Story Painting for Disney Silly Symphony, Winken, Blinken, and Nod, 1938

Signed, pre-production artwork from the Disney studio is very rare. This exceptional painting in watercolor and guache is signed by E. Flohri, who worked for Disney from 1929 until 1938. The artist also worked on Snow White, painting at least one inspirational image of the Dwarfs' cottage. This story painting is on paper similar to that used for background paintings and is rather large for story art -- 9 X 11 inches. The 1938 Silly Symphony, Winken, Blinken, and Nod, was made after the premier of Snow White and during the early years of production of Pinocchio. Many consider the art of this short to be the artistic peak of the Disney studio (although t find the actual cartoon to be a great big bore).


Considerations Re. Concept Art, Part 4, continued.

Let's talk about Eyvind Earle. There seems to be a never ending supply of pieces of concept art showing Maleficent as the dragon chasing Prince Philip all over the place, even though this segment of Sleeping Beauty was very short in duration. I have found 46 images of these dragon concept pieces as of March 2021, and I doubt that I've managed to find photos of all that have been sold to date. It's hard to understand why so many similar paintings could have been needed, especially since many do not even relate to any of the actions actually shown in the film, or why there are so many that are basically interchangeable with a number of others, i.e., they do not add anything of significance to the development of the story or color styling. And the prices for which they sell have not appreciably decreased even though demand should have declined as more and more collectors obtained an example. How many collectors can afford to pay $10,000 to $15,000 or so for one of these small paintings? And even if many could pay such price, I doubt that there have ever been 46 willing to do so. The same can be said to only a slightly lesser degree with images of Maleficent prancing in, out, and around her castle. For a long time the only concept art from Lady and the Tramp, on which Earle is documented as having worked, were from the sequence where Tramp courts Lady in and around the zoo. But, out of the blue, pieces from the Bella Notte sequence, which I had never heard was a part of the feature with which Earle had been involved, started to come onto the market and to command premium prices. What changed, since the prices for other concept pieces had been sufficiently high for decades that at least some of those who had Bella Notte concepts would have been expected to consign some to auctions at much earlier dates if the art had actually existed before recent times. Again, we know for certain of Eyvind Earle's role in certain films, and there might be explanations for what pieces by him appeared at certain times, but some might wonder if all of this expensive art, always promoted as being signed by Earle, is legitimate. Continued ...