(Walt Disney Studios, 1940) Collection of six original production drawings and two preliminary background drawings from Fantasia by noted character animator Preston Blair, who famously animated the hippo-alligator dance in the ‘Dance of the Hours’ sequence, which is represented with five rough drawings and one storyboard drawing, all of which show Hyacinth Hippo in her tutu; one rough sketch shows Hyacinth posing with a group of five other hippopotami, and the storyboard drawing (marked Unit B) depicts four dancing hippos with blockish noses and hands. These production drawings are all accomplished in graphite and colored pencil on untrimmed 15.5 x 12.5 animation paper, and character images range in size from 4.25 x 5.75 and 10.5 x 10.5. The two original preliminary background drawings depict the interior of the palace from the ‘Dance of the Hours’ sequence and are accomplished in graphite and colored pencil on animation paper measuring 12 x 10 and 15.5 x 9.5. In overall very good to fine condition, with some scattered creasing and small edge tears. Accompanied by a graphite sketch of Hyacinth on a clipped 4.5 x 7 sheet, three semi-glossy storyboard photostats, and a typed letter from Ramsay Harris dated December 20, 1972, which directly mentions the hippo group production drawing from this lot: “And here, before I forget, let me say how much Mary and I have enjoyed the line drawing of the Dance of the Hippos, framed and overlooking our dining table. It has a timeless quality for both of us. Without actually moving your hippos give one a sense of radiant sylphs of ovoid contours forever gliding along with the most delicately graceful tonnage! And each of them is an individual.”
From The Ramsay Harris Collection.
