MONROVIA, CA — Six works by California landscape artist Edgar Payne and three by Warner Bros. animation background artist Irv Wyner lead the 141-lot California & Fine Art sale scheduled for May 7. The complete catalog is now available for review and bidding at LiveAuctioneers.
Edgar Payne (1882-1947) is best known for his Impressionistic landscapes created in the plein-air style. Payne routinely took pack horses to the upper lakes of the Sierra Nevada mountains in east-central California, one of which is now named in his honor. For decades, Payne’s works have hung in prestigious museums and private collections worldwide.
Indian Riders is a highly impressionistic take of two braves on horseback set against a majestic, cloudly sky and desert buttes. Measuring 25 by 30in and gilt framed, the signed oil on canvas is estimated at $150,000-$200,000, making it the sale’s top lot.
Though he likely toiled in obscurity for years prior, Irv Wyner (1904-2002) received his first screen credit as a background artist for Gift Wrapped, a 1952 Sylvester & Tweety animated short produced by the Warner Bros. animation unit headed up by Friz Freleng (1905-1995). It was Freleng who would later create the pioneering 1960s Pink Panther shorts for MGM through his DePatie-Freleng Enterprises partnership with David DePatie (1929-2021), one of the longest-serving executives in Warner Bros. animation history.
Largely unsung in popular culture (except by animation cel collectors), background artists had an incredibly important role in early animation, creating the overall look and feel for the animation that would be overlaid. Wyner’s works in the Moran sale reflect his decades of background work. All three acrylic-on-board works — Light and Shadows – Farm Scene, Country Farm and Farm Scene in Green — all look like they jumped out of a classic Looney Tunes short. Though Moran dates Light and Shadows to 1970 and the other two remain undated, the works are probably from the later years of Wyner’s life, when former Disney and Warner Bros. animation artists sought to monetize their skills in the burgeoning animation collecting markets of the 1980s and 1990s.
