Lot 179: WIESE, KURT. 1887-1974. Seven original drawings, The Five Chinese Brother

WIESE, KURT. 1887-1974. Seven original drawings, The Five Chinese Brothers, prepared for the Weston Woods filmstrip produced by Morton Schindel, 1958, 190 x 254 mm, ink, pencil and some colored pencil on paper, three signed in ink: K. Wiese. Minor wear. Provenance: Morton Schindel estate. WITH: Boy at Seaside, pencil studies for The Five Chinese Brothers filmstrip, 1958, 2 pp, each 355 x 241 mm, some creases. AND: Ink and watercolor on illustration board, being a signed illustrated thank-you note to Mort Schindel, n.d., inscribed Thank you Dear Morton, for letting us know all about the great leap of yours into Middle Asia. Kindest regards from Kurt & Gertrude Wiese. 152 x 117 mm. Based on a Chinese legend from the Ming Dynasty, Claire Huchet Bishop and Kurt Wiese’s The Five Chinese Brothers (1938) became one of the most popular American picture books of the 20th century. Although born in Germany, prolific children’s book illustrator Wiese traveled to China in his youth; and his observations there profoundly influenced his work. He was the original illustrator of the American edition of Felix Salten’s Bambi (1928), but his most enduring pictures were drawn for the Freddy the Pig books by Walter R. Brooks. Wiese was considered an expert on Chinese culture and illustrated Marjorie Flack’s The Story about Ping (1933) and his own You Can Write Chinese (1945), named a Caldecott Honor Book, among other Chinese-themed children’s books.