Preliminary Background Painting for Three Blind Mouseketers, 1936

I have never collected animation background paintings which did not actually appear in final cartoon. Therefore, when this painting appeared in a early Russ Cochran auction in 1980 [the same sale from which I bought my Cookie Carnival background], I passed on it. But Three Blind Mouseketers had some of the best artwork of any early Disney short - it was made at the same time that Snow White was produced. And my perspective has changed over the past 44 years, since I have not known any production background from the cartoon to show up during that period of time. I now assume that this high quality background was discarded in favor of a wider, pan background for use in the film. I now doubt that a production background will ever show up in my lifetime, so I "settled" for this background, which I've admired for a long time as a very representative piece of art for the cartoon.