Remarkable original watercolor painting begun by acclaimed Disney artist Mary Blair in 1938 and finished by her husband, Lee Blair, nearly five decades later in 1985. The painting, 19 x 12.5, depicts a rural overhead vista, with brown rolling farmland and a central grove of trees—one of which is blue—set below a distant view of green hills and low-hanging clouds. Mary Blair’s portion of the work constitutes the foreground with brownish hills, trees, shrubbery, and cattle, and Lee finished the painting by adding the sky and outlying hillside. The lower left bears the elusive signature of Mary Blair in red artist pencil, and the lower right is annotated with the names of Lee and Mary Blair by an unknown hand, presumably their friend and the painting’s former owner, Ramsay Harris. Double-matted to an overall size of 24 x 18. In fine condition. Accompanied by a TLS from Lee Blair, signed “Lee,” addressed to Mary and Ramsay Harris on May 28, 1985, which references this very painting: “By the time you receive this letter you will have probably received the painting via Air Express Mail. It is a painting that Mary had started many years ago so I finished it up with the upper green and blue hills and sky. She was attracted to the little blue tree and I do not remember when she painted the scene.” An annotation to the reverse of the cardboard backing mount dates Mary’s artwork to 1938.
From The Ramsay Harris Collection.
