Cel and Background from Peter Pan, 1953

The Story of Disney Backgound Paintings, Pt. 1

Original background paintings are almost slways far rarer than animation cels, since, with the exception of a held frame made from a single background with a held cel, many cels are filmed on top of one background painting.Therefore, background paintings alone or paired matchings of cels on backgrounds are typically much more sought after and valuable than cels alone.

Backgrounds from very early Mickey Mouse cartoons and from the very first Silly Symphony [The Skeleton Dance} still exist, and many backgrounds from all the Disney features regularly appear on the animation art market. It is impossible for anyone to know how many of these ever left the Disney Studio, especially backgrunds from the early features. But there are clues that can help identify the means by which some made their way into private hands.

When backgrounds were released for sale by Couvoisier Galley, the probably all had explanatory labels affixed to their backs, just like the typical Couvoirsier cels. From the late 1940s until the early 1950s, Disney's Art Props Department continued to prepare cels on portions of production background to be given away. These set ups had similar labels attached to their backs. They were especially attractive for several reasons. Knowing that every cel layer place on top of a background causes a dimming of the color intensity of the underlying background, the studio emplyees would trim each cel to the outline of the figure which was to be applied, leaving the remaing portions of the background uncovered by celluloid. They would also frost the cut out figures with a matt finish so that the otherwise shiny cel surface would better blend in with the flat appearance of the bacground. Finally, highlights ould be painted or airbruched on the figures, giving them added detail and interest.

Since the backgrounds and cels were not kept together after being filmed in making the finished film, the cels on these set ups usually did not match the background, i.e. the cels were not the actual ones which appeared on the backgrounds in the film, but the Art Props department had access to so many cels from every film that they almost always were able to find cels of the right proportions, orientations, and appearances that they looked great on the backgrounds. This cannot be said of most set ups slapped togeter by animation art dealers and collectors in later years, since they usually had limited access to cels to be placed on stray backgrounds.

I find these Art Props set ups to be among the most attractive pieces of Disney art, exceeded, perhaps, only by full cels on full, matching backgrounds from some important scenes of Disney features. Quite a few seem to have been made and given away, often with matts which identify the film and sometimes with stdio or authentic Walt Disney signatures. The latter signatures are often accompnied with a personalized inscription from Walt to the recipient.

My set ups from Peter Pan, the two from Lady and the Tramp, and the two forest scenes from Sleeping Beauty are of this type. I have, in the past, owned others from the Pecos Bill sequence of Melody Time, and the Mr. Toad segment of The Adventures of Icabod and Mr. Toad. Many also exist from Song of the South, Cinderella.and Alice in Wonderland.