Maurice Sendak (American, 1928-2012) Let the Wild Rumpus Start! (Happy Birthday Wild Things!), Where the Wild Things Are, 25th Anniversary, 1988 Watercolor on paper 18-3/4 x 18-5/8 inches (47.6 x 47.3 cm) (sheet) Signed and dated lower right: Maurice Sendak / Jan 3, 88 PROVENANCE: The artist; Private collection, New York, acquired from the above. LITERATURE: J. Schiller and D.M. David, Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Work, New York, 2013, pp. 114-15, illustrated; B. Dalton Jr., Gift Books for Children, cover, illustrated. The preeminent children's book artist of the twentieth century, Maurice Sendak's contribution to the world of children's literature has been profound. With his unique ability to capture the joys, fears, and insecurities of childhood, he has revolutionized the content of children's books, expanding the limits of what is considered appropriate for young people. In recognition of his achievements, Sendak has received numerous awards, including the Hans Christian Andersen International Medal in 1970 for his body of illustration work (he was the first American to be so honored); the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1983 for his "substantial and lasting contribution to children's literature"; and the 1996 National Medal of Arts, awarded by President Bill Clinton. The New York Times reviewer Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote, "There is a grandeur and complexity about the pictures that intimidates. They have a quality of nightmare." Sendak has produced over a dozen books of his own, and illustrated more than seventy stories by other authors. He is well known both for his distinctive illustrations and for his stories, which explore, in unsentimental terms, how children deal with their fears and emotions through fantasy. Let the Wild Rumpus Start! encapsulates childlike joyfulness and wonder associated with Sendak, and demonstrates his utter mastery at children's book illustration, and exemplifies Sendak's creative genius as one of the greatest storytellers of all time. Maurice Bernard Sendak was born on June 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest child of Philip and Sarah (Schindler) Sendak. Before World War I, his parents left their Jewish shtetls (small towns) in Poland to come to the United States, where Philip went to work in Manhattan's garment district. From an early age, Maurice's imagination was fueled by the bedtime stories of his father, a dressmaker. Often melancholic and full of fantasy and mythical symbols, they were spun out of East European Jewish folklore. Because he was a sickly child, stricken with measles and pneumonia at the age of two, and scarlet fever at four, Maurice spent a major portion of his childhood at home drawing pictures of the life he observed outside his window. At the age of nine, he started writing stories with his older brother, Jack, and the two hand-lettered and illustrated their work on pieces of shirt cardboard that they bound together with tape. Maurice was also drawn to the comic books and movies of pop culture, and was especially fascinated by Mickey Mouse, who was born in the same year as he. During high school, Sendak held a part-time job with All-American Comics, adapting Mutt and Jeff newspaper comic strips to a comic-book format. It was during this time that Sendak taught himself cross-hatching and other techniques from such nineteenth-century illustrators as Wilhelm Busch, Boutet de Monvel, and the Victorian caricaturist George Cruikshank. After graduating from high school in 1946, he moved to Manhattan, whose bustling elegance had always attracted him. He found work constructing papier-mâché fairy tale characters for Timely Service, a window-display house. It was during his employment there that Sendak's illustrations were first published, as an accompaniment to Atomics for the Millions (1947), a book written by his high school physics teacher. When a promotion in 1948 removed him from the sort of work he enjoyed, Sendak quit his job and returned home to his parents. Then, "out of a job, out of sorts and money," he spent hours at the window, filling sketchbooks with drawings of Rosie, a ten-year-old girl whom he admired for her ability to imagine herself into being anything she wanted to be. In the summer of 1948, Sendak collaborated with his brother Jack, carving and painting six mechanical wooden toys. The brothers brought their creations to the famous New York toy store F.A.O. Schwartz, where store executives admired the toys but felt that they would cost too much to mass-produce. Impressed with Sendak's talent, however, they offered him a job as assistant director of the window-display department, a position he held for the next three years. While working at F.A.O. Schwartz, Sendak enrolled in some night classes at the Art Students League, largely to please his father. During a display of his drawings at the store, F.A.O. Schwartz's book buyer invited Ursula Nordstrom, Harper & Row's children's book editor, to stop by. Captivated by Sendak's sketches, Miss Nordstrom immediately hired him to illustrate Marcel Ayme's Wonderful Farm (1951), his first children's book. Thus began a long and fruitful association, a period that Sendak called one of the happiest times of his life. Then came A Hole Is To Dig, by Ruth Krauss, for which he was awarded The New York Times Best Illustrated Book. Working with Ruth Krauss was an inspiration to him, and he learned how to make text and pictures work with each other, and not against. By now, Sendak's reputation as a children's book illustrator was firmly established. While Sendak's work was popular, some critics felt that his books were "somewhat derivative." That perception ended abruptly in 1963 with the publication of his Where the Wild Things Are. This highly original work, which remains his best known, features a boy named Max, whose mother sends him to his room without supper for acting like a "wild thing." Max vents his anger by turning his room into a world of wild creatures, which, Sendak has noted, were inspired by the faces of his Jewish relatives. Where the Wild Things Are marked a turning point in Sendak's career. He felt that all the work he had done up to that point was merely preparation for creating this work. Its publication, for which he received the coveted Caldecott Medal in 1964, confirmed his place as an internationally famous children's book author-illustrator. Sendak's Wild Thing monsters carried over into areas of his oeuvre outside of children's books. In addition to his work in books and in movie set design, Sendak also produced beautiful posters, and these posters are considered an important sub-category of the artist's body of work. Sendak stated that posters "make up a very small part of my picture making...Paradoxically, I have a disproportionate affection for these images." (S. Heller, 'Sendak's Few but Significant Posters,' in Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and his Work, New York, 2013, p. 103) For Sendak, posters came easy because "they were painted in rare moments of relaxation...Often they were the happy summing up of conglomerate emotions and ideas that had previously been distilled into picture books and theatrical productions." (Ibid, 103) Let the Wild Rumpus Start!, alternatively titled Happy Birthday Wild Things!, is a tour de force within Sendaks oeuvre, and unequivocally the finest and most important Sendak to ever come to market. Created for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of Where the Wild Things Are, this commemorative illustration features Sendak's most beloved and iconic monsters dancing and rejoicing as young Max pops out of a celebratory cake in the center of the action. The work was used by Harper & Row for promotional posters and advertisements; and then reused for HarperCollins in 1998 as a cutout poster for the book's thirty-fifth anniversary. The present work, which has resided in one collection since it was gifted to the owner by Sendak himself, is accompanied by one of the above referenced die-cut printed poster, issued by HarperCollins in 1998. HID03101062020 © 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

Framed under acrylic. Hinged to backboard with archival corners. Faint handling creases visible along the upper margin. Mild toning to the sheet along the extreme edges.
Framed Dimensions 27 X 27.5 Inches Heritage Auctions strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder. Statements by Heritage regarding the condition of objects are for guidance only And should Not be relied upon as statements of fact, And do Not constitute a representation, warranty, Or assumption of liability by Heritage. All lots offered are sold "As Is"

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