Up for Auction: A Charming Drawing by Saul Steinberg
Christies is offering up this T&C cover proposal from the early 1940s—and it's remarkably affordable.
Ludwig Bemelmans, Raoul Dufy, and Salvador Dali are just some of the artists whose illustrations have appeared on the covers of T&C. During the 1930s and 1940s, illustrated covers were far more common than photographed ones, and museum-worthy works were routinely created especially for our magazine. One of these covers, illustrated by the artist Saul Steinberg, is available to purchase during Christie's online-only sale First Open: Post-War and Contemporary Art, which runs through Wednesday, July 27th.
Steinberg created the work between 1940 and 1941 as a cover proposal for T&C, and although the Romanian-born artist was living in Italy at the time and didn't move to the United States until a few years later, his drawing proves to be quite prescient. As Kat Widing, Christie's Junior Specialist in Post-War and Contemporary Art and the head of the online sale observes, the proposal "illustrates an interior scene of the 'Town' or 'City' life, with upscale china, a lamp and a picture frame arranged on a wooden table. Birds and insects hide in the lower third of the composition and an equestrian painting adorns the wall, cleverly connecting 'Town' and 'Country' in a single image."
Steinberg was beloved for the witty commentaries on modern life that he illustrated for publications like The New Yorker (he drew 87 covers for magazine), LIFE and Harper's Bazaar. "Steinberg said that he always wanted to draw like a child, and his honest and forthright depictions of the world indeed have an unadulterated quality. His illustrations encapsulate not only the humor but also the truth of our day to day lives," notes Widing.
The T&C cover proposal is estimated to sell for $4,000-$6,000, a very accessible price for an original work by an artist like Steinberg. The online-only auction also has many other pieces with surprisingly low estimates—some start bidding at just $400. There is even another magazine cover proposal in the sale, a study for an Artforum cover by the artist Eric Fischl, expected to sell for between $7,000-$10,000. (Call us biased, but we like the T&C cover a little better.)