Maurice Sendak Original Art

The winner of the 1964 Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are, and the only American illustrator to win the international Hans Christian Andersen Award (in 1970, for his body of work), Maurice Sendak is a visionary figure in children's literature. Mr Sendak began by illustrating the works of others— including Else Holmelund Minarik, Randall Jarrell, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and the Brothers Grimm. By 1956, with Kenny’s Window, he was creating his own texts as well as illustrations. Also a distinguished set and costume designer for opera and ballet, he has designed productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute, Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen, Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges and L'heure espagnole, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, and Oliver Knussen's operas based on his Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop! In 1983 Mr. Sendak received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association, given in recognition of his entire body of work; in 1996 he received a National Medal of Arts in recognition of his contribution to the arts in America; and in 2003 he received the first Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an annual, international prize for children’s literature established by the Swedish government.