world of new excitement where his Wild Thing creatures represent imaginary play-friends to the child in all of us.

Mr. Sendak's original drawings are constantly in demand by museums, art galleries and collectors everywhere. Although most of his original work is archived at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, his pictures are represented in many major collections around the world. It understates his importance to simply call him a genius in his field: he has been called "the Picasso of Children's Books", and for more than a half-century his work has been critically praised, admired and emulated. Retrospective exhibitions have been held at the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1975), the Pierpont Morgan library (New York, 1981), the Indianapolis Museum of Art (1999), the Brennan Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta (2001, a version of which went on national tour), the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Books (November 2002), Brandywine River Museum (2003), and most recently a remarkable survey of his art at the Jewish Museum (New York, 2005) covering both his book work and sets/costumes for opera and ballet, subsequently extending the show to the Tampa Art Museum in Florida (2006).

It is a privilege for us to be able to offer a fine selection of Mr. Sendak's original artwork, signed prints, posters and first editions, making them available to clients and friends with discriminating taste and appreciation of his talent and genius.