Dec 10, 2019 - Sale 2526

Sale 2526 - Lot 86

Price Realized: $ 15,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
H. A. REY. (HANS AUGUSTO REYERSBACH.)
"Then all the monkeys put on their skis, climbed the tree, and slid down Cecily's back, over and over again." Illustration for Rey's story Rafi et les 9 singes (Paris: Gallimard, 1939). A slightly altered version was later published in English as Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1941). Color pencil, charcoal, watercolor, gouache, and wash on stiff paper. 260x230 mm; 10 1/4x9 inches, on 11x9 1/4-inch sheet. Unsigned, but with artist stamp on verso and penciled page number in lower margin. Some black spotting and gray smudging throughout background. Tipped to window matte; framed. Purchased from Bush Galleries in 1989 during their exhibition on H.A. Rey.
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Additional Details

a well-known illustration featuring the children's storybook icon, curious george, from the first book to introduce him.

H.A. Rey first published this work with Gallimard in 1939, titled with Cecily's original name: "Rafi et les 9 singes." The tale follows the adventures of Cecily Giraffe ("Cecily G.") as she meets a monkey, Mother Pamplemoose, and her eight children, one of whom is particularly curious. George's popularity among readers prompted Rey to begin work on an illustrated manuscript for the first separate Curious George title. Soon after production began in the spring of 1940, Hitler ordered troops across the low country of France, culminating in the Nazi invasion of Paris on June 14th. Having waited too long to leave the city, and finding no available mode of transportation, Rey assembled bicycles from scrap parts, on which he fled with his wife and collaborator, Margaret, and their manuscript, just hours before the siege began. The Reys eventually arrived and settled in New York City where they soon began a long, successful, and exclusive partnership with Houghton Mifflin, who published the first American edition of Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys in 1941 and continued the popular series featuring the beloved monkey.