GARTH WILLIAMS, (AMERICAN 1912-1996)
LARGE PRELIMINARY WATERCOLOR FOR THE COVER ARTWORK OF “Three Bedtime Stories”, 8″ X 6.5″
SIGNED to the front lower left corner in full signature “Garth Williams”. Preliminary Watercolor Cover Design for Three Bedtime Stories. Williams’s pencil notes on verso say “I prefer this – GW” and “Title error – should be ‘THREE BEDTIME STORIES’ GW.”
A stunning preliminary watercolor cover design by Garth Williams, signed in full signature lower left corner, with his additional notations and initials on verso. The art is rendered in vibrant watercolors on card stock and shows both the front panel and spine concepts for the book. A beautiful piece with a lot of detail with a pig, bear and a cat all sitting in the grass, each reading a story at night with a lantern sitting between them. A beautiful one-of-a-kind piece of exceptionally rare artwork.
PROVENANCE
The art was purchased from an auction house , who in turn acquired these pieces direct from the estate of Garth Williams. Each piece is an original and sold directly from his estate. A copy of the original invoice will be included with each piece, and will provide both provenance and authenticity for the art.
**Garth Williams was a prominent illustrator of several of the most prominent children’s books including Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte’s Web (1952), The Cricket In Times Square, and The Rescuers (1959). Many of his original illustrations from these book have sold attaining high premiums, including his original illustration of the dust jacket for Charlotte’s Web which realized $155,000 at auction in 2010, and between $10,000 and $75,000 for original artwork of the interior pages. Other notable auction pricing of Williams original illustrations include sales of the original artwork for the interior pages of Stuart Little which also averaged in the $15,000 range per piece.
