Cat, Bird, Monkey, Owl, Lady Bug Portrait - Alert Animals Illustration, ca. 1950s

British-American painter and Female Illustrator artfully renders six different animals closely grouped on one page. They are seen as individuals, but silhouetted, not relating to one another. Each appears to be engaged in some active and alert moment. Titled: "Conjured Up Things." Initialed lower right. The paper is mounted on a thin archival Stratmore Board with dimensions of 15 x 11 inches.
Kepes illustrated five children's books, and this could have been a commercial assignment or for a book project we are not aware of.

Ink and wash on paper glued to archival board
7 - 9 inches
US$6,000 Plus Shipping

Juliet Kepes (née Appleby; 1919–1999) was a British illustrator, painter and sculptor.
Life
Kepes studied at Brighton School in the 1930s, and met her future husband, György Kepes in Shaftesbury Avenue in 1936. When in 1937, György was offered a teaching position at the New Bauhaus in Chicago – Juliet went with him to study, while he taught. In later life, they moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts – again for György's work.
Professional work

In the early 1950s, Kepes began writing and illustrating children's book. Her first work was published in 1952 and was titled Five Little Monkeys. The work was good enough to win a Caldecott Medal honour in 1953, missing out on the medal to The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward
Bibliography

Five Little Monkeys (1952) - author and illustrator
Laughing Time (1953) – illustrator
The Seven Remarkable Bears (1954) – illustrator
Beasts from a Brush (1955) – author and illustrator
Boy Blue’s Book of Beasts (1957) – illustrator
Frogs Merry (1961) – author and illustrator
Five Little Monkey Business (1965) - author and illustrator