November 19, 2000

6:59 PM

You can own art by Dr. Suess.It seems that Theodore Geisel (Dr. Suess) in addition to turning out dozens of books beloved by children (and not a few adults) was also a serious artist, but he kept all the serious art in his home. He did this work just for his own pleasure, and for no other reason.

His widow has now offered much of that art for sale as lithographs and this link shows what is available. It is recognizably the same artist, but equally it is dramatically different.

Available also are pictures from the books.
posted by Steven Den Beste (6 comments total)

Sadly, much of the work offered on this page is already sold out. I only discovered the link recently, but it may have been up for several years. Dorothy Geisel's letter is dated 1995.

posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:07 PM on November 19, 2000

Seuss.
posted by darukaru at 7:22 PM on November 19, 2000

Fortunately, much of this material has been collected in a book.
posted by Aaaugh! at 7:50 PM on November 19, 2000

He was also a prolific political cartoonist.
posted by kidsplateusa at 8:03 PM on November 19, 2000

Incidentally, we just bought a picture in a Seuss-like style (ish). There's are some more by the same artist here. I dunno - maybe they aren't that similar (I was thinking maybe the middle ones). Anyway, I suspect they're cheaper than Seuss originals (Seuss link seems broken at the moment).

Andrew

PS Not related to site above, just happy customer.

posted by andrew cooke at 2:26 AM on November 20, 2000

>He was also a prolific political cartoonist.

...and he got his start in advertising art. Definitely a prolific, insanely creative and extraordinarily interesting individual.

On a related note, Geisel's father was a zoologist, and was prone to send his son parts of animals (horns, beaks, etc.) that had passed away. These quirky gifts served as both inspiration and material, as he created sculptures of imaginary creatures based on them incorporating the original parts received from his father. This developed into his series called Collection of Unorthodox Taxidermy in the 1930's, including such fantastic specimens as the Blue-Green Abelard.

My secret passion is to be just like Seuss when I grow up (read: never grow up :-).

webchick
posted by webchick at 2:52 PM on November 20, 2000