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THE PIECE
Kept in storage for decades, this is a professionally framed, original production drawing from Walt Disney Studios, made circa 1938 for the animated shortDonald's Better Self, directed by Jack King and released on March 11, 1938. The drawing depicts Donald Duck alongside his angelic conscience — a halo-wearing version of himself in a white robe — which is the central visual conceit of the film. The short itself has a notable production history: it was not originally conceived as a Donald Duck cartoon, but rather grew out of a planned Silly Symphony based on the German storyDer Struwwelpeter, brought to Walt Disney's attention by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1934. By 1937, the concept had been reworked with Donald as the lead, with story direction credited to Carl Barks, Tom Armstrong, and Harry Reeves.
Original Disney production drawings from the 1920s through the 1950s are among the most revered categories of Disney collectibles, as the physical drawings used during production were for many years considered byproducts of the filmmaking process and were not systematically preserved. What survived did so largely through individual animators, studio sales, and dealers. This piece comes with a Certificate of Authenticity issued by Great American Ink, a Los Angeles-based animation art gallery with over 25 years of operation and one of the larger holdings of vintage animation art in the country. The COA is signed by Sally Walsh, Gallery Director, and describes the work as "an original production drawing from 'Donald's Better Self,' circa 1938, Walt Disney Studios." The drawing is professionally framed with double matting.
