Christie’s will present Maurice Sendak, Artist, Collector, Connoisseur ONLINE, an auction of around 80 lots offering works made and collected by Maurice Sendak, the late artist whose books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. The sale follows the announcement of a pair of Sendak sales at the house.
The online sale will be open for bidding from 29 May to 12 June 2025. A live auction, Maurice Sendak: Artist, Collector, Connoisseur, will take place on 10 June, which would have been Sendak’s 97th birthday. The works will be on view at Christie’s from 6 to 10 June 2025.
A draftsman who reached his audience through books, Sendak was drawn to prints, drawings, and books of the Romantic era at the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th. His taste ranged across the past 500 years, from textiles to toys to Chinese ceramics. The online sale includes names from art history such as Albrecht Dürer, David Hockney, and Louise Nevelson, along with works by children’s authors including Beatrix Potter and Eric Carle, all of which influenced him. William Blake surfaces in his visionary storytelling, while Potter echoes in the animals and mythic creatures that populate his landscapes.
Proceeds from the sales will support the Sendak Fellowship, a residency program at The Maurice Sendak Foundation, a nonprofit that supports artists who tell stories through illustration.
Richard Lloyd, International Head of the Prints & Multiples Department, said that for those curious about what inspired Sendak, the sale offers a surprising answer, noting that much of his inspiration came from English pastoral artists working more than two centuries ago and that his imaginative landscapes are rooted in those rarely seen works.
(Press Release)
