Aug 19, 2021 - Sale 2578

Sale 2578 - Lot 68

Price Realized: $ 5,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

CECIL BEATON (1904-1980)


"The French Market - New Orleans."
Original stage set illustration for the musical Saratoga, which premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre, 1959. Watercolor, wash, and ink. With a full-sized ink sketch of market on verso. 317x483 mm; 12 1/2x19 inches, sheet. Signed "Beaton" in lower left image, titled "The French Market" to its left, and "New Orleans" in lower left margin (both also in Beaton's hand). Also present is a rough sketch in lower right margin and stamp of United Scenic Artists overlapping corner of sketch and into image.

Beaton won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design and was nominated for Best Scenic Design for a Musical in 1960 for this production. Saratoga, based on the novel "Saratoga Trunk" by Edna Ferber, was directed by Morton Da Costa and produced by Robert Fryer, with a musical score by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It opened on December 7, 1959 and ran for 80 performances through February 13, 1960.

This charming and colorful design for the market with a lovely full-sized outline sketch on the verso displays Beaton's talent for capturing depth and detail of a scene.