[Walton, William. (1902–1983)] [Sitwell, Osbert. (1892–1969) & Sitwell, Edith. (1887–1964)] [Thurber, James. (1894–1961) ATTRIBUTED TO]
"Façade" - Caricature Sketches and Original Flyer
Two amusing caricature sketches of the brother and sister writers Edith and Osbert Sitwell, attributed to or in the style of cartoonist and writer James Thurber, accomplished at the first complete American performance of Edith Sitwell and William Walton's entertainment Façade. Edith Sitwell is shown at a podium, draped in an ornate cape and she reads her poetry; Osbert Sitwell, who introduced the performance, is drawn reading from a paper through his large spectacles. "Facade" penned at the upper left corner and dated at the foot: January 1949, Museum of Modern Art. On letterhead of the Plaza Hotel. Together with an original flyer for the performance. Areas of heavy toning to the edges; otherwise very good. Drawings 11.5 x 7.5 inches (29.2 x 19.1 cm); flyer 8.75 x 12 inches (22.3 x 30.7 cm).Façade is a series of poems by Edith Sitwell, best known as part of Façade – An Entertainment, in which the poems are recited over an instrumental accompaniment by William Walton. The poems and the music exist in several versions. Sitwell began to publish some of the Façade poems in 1918, in the literary magazine Wheels. In 1922 many of them were given an orchestral accompaniment by Walton, Sitwell's protégé. The "entertainment" was first performed in public in 1923, and achieved both fame and notoriety for its unconventional form.
The work had been attributed to James Thurber, American cartoonist and writer of numerous books, short stories, and essays who was managing editor of the New Yorker (1927-33). The penmanship and drawing style seem plausibly Thurberesque to our eye, but the drawing is unsigned and indeed dates from a period in which Thurber would have been already suffering from loss of vision, indeed from the year in which he stopped providing work to the New Yorker. The present work was acquired by our consignor approximately 40 years ago from a colleague of Thurber's at the New Yorker, along with many others clearly signed by him, but given this history we cannot make a definitive attribution. (15268)
Art Program, unsigned Signed Document/Item Classical Music Literature