(Walt Disney Studios, 1959) Incredible original concept storyboard painting by Eyvind Earle for Sleeping Beauty, portraying Prince Phillip and his steed Samson rushing forward to engage with Maleficent, soaring high above the castle walls as an immense fire-breathing dragon. The terrific scene is flawlessly realized as Earle forces the viewer to focus on the meeting of glowing fire-blast and the hard-racing knight, while in brilliantly uniform detail he completes the scene with pointy flag-tipped towers, his trademark trees and shrubs, a foreboding and blackening night, and the dominant ebon form of a great dragon stretching across the sky with jagged wings and tail. Accomplished in tempera on 23.5 x 10.25 artist's board, with Earle signing in yellow paint in the lower right corner. In fine condition, with trivial wear to edges. Disney artist Eyvind Earle was Sleeping Beauty's production designer, and Disney gave him a significant amount of freedom in designing the settings and selecting colors for the film. Earle also painted the majority of the backgrounds himself, and his stylistic influence is readily apparent in the final product.
