(Walt Disney Studios, 1959) Awesome original concept painting by Eyvind Earle for Sleeping Beauty, portraying the sorceress Maleficent as a massive dragon towering above the nearby wastelands of her castle. In true Earle form, the scene is deftly and vividly realized, depicting the film’s arch-villainess in her most powerful form—a gigantic black dragon with spread wings and a stream of fire shooting from her mouth. Matching Maleficent is the outstanding foreground work of Earle, who adds a dire and otherworldly mixture of jagged rocks, eerie mist, and twisted trees and thorns to the foreboding landscape. Accomplished in gouache on 15 x 6 artist's board, with Earle signing the lower right corner in purple paint. In fine condition, with tack holes to corners. 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. A terrific depiction of the ‘Mistress of All Evil’ at her most devastating.
