CE -- A lifetime of collecting comic related material :: Disney Studio Pt. 2 - Cels and Backgrounds *

Cel and Matching Background Painting from Who Killed Cock Robin?, 1935

Artist: Walt Disney Studios (All)

0 Comments - 1,348 Views - 0 Like

Cel and Matching Background Painting from Who Killed Cock Robin?, 1935 Comic Art

Click Image to View Full Size

Additional Images:

Frame from Same Scene in Cartoon

Previous Item:
Eyvind Earle Background Painting for Sleeping Beauty, 1959

Next Item:
Cel and Matching Background Painting for the Silly Symphony, The Tortoise and the Hare, 1935

Artwork Details

Title:	Cel and Matching Background Painting from Who Killed Cock Robin?, 1935
Artist:	Walt Disney Studios (All)
Media Type:	Mixed Media
Art Type:	Animation
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	1,348
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	7/31/2006
Comic Art Archive:

Description

This cel and background are from the last scene of the cartoon. This is the only other cel and matching background set up which I have managed to put together from two unrelated sources [the other being the Maleficent and Prince Philip set]. I have known Howard Lowery for most of my life, and we have been good friends for over 40 years. He has helped me in collecting and other aspects of life more times than I can count, and I am forever grateful that I have known him. But he has one personality trait which has caused me just a little frustration over the years [sarcasm!] While he would clearly prefer that I would never know of artwork that's in his animation art business' inventory, he has largely made the knowledge I have close to worthless. No matter how much I plead, beg, grovel, or otherwise humiliate myself, he almost NEVER will sell anything to me until the precise time when he is ready to part with a piece. I have been waiting literally 36 years for a handful of animation pieces which I profoundly desire. Most aren't terribly valuable or even that important, but I continue to wait as the years melt away. The Cock Robin background painting is one major exception to this pattern.

One Saturday I was in my office working when I received a call from my San Fernando Valley animation art dealer friend who told me about a cel which he knew I would want. It was this cel of Cock Robin kissing Jenny Wren while both are behind he parasol. He asked me to meet him at a coffee shop near my office. There he pulled out a really cheap, old frame with a slightly trimmed cel in it. There was also a long-dead spider under the glass. I immediately recognized it as a cel from the final scene of the cartoon and did not hesitate to pay the price he was asking. Normally, I wouldn't have been so thrilled with a less-than-ideal image of two characters, both with their faes largely obscured. But I had been waiting about 7 years for Howard to agree to sell the background from the same scene that matched the cel. I called Howard, told him what I had just purchased and went straight over to his gallery in Burbank. Incredibly, despite being trimmed down, the cel covered the entire painted area of the background. And the fact that the background and cel clearly should be reunited after 55 or so years motivated Howard to finally sell the background to me. As has always been true, he charged a very fair price -- he doesn't hold out selling things for the sake of obtaining more money but instead seems to like to keep my collecting in line and to not be a slave to my manias! Whatever, I never change any more than he does, but in this instance, he indulged me! I hope he doesn;t read this, but if he does, THANKS HOWARD.

##############################

Collecting Disney Background Paintings, Part 7, Cont.

The next day, I received a call from the dealer. He said that he felt bad about what had happened and that he would give me $5,000 to make up for it. I said I'd have to think about whether that would be sufficient to save our relationship. When I called him the next day and as I was explaining the $5,000 wasn't close to how much he had cost me, he interrupted and said that he wouldn't pay what he had offered just a day earlier. His wife had convinced him not to pay me anything, since that wouldn't be "fair." Thus endeth the conversation, and any buying by me for several years. His betrayal of our agreement cost him much, much more than it cost me.

And I still love the background as much as I did the day I first laid eyes on it.

The Story of Disney Background Paintings, Part 8.

The last time I ever saw Carl Harper was when we both attended one of Howard Lowery's auctions in about 1998. I was there to buy (1) the best Gertie the Dinosaur with one of the small, drawn images of Winsor McCay that I have ever seen, and (2) at least a few of a trove of background paintings from Santa's Workshop and The Night Before Christmas, two of Disney's early Silly Symphonies from which very little art survives. I really didn't expect Harper to be any competition, since he and his group only bought Mickey Mouse art. Boy, was I wrong. Not only did Carl outbid me on the Gertie, paying $10,000, an enormous amount at the time, and twice what I had paid for the nice but not great Gertie I had bought a couple of years earlier. Then he went on to outbid me on every single one of about 7 of the Christmas Silly Symphony backgrounds. They should have sold for around $2,500 to $5,000 each, and I still lost out despite bidding about $25,000 for one, $22,000 for another, and around $7-8,000 each on the others. Carl knew who he was bidding against, because I was seated in front of him. He knew that I always went after Silly Symphony art, and I knew that he NEVER did. During a break in the auction, I followed him out into a court yard with a grassed in area surrounded by concrete. Continued...

Social/Sharing

About the Owner

	C E
Joined:	April 2006
Last Login:	August 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
On CAF:	C's Want List Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

Contact the Owner

Use can use a contact form to send an email to this gallery owner,
but, you must be logged in to use this feature.

Comments on this Artwork

You must be logged in to make comments.

All
	Paul Handler 9/6/2025 12:53:00 PM
	Will Gabri-El 9/6/2025 12:52:00 PM
	Jamo's Art 9/6/2025 12:52:00 PM
	Spidey-Man4444 . 9/6/2025 12:42:00 PM
	P A 9/6/2025 11:49:00 AM
View All


	J Murdock 9/6/2025 11:31:00 AM
	COMIX ART 9/6/2025 11:30:00 AM
	Dave E 9/6/2025 11:22:00 AM
	Federico Bettini 9/6/2025 11:20:00 AM
	James Cline 9/6/2025 11:18:00 AM