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(Walt Disney Studios, 1948) Rare original concept painting by Mary Blair for the live-action/animated film So Dear to My Heart, which was produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The scene captures a small Indiana farm in the early 1900s, with a centralized straw-thatched shack with a smoking chimney, a nearby river and orchard, and a rolling vine-woven paddock with hopping lambs and rabbits. Unlike other concept paintings offered at auction, this example is signed neatly by Blair in the lower right corner.
Redolent of Grandma Moses, Blair applies a folk or primitive motif inspired by quilt patterns, a style she adopted while creating the conceptual artwork for So Dear to My Heart. She fills the childlike farmscape with wonderfully rich colors—hot pink amid golden yellow, ochre, and oranges, juxtaposed with tones of grayed violet, purple, and salmon—whilst presenting her trademark sensual, spheroid, biological, and abstract forms to communicate solace, comfort, and joy to the viewer. Double-matted and framed to an overall size of 18 x 16.5. In fine condition. Accompanied by a first edition of John Canemaker's book, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair: An Appreciation.
Blair’s work for So Dear to My Heart was such a love letter to turn-of-the-century rural America that it became a dear favorite to Walt Disney, who was raised on a small farm in the American Midwest during the same period. So accurate was the recreation, Disney was later quoted as saying: ‘Why, that's the life my brother and I grew up with as kids out in Missouri.’
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