Disney Studio Pt. 2 - Cels and Backgrounds *

There has been a market for artwork created by the Walt Disney studio for broken periods since the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. While many times the number of cels were officially sold than animation drawings and production backgrounds, example of all these art forms have been offered to the public at times over the past 80+ years. The first to tap into the nearly unlimited quantities of art produced by the Disney Studi was Guthrie Courvoisier, who marketed thousands of cels from Snow White and other Disney features and featurettes during the 1930s and 1940s, all with the blessing and cooperation of Disney. Courvoisier also sold animation drawings, which were embossed with copyright notices, and even a very limited number of master backgrund paintings. After these sanctioned sales petered out, artwork was still prepared by the stuio, at first to be given away to persons of note and to certain visitors to the stdio. When Disneyland opened, Disney artwor, including many cels and a very small number of background paintings, was sold at the Art Corner shop in Tomorrowland until it closed in the 1960s. Then, small numbers of cels were sold at the Character Shop in New Tomorrowland until the early 1970s. Disney art has continued to be sold until recent times. But original animation art left the studio via various route from the earliest days of Disney. Many sudio artists and other employees took art home with them, and no one seemed to care until animation art started to become valuable. Les Clark took drawings of Mickey and examples of Silly Symphny artwork from the early 1930s. All of the three major publicity artist unquestionably left estates with publicity drawings. The relatively unknow Jules Ingals, who later taught at Cal Arts, took home concept art which he created for Fantasia. But the vast majority of artwork outside the studio was undoubtedly taken by other studio emplyees who were not artists but who admired Disney art or sought to profit from it. I have known many of those who were involved in dealing in Disney art, and I have paid attention to many clues they gave regarding the sources for such art. The following multi-part story of Disney background paintings and cels is set forth in the sections allowed for describing entries on CAF, numbered consecutively for easy reading. The comments regarding the sources for Disney cels without backgrounds begins under the jpeg of the Robber Kitten and Dirty Bill singing.