7 surprising things from Maurice Sendak’s collection

As the artist and author of some of the most celebrated children’s books of all time, Maurice Sendak is known the world over as a masterful storyteller. In his collection of art and objects, a new story unfolds, giving insight into the inspirations and preoccupations of a legendary creative mind.

His varied, and at times, unexpected, collection encompasses rare books, fine art, decorative objects and memorabilia, many of which Sendak lived with. These works will be offered at Christie’s across two sales in Maurice Sendak: Artist, Collector, Connoisseur: a live auction on 10 June in New York and an online sale from 29 May through 12 June. All proceeds will benefit The Maurice Sendak Foundation, which hosts an annual fellowship program for artists working in illustration.

Here, discover seven surprising lots on offer from Sendak’s collection, each of which reveals the profound connections between the objects he chose to live with and the timeless tales he gifted us all.

A cornerstone within the canon of English literature, William Blake’s Songs of Experience is a complex collection of poetry that is a companion to Blake’s earlier work Songs of Innocence. As opposed to Innocence, Experience presents a more mature view of the world and explores themes of oppression, corruption and the loss of innocence.

‘One of the rarest works by Blake, this is the first printing of Songs of Experience,’ says Heather Weintraub, Specialist, Books & Manuscripts. ‘It is one of only four copies printed in 1793 while the work was still in progress and is incredibly special in that it is colour printed.’ This volume showcases Blake’s innovative method of printing that allowed him to control all aspects of the book‘s production, from writing the poems and designing the pictures to etching, printing, and colouring. ‘It is the only copy of the first printing in private hands as well as the only one uncut with its original paper wrappers,' says Weintraub. 'It's as it would have left Blake's hands.’

One of the first major purchases Sendak made as a collector was Samuel Palmer’s watercolour St. Paul Landing in Italy. A leading artist of British Romanticism, Palmer greatly impacted Sendak’s style, and the cross-hatching in the 1880 etching The Lonely Tower was a model for the illustrations in Higglety Pigglety Pop!

Palmer’s landscapes resonate throughout Sendak’s oeuvre, as he deeply immersed himself in the work of the artist and his circle. ‘His love of 18th-century English pastoral landscapes influenced the stories we all know today,’ says Richard Lloyd, International Head of Prints at Christie’s. ‘He was drawn to artists who looked at the world in the same way, who were fellow travellers. His passion for them was very intellectual, very thoughtful, and very much a private passion. He was acquiring these things for himself.’

Beatrix Potter’s impact on children’s literature cannot be overstated, and her books remain some of the best-selling children’s titles in the world. Unsurprisingly, Sendak was a devotee of Potter’s work and amassed a significant collection of her books and pictures, including these two examples: Studies of mice and A Snail guarding their Nest. He even owned Potter’s pencil box, which is housed in The Maurice Sendak House & Archive in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Sendak once commented that Potter’s Peter Rabbit possesses ‘an overwhelming sense of life, and isn’t that the ultimate value of any work of art?’ This idea is one that he would apply to his own art, always seeking to instil human emotion and empathy in each of his characters.

Sendak adopted his first dog, Jennie, when he was 25. The Sealyham terrier would play a notable role in nearly all his stories from 1954 through 1967. ‘As Sendak famously declared, his dog was the love of his life,’ says Jonathan Weinberg, Curator & Director of Research at The Maurice Sendak Foundation.

While you can find Jennie in Where the Wild Things Are, Chicken Soup with Rice, One Was Johnny and many other tales, she figures most prominently in Higglety Pigglety Pop! The book follows Jennie as she ditches a life of comfort for one of adventure, and this image of her with a mop is an alternate version of the one Sendak used for his bookplate.

Another 18th-century Romantic painter admired by Sendak was George Stubbs, whose depictions of animal such as A Lion made a particular impression on the author. Sendak owned nearly every print Stubbs personally etched and engraved. ‘Stubbs’ amazing prints were a model of observation and realism,’ says Weinberg. ‘Like Stubbs, Maurice had an uncanny ability to represent lions and bears with all the characteristics of their animal nature yet also make them seem human and empathetic.’ Like Stubbs’ animals, Sendak’s characters display a range of emotion and depth, bridging realism and fantasy.

Sendak’s collecting journey began as a child with the Mickey Mouse bisque figurines he picked up at movie screenings. His love of the work of Walt Disney continued throughout his life, and he began to collect Disney memorabilia in earnest in the 1960s. ‘He communicated his delight in the beauty and craft of the works he loved, whether it was a crazy Mickey Mouse drawing, or a precious Dürer engraving,’ says Weinberg. ‘He made no distinction between so-called popular art and fine art, what mattered to him was a work’s intrinsic quality and liveliness.’

This Tippco mechanical toy is one of the finer examples of his Mickey Mouse memorabilia. It was manufactured by Tippco in Germany in the 1930s amidst Disney’s growing international fandom. The Mickeys from this era were of particular interest to Sendak, and their proportions and expressions had an influence on the development of his own characters and scenes. 

Sendak was a lifelong music lover, with a passion for classical composers. ‘More than any writer or visual artist, his God was Mozart,’ says Weinberg. He often drew and painted with music by Mozart or Wagner or Schubert playing in the background, and he eventually translated this love to the stage. Over the years, Sendak designed sets and costumes for several operas including The Magic Flute, The Nutcracker and The Love for Three Oranges.

In 1988, he began designs for the Los Angeles Opera’s staging of Indomeneo, an opera series by Mozart set in Crete. The production premiered in 1990, and this watercolour showcases his vision for the finale, which drew inspiration from William Blake’s Biblical illustrations.