Eyvind Earle
(1916-2000)
"Sea, Wind and Fog," 1986
Oil on board
Signed and dated lower right: Eyvind Earle ©
48" H x 36" W
Other Notes: Unique, inspired, and influential, Eyvind Earle remains one of the most popular of American artists. In an astonishing artistic career, Earle has made his mark on everything from fine art, to animation, to greeting cards. His original paintings and work done for Walt Disney Animation remain some of the most sought-after pieces by collectors.†

Eyvind Earle was born into a creative family. His mother was a concert pianist, and his father, Ferdinand Earle, a well-known artist. Often overbearing and demanding, when Earle was only 10 his father gave him a choice ñ either read 50 pages of a book or make a painting every day. Earle took the up the challenge, and did both, exhibiting his first solo show of artwork at the age of 14 in France. In 1937, fleeing abuse from his father, Earle bicycled across the United States, painting watercolors and writing in a diary as he went. He exhibited those watercolors in New York City in 1938.†

In the late 1930s Earle began taking on commercial work, designing magazine covers for AT&T and architectural publications. He also began producing Christmas cards, something he would continue to create for the rest of his life (making over 800 individual designs). After taking odd jobs and exhibiting work in the 1940s, Earle landed a position as a background painter at the Walt Disney Studios. Earle's unique modernist style gained the admiration of Walt Disney, who made him the production designer and color stylist for the masterpiece "Sleeping Beauty," released in 1959.†

After almost 16 years working in animation, Earle returned to his distinctive style of landscape painting. Until the end of his life Earle produced paintings, scratchboards, drawings, and screenprints, of which this lot is curated from. Earle's luminous style derived from working multiple applications of color over dark, often black, shapes of underpainting. He melded American Regionalist, Medieval, and midcentury abstraction to create images of intriguing, and often mysterious, scenes of nature. He was awarded the Windsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998 and became a Disney Legend in 2015.†

"For 70 years, I've painted paintings, and I'm constantly and everlastingly overwhelmed at the stupendous infinity of nature. Wherever I turn and look, there I see creation. Art is creatingÖ Art is the search for truth." ñ Eyvin Earle

Visual: Overall good condition. Occasional, slight frame abrasion along the extreme left edge. A few scattered pinhead-sized areas of stray black pigment in the fog in the lower left quadrant. Visible touch-ups along the upper edge, at right, and along the right edge.

Blacklight: Pea-sized or smaller areas of touch-up along the upper, right, and lower edges, with occasional rice-sized areas in the trees of the lower half.

Frame: 53.25" H x 43" W x 1.75" D Condition reports are offered as a courtesy and are typically published in Moran's catalogue or can be made available upon request. The absence of a condition report does not imply that an item is free from defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of others. Buyers are responsible for determining to their own satisfaction the true nature and condition of any lot prior to bidding. Though buyers are not legally required to inspect lots prior to purchase, failure to do so may constitute a waiver of complaint that an item was not delivered in a condition equal to the existent condition at the auction.