Art Eyewitness Review: "Come Together" - Stories and Storytelling at the Morgan Library & Museum

 

Come Together: 3,000 Years of Stories and Storytelling

Morgan Library & Museum
 January 30 through May 3, 2026 

Reviewed by Ed Voves
Original photography by Anne Lloyd

Gather round, everyone! It's story time at the Morgan Library and Museum. Make yourselves comfortable because we have an amazing adventure to share.

 
In fact, the Morgan is serving-up three thousand years' worth of creation myths,  knights in shining armor, an impeccably-clad elephant and a little boy named Max who sails to the realm where "the Wild Things are."

Come Together at the Morgan traces the evolution of story-telling in human culture. 

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2026) 

A selection of works on view in the Come Together exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum: a fragment of the Epic of Atrahasis., ca. 1646-1626 BC; Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales printed by William Caxton, ca. 1483; Charles Schultz’ “Peanuts” cartoon strip, September 8, 1973

From a cuneiform fragment relating to Atrahasis, a Noah-like figure from ancient Mesopotamia, to literary classics like The Canterbury Tales and beloved comic-strip characters, such is the scope of the Morgan exhibition.

If that sounds like a daunting task for the Morgan's curators to achieve, well it is. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Gallery view of the Come Together: 3000 Years of Stories and Storytelling exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum

Not to worry. The Morgan curators are more than equal to this challenge.

Come Together is a thoroughly absorbing survey of the creative responses to humanity's insatiable need to speak - and hear - for itself. Arranged in five thematic sections, 140 works of art and literature chart the course of storytelling across the ages. 

Almost all of the artifacts in the exhibition are from the Morgan's own collection. One notable exception, however, appears at the very beginning of the exhibit, a Native American mask on loan from the American Museum of Natural History. 

Kwakiutl Raven Mask, attributed to Bob Harris , ca. 1900,

 from the collection of the American Museum of Natural History

Ironically, the story that this remarkable mask helps to illustrate involves one of the most dramatic episodes in the Morgan Library's own history. The raven-head mask complements historic photographs and an early film of Native Americans created by Edward Curtis.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Edward Curtis photo of Kwakwaka´wakw Dancers, 1914

Edward Curtis (1868-1952), a self-taught artist of genius, started taking photographs of Native Americans living in the vicinity of Seattle, Washington. At first this was a side-line to his thriving photo portrait studio. Soon Curtis' growing obsession consumed his business, his marriage, eventually his life. 

With few remaining resources of his own, financial support from J.P. Morgan enabled Curtis to continue documenting Native American culture across the vast expanse of the U.S. and Canada. By the time he finished his quest, Curtis had taken 40,000 photos! Of these, 2,234 were published in his multi-volume masterpiece, The North American Indian.

Curtis, the son of a frontier settler of the Old West, might well have formed a very different opinion of the Native Americans he encountered. Curtis could have despised "the vanishing Red Man" as so many of his generation did. But his  empathy for them is an important point to consider. 

Many times, people we would least expect - strangers, competitors, even adversaries - play an important role in appreciating and preserving the art, literature and folk lore of cultures very different from their own.

A notable example of this can be found in the first section of Coming Together, "Belief and Belonging." This is an ancient bronze container known as a Praenestine Cista. It was found in a burial chamber near the city of Praeneste, today's Palestrina, twenty miles south of Rome.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Praenestine Cista with Cover, Italy, ca. 200 BC

Praeneste was a stronghold of the Etruscans, who frequently fought settlers from Greece for control of the rich agricultural lands of southern Italy. Despite this "bone of contention", the Etruscans admired Greek culture. Many of the Greek vases and ceramic vessels now on display in art museums around the world were unearthed from Etruscan tombs, as was this Praenestine Cista.  

The Etruscans were master metal workers, so the Praenestine Cista was almost certainly a work of their hands. Yet, it is engraved with images of Greek goddesses, perhaps a scene from the Trojan War.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, to be inspired by the art and ideals of a rival culture is a far greater tribute.

Creative inspiration and the challenge of translating ideas into word and image are the theme of the next two sections of Come Together. "Shaping Stories" and "Picture This" provide the setting for studying several modern-day classics in detail. 

Two of these displays, dealing with Jean de Brunhoff's Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant (1931) and the storyboard of the 1979 theatrical production of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (1963) stand-out as surefire crowd-pleasers. The "back-stories" of Babar and Wild Things also yield fascinating insights into the childhood (or childlike) sources of creativity. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Preparatory artwork by Jean de Brunhoff for Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant, 1931. From top (left) Study for Text and Illustrations;

 Color Study for the Character of Babar; Dummy for p. 15

Babar's saga began with an impromptu bed-time story told by the wife of French illustrator, Jean de Brunhoff (1899-1937). Next day, the two young boys implored their father to create pictures of the orphan elephant. De Brunhoff set to work and Babar sprang to life in a series of wildly popular books. 

Tragically, de Brunhoff died from TB in 1937. Years later, one of his sons, Laurent (1925-2024), an accomplished artist, continued in his father's (and mother's) footsteps. By 2017, the Babar books totaled 44 in number, along with an animated TV series and endless merchandising spin-offs.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are - an image from the 1979 storyboard for the operatic version of the 1963 book.

In the case of Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak had to share the credits with a hyper-imaginative girl named Rosie who lived across the street from his boyhood home in Brooklyn. 

Back in the 1990's, I had the honor to interview Sendak for the Philadelphia Daily News. He related how, as a boy, illness often confined him to watching neighborhood children at play. One of them, Rosie, was the "author/director" and star of skits acted-out on the sidewalk and door stoops. 

What Sendak saw was childhood imagination at play - and at work. This is quite different from what adults often conceive it to be. Children's insights are deep and nuanced, seldom of the degree of innocence which their elders believe. These observations informed Sendak's lifelong approach to life and art.

Anne, Photo (2026) 

Maurice Sendak's 1979 storyboard 

for the operatic version of Where the Wild Things Are

The art works related to Where the Wild Things Are on view in Come Together were part of the 1980 operatic version of Max's adventures. For Sendak, this transition to the stage proved to be a very challenging endeavor. The first presentation was beset with a host of difficulties, though it was later revived successfully.

Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are has become an enduring work of art and literature, unifying people of different generations, races and social classes. It is part of the American canon. But it has to be wondered at, if any book, film or work of art of a more recent vintage can ever succeed to a similar degree.

Back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries- and well into the twentieth -  a new novel by a major author like Charles Dickens or Mark Twain was a cause for celebration. The same was true for plays, operas and, later, films which appealed to a shared set of beliefs or a sense of humor.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

A sequence of film frames from Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921)

A brilliant example of such mass appeal is Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921). This silent classic is presented in a continuous video loop in the exhibition galleries. We were so transfixed by The Little Tramp's attempt at parenting, that we lost track of time and then had to make a dash for the train!

Talk about the power of storytelling! 

Today, efforts to "frame a narrative" are much more difficult. Individualism has upstaged social cohesion. This is not a bad thing in itself. But trying to perceive cultural trends is increasingly problematic.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Gallery view of the Come Together exhibition.

 A 1980 drawing by Keith Haring appears at center.

The modern-day focus on personal expression supplies the theme of the final galleries of Come Together. There is a very diverse array of works on display. The Morgan curators attempted to supply something of a framework by casting many of these as "New York Stories."

Perhaps the best way to approach such diversity is to let these "personal" stories speak for themselves. Let our minds engage with the message of each and then wait to see if universal themes emerge.

That is what impressed me, in the case of The Book of Hours. This "wordless novel" by George A. Walker consists of 99 wood engravings depicting the hours leading up to the horrifying 9/11/01 attack on the World Trade Center. No text, just images.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) 

Artist’s proof of a hand-printed wood engraving for

 George A. Walker’s The Book of Hours, 2008

Walker's The Book of Hours is a study of normal daily life, the routine of people going about their business on a September morning in 2001, no different than any other September morning...

 

And then, at 9:02 am, the World changed. A senseless tragedy ensued, followed by events, wars and rumors of wars, which are still in progress, all these years later.

There is no ending, no final frame, no moral lessons to be derived from The Book of Hours. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026)

Study of Robert Browning Reading by William Wetmore Story, 1869 

That is really true of all great stories, whatever medium is used. The writer may stop writing, the artist ceases to paint or draw, words no longer flow from the storyteller's lips. 

The conclusion of the story - and the conclusions to be drawn from it - that's where we come in. 

What comes next, in our own personal story or the cosmic drama in which we all play our part? That is up to us.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                               

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

Introductory image: Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2026) Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are - an image from the 1979 storyboard for the operatic version of the 1963 book. (See full storyboard image, below) 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) A fragment of the Epic of Atrahasis., ca. 1646-1626 BC, First Dynasty of Babylon, Reign of King Ammi-saduqa. Clay The Morgan Library & Museum, MLC 1889; Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales printed by William Caxton, ca. 1483. Morgan Library & Museum MA 6304.8.4; Charles Schultz’ “Peanuts” cartoon strip, September 8, 1973. Pen and black ink, black felt pen and white paint on illustration board. Four panel strip: 6 7 x 30 inches (175 x 762 mm) Morgan Library & Museum #1973.49

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the Come Together: 3000 Years of Stories and Storytelling exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum. 

                                                                                 

Kwakiutl Raven Mask attributed to Bob Harris Collected in 1901 by George Hunt in Tsaxis/Fort Rupert, British Columbia, Canada American Museum of Natural History, Cat. No 16/8533 Accession 1901-32

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Edward S. Curtis’ Photo of Kwakwaka´wakw Dancers with Hamatsa Masks, 1914. Published in The North American. Cambridge, U.S.A. The University Press, 1907-1930, Vol 10. Plate 336. PML 20032.2

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Praenestine Cista with Cover, Italy, ca. 200 B.C Bronze, with incised surface decoration. Height (with lid) 14 ¼ inches (358 mm) Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1907. AZ046a-b

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Preparatory artwork by Jean de Brunhoff for Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant, 1931. Study for text and illustrations, 1931. 13 x 9 ¾ in. (32.8 x 24.7 cm) Morgan Library & Museum MA 6304.4.01; Color study for the character of Babar, 1931. 14 3/8 x 10 ½ in (36.5 x 26.7 cm) Morgan Library & Museum MA 6304.8.4;Dummy for p. 15: 14 1/8 x 10 3/8 in. (36 x 26.5 cm) Morgan Library & Museum MA 6304.10.10 (recto)

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are - an image from the 1979 storyboard for the operatic version of the 1963 book. Morgan Library and Museum

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Maurice Sendak's  Storyboard (Where the Wild Things Are,1979). Watercolor, pen and ink and graphite pencil on paper. © The Maurice Sendak Foundation, 2013. Morgan Library and Museum 2013.72ab

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) A Sequence of Film Frames from Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, 1921. Running time: 68 minutes. Distributed by First National Pictures.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Gallery view of the Morgan Library & Museum exhibition, Come Together: 3000 years of Stories and Storytelling. A 1980 drawing by Keith Haring appears at center.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Artist’s proof of a hand-printed wood engraving for George A. Walkers The Book of Hours, a Wordless Novel / Told in 99 Wood Engravings, 2008. Morgan Library and Museum. PML 195745.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2026) Studies of Robert Browning Reading by William Wetmore Story, 1869. Pencil on cream colored paper, laid down: 9 5/8 x 14 11/16 inches (245 x 374 mm) Morgan Library and Museum. #1954.5

Maurice Sendak Exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum

Drawing the Curtain: 

Maurice Sendak’s Design for Opera and Ballet

                                           

Morgan Library and Museum, New York City

June 14 – October 6, 2019

Reviewed by Ed Voves

While F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on his final novel, The Last Tycoon, he jotted down a note which has since become a much-debated quote.

"There are no second acts in American lives.”

In Fitzgerald’s case, that remark was a self-fulfilling prophecy. He died shortly after jotting it down. The Last Tycoon, his come-back novel, was never finished.

Another American literary lion came close during the late 1970’s to suffering Fitzgerald’s fate. Yet, as Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak's Design for Opera and Ballet at the Morgan Library and Museum shows, this beloved author did enjoy a “second act.”

Maurice Sendak, Ship (Nutcracker), 1982-84

Maurice Sendak (1928-2012) is arguably the greatest artist/illustrator of children's books of the twentieth century, certainly in the United States. Less well-known is his astonishing oeuvre for the theater. Based upon the bequest to the Morgan Library of 900 pieces of Sendak's art, Drawing the Curtain presents over 150 works of art, personal artifacts and documents related to Sendak's theatrical career.

Maurice Sendak, Study for Wild Things costume, with notes 

(Where the Wild Things Are), 1979

The theater costumes which Sendak designed were astonishing. Some of the costumes in Where the Wild Things Are measured eight feet in height and required two people to manipulate. On view at the Morgan are two less-intimidating characters from Sendak productions, the owl from Cunning Little Vixen and Tiger Boy from Nutcracker. They greet you at the gallery entrance, heralds of the wonders to be found inside.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) View of the entrance of the Morgan Library & Museum exhibition, Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak's Designs for Opera and Ballet

The Morgan exhibition focuses on Sendak's drawings and designs for costumes, “stage props” and theater curtains. These he created for the opera based on his celebrated children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are, and for Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen, Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Each of these innovation productions is brilliantly explored.

During much of the 1970’s, Sendak was engaged on a new book, Outside Over There. Already a controversial figure in children’s literature, Sendak struggled to complete this magnificently illustrated, yet frightening tale. It tells the story of a young girl named Ida, who rescues her baby sister from goblins. It was not a reassuring “kid’s” book for the first Sesame Street generation. At one point, Sendak was advised to give-up on his problematical masterpiece.

Sendak persevered, especially since there was a strong current of autobiographical sentiment in Outside Over There. The youngest of three children, Sendak had enjoyed a close bond with his brother Jack and sister Natalie. Although he had never been kidnapped by "goblins," Sendak survived - and thrived - as a child of the 1930's Depression era largely through the affection and support of his siblings.

Brotherly - and sisterly - love also helped Sendak score his big breakthrough into the art world, ultimately leading him to a second career in the theater.  

Sendak had been fascinated with Disney cartoons and pop-up books as a child. His birthday, June 10, 1928, incredibly,was the day that Mickey Mouse was first designed. In 1948, Sendak, with the help of Jack and Natalie, crafted movable toy depictions of fairy tale episodes, including  Little Red Riding Hood and Pinocchio (below).

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

 Wooden, mechanical toys made by Maurice Sendak & Jack Sendak in 1948

Sendak hoped that the famous New York City toy store, F.A.O. Schwarz, would be able to produce and market his creations. F.A.O. Schwarz declined, given the cost to produce the toys for a mass market. But the chief of advertising at F.A.O. Schwarz hired Sendak to help create the store's attention-grabbing window displays.

Later, the F.A.O. Schwarz staff member responsible for buying children's books, Frances Chrystie, introduced Sendak to Ursula Nordstrom, children's editor at Harper and Row. Nordstrom encouraged Sendak to create art for children's books. Sendak's "first" career as illustrator and author of children's books had begun.

In 1978, as Sendak anguished over Outside Over There, destiny once again came knocking on his door. He received a phone call from the noted theater director, Frank Corso.  Although he had never met Sendak, Corso had a feeling that Sendak's unconventional art and psychological insight would be well-suited to designing the costumes and sets for a new production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute.

Sendak thought it over. The risk was huge, possibly derailing publishing Outside Over There.

"Fifty,” Sendak reflected, “is a good time to either change careers or have a nervous breakdown.”

Sendak accepted Corso's offer, in no small part because classical music was a personal passion and The Magic Flute just happened to be his favorite opera.

It is fascinating to examine the works of art which Sendak created for this production of The Magic Flute. Not only did Sendak design costumes and sets, he crafted dioramas to help envision how the production would look on the stage. 

      Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

        Two views of a diorama made by Maurice Sendak         

 for the 1980 production of The Magic Flute 

Here we can see a reassertion of the do-it-yourself savvy that was evident in the toy designs he unsuccessfully tried to sell to F.A.O. Schwarz thirty years before. With remarkable patience and skill, the Morgan curatorial team carefully reassembled these miniature marvels for the exhibition. 

Sendak's theater designs also reflect his art scholarship, particularly his visits to the Morgan Library to study the rich collection of works by William Blake and Giovanni Tiepolo. The latter's Venetian work influenced Sendak's design's for the 1981 production of Sergei Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges, the opera set during the French Revolution.

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, 

Scene of Contemporary Life: The Chaperoned Visit, ca. 1791

Maurice Sendak, Design for show curtain (The Love for Three Oranges), 1981

Agreeing to collaborate with Corso on The Magic Flute launched Sendak into an incredible burst of creative energy. At one point, in 1981, Sendak was at work on four different operas at the same time. The pace, scope and scale of this schedule was punishing. Even Sendak could not always guarantee complete success. 

Maurice Sendak, Storyboard for Where the Wild Things Are, 1979

The 1980 premiere of the opera version of his own Where the Wild Things Are partly misfired. The score was not complete and the huge costumes difficult to use. Sendak  certainly devoted enormous effort on his part. He created a detailed storyboard, depicting the scenes of the opera in advance of the try-out. This storyboard, on view in the Morgan exhibit, makes for fascinating viewing as we see how Sendak managed the transfer of his classic 1963 story from book to stage.

Sendak teamed with Corso for a revival, indeed a completed version, of Wild Things in 1984. It was first performed in London and was a complete triumph.

One of the most notable - and controversial - features of Sendak's books was his refusal to "sugarcoat" life's challenges for children. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say he refused to add "sugarcoating" to mollify parents. In her book on Sendak, published in 1980, Selma Lanes quoted him on the challenges of writing and illustrating for children:

No one protects children from life because you cannot; and all we are trying to do in serious work is to tell them about life… You must tell the truth about a subject to a child as well as you are able, without any mitigating of that truth.

Sendak made few attempts to "mitigate" the truth as he saw it while working on the theatrical works under survey in the Morgan exhibition. Sendak's version of The Nutcracker was dark and alarming, yet closer to the original 1816 story than the charming Christmas classic which currently keeps ballet companies solvent from year-to-year.

Dark nuances may abound in Sendak's work but only because darkness as well as light, death as well as birth, are part of life.  

The nature of life was very much a feature of Sendak's art for Leoš Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen. This opera has comic elements, telling about the life and misadventures of a fox, Vixen Sharp-ears. The real theme, however, is the life-cycle of all creatures, in this case a fox. Perhaps, it was for that reason that Sendak agreed to add this little-known opera to his already overflowing work schedule in 1981.

Maurice Sendak, The Edge of the Forest, interlude between Act II, scene 2 and 3,

 for The Cunning Little Vixen, 1983

The art which Sendax created for Cunning Little Vixen is at once naturalistic and dreamlike. Vixen Sharp-ears, as Sendak sees her, is a creature from the real world and from the realm of the imagination. 

This leads us to consider Sendak's motives in adapting his style of art to the theater. Was he attempting to adapt his books and his vision to the conventions of the theater? Or was he aiming at something more subtle and profound?

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

Costume designs by Maurice Sendak for the Where the Wild Things Are opera

A copy of the 1963 book appears at center

Life imitates art, as the old saying goes - and vice versa. Personally, I think that Sendak was striving to reach the unexplored country where imagination and reality are one and the same. I also think he reached that goal.

Tony Kushner, playwrite, friend and biographer of Sendak, wrote a superb book on the artist's late-career. Kushner's book is essential for understanding this phase of Sendak's work, but also for how it was based on his earlier achievements as an artist/writer for children. Here is a very astute comment from the book:

It is only on the stage that Sendak characters actually move among Sendak forests, houses and ruins. And yet there’s a curious thing about his designs. These are not polite sets, nor recessive, not background: they challenge, they crowd up against the theatrical event, as the best designs do. But for all their depth, sound, and motion, for all their atmospherically evocative power, they evoke nothing more powerful than do the book illustrations of Maurice Sendak.

Sendak, in his "second" act, continued on the same visionary, unconventional and challenging path of his first career. Like most explorers, he brought a lot of baggage with him on the journey, but it proved to be very adaptable to his "brave new world."

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

 Museum banner for the Morgan Library & Museum's Maurice Sendak exhibit 

Maurice Sendak is shown wearing a costume from The Nutcracker

In closing, I would like to thank the Morgan Library and Museum for presenting Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak's Design for Opera and Ballet. It helped me relive one of the peak experiences of my life, interviewing Sendak by phone for an article I wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News in 1995. I later met him at the Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia which was presenting an exhibit of his art work. It was a moment to cherish and so is a visit to this inspiring, life-affirming exhibition at the Morgan.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                

Images courtesy of the  Morgan Library and Museum 

Introductory Image:

Maurice Sendak (American, 1928-2012), Diorama of Moishe scrim and flower proscenium (Where the Wild Things Are), 1979-1983. Watercolor, pen and ink, and graphite pencil on laminated paperboard. © The Maurice Sendak Foundation. The Morgan Library & Museum, Bequest of Maurice Sendak, 2013.103:69, 70, 71. Photography by Graham Haber, 2018

Maurice Sendak (American, 1928-2012), Ship (Nutcracker), 1982-84. Gouache and graphite pencil on paper. © The Maurice Sendak Foundation. The Morgan Library & Museum, Bequest of Maurice Sendak, 2013.107:289. Photography by Janny Chiu

Maurice Sendak (American, 1928-2012), Study for Wild Things costume, with notes (Where the Wild Things Are), 1979. Watercolor, pen and ink, and graphite pencil on paper. 

© The Maurice Sendak Foundation. The Morgan Library & Museum, Bequest of Maurice Sendak, 2013.103:19. Photography by Janny Chiu

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) View of the entrance of the Morgan Library & Museum exhibition, Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak's Designs for Opera and Ballet. The costumes shown here are the Owl from The Cunning Little Vixen and Tiger Boy from The Nutcracker.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) View of wooden, mechanical toys made by Maurice Sendak and Jack Sendak in 1948. Photo shows Pinocchio (top) and Little Red Riding Hood. On view at the Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Two views of a diorama by Maurice Sendak for the Frank Corso production of The Magic Flute (1980). On view at the Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum. 

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian,1726?-1804) Scene of Contemporary Life: The Chaperoned Visit, ca. 1791. Pen and brown-black ink and wash over black chalk:

14 5/8 × 19 11/16 in. (37.1 × 50 cm) Morgan Library and Museum,Thaw Collection.    2017.255. Photography by Steven H. Crossot

                                                                                                                                    Maurice Sendak (American, 1928-2012) Design for show curtain (The Love for Three Oranges), 1981. Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper: 13 × 22 in. (33.02 × 55.88 cm) © The Maurice Sendak Foundation,  2013. Morgan Library and Museum 2013.106:167. Photography by Janny Chiu

Maurice Sendak (American, 1928-2012) Storyboard (Where the Wild Things Are,1979). Watercolor, pen and ink and graphite pencil on paper. © The Maurice Sendak Foundation, 2013. Morgan Library and Museum 2013.72ab. Photography by Janny Chiu

Maurice Sendak (American, 1928-2012) The Edge of the Forest, interlude between Act II, scene 2 and 3, for PBS broadcast (The Cunning Little Vixen), 1983. Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper: 11 15/16 × 16 in. (30.32 × 40.64 cm) Frame: 16 5/8 x 21 3/4 x 1 in. Bequest of Maurice Sendak, 2013.105:102. Photography by Janny Chiu

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Morgan Library & Museum exhibition, Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak's Designs for Opera and Ballet. Photo shows Maurice Sendak's costumes for the opera version of Where the Wild Things Are and a copy of the 1963 book.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) View of the entrance of the Morgan Library & Museum exhibition, Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak's Designs for Opera and Ballet. Photo show a museum banner of Maurice Sendak wearing a costume from The Nutcracker.