The Rosenbach Museum & Library Presents Musical Influences on Maurice Sendak

Written by Florence Mulville Sunday, 08 April 2012 21:38

Philadelphia,PA.- The Rosenbach Museum & Library is pleased to present "Grace Notes: A Sendakian Rhapsody" on display until August 7th. “Music inspires grace…I don’t want a book to be just a book, I want it to suggest something as beautiful as Mozart,” Maurice Sendak reflected in 2007.  This multimedia exhibition uses 30 objects from the Rosenbach’s Sendak collection to reflect the range of musical influences on the author’s work and invites visitors to make connections of their own.

Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York to Polish Jewish immigrant parents Sarah (née Schindler) and Philip Sendak, a dressmaker. He decided to become an illustrator after viewing the Walt Disney film Fantasia at the age of twelve; however, his love of books came at an early age when he developed health problems and was confined to his bed. One of his first professional commissions was to create window displays for the toy store F.A.O. Schwarz. His illustrations were first published in 1947 in a textbook titled Atomics for the Millions by Dr. Maxwell Leigh Eidinoff. He spent much of the 1950s working as an artist for children's books, before beginning to write his own stories. Sendak gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating 'Where the Wild Things Are', although the book's depictions of fanged monsters concerned some parents when it was first released, as his characters were somewhat grotesque in appearance.

Sendak's seeming attraction to the forbidden or nightmarish aspects of children's fantasy have made him a subject of controversy. The monsters in the book were actually based on relatives who would come to weekly dinners. Because of their broken English and odd mannerisms, they were the perfect basis for the monsters in Sendak's book. His book 'In the Night Kitchen', first published in 1970, has often been subjected to censorship for its drawings of a young boy prancing naked through the story. The book has been challenged in several American states including Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Texas.


Sendak was an early member of the National Board of Advisors of the Children's Television Workshop during the development stages of the television series Sesame Street. He also wrote and designed an animated sequence for the series, 'Bumble Ardy', based on his own book, and with Jim Henson as the voice of Bumble Ardy. Sendak produced an animated television production based on his work titled 'Really Rosie', featuring the voice of Carole King, which was broadcast in 1975. He adapted his book Where the Wild Things Are for the stage in 1979. Additionally, he has designed sets for many operas and ballets, including the award-winning (1983) Pacific Northwest Ballet production of Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker', Houston Grand Opera's productions of Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' (1981) and Humperdinck's 'Hansel and Gretel' (1997), Los Angeles County Music Center's 1990 production of Mozart's 'Idomeneo', and the New York City Opera's 1981 production of 'The Cunning Little Vixen'.

In the 1990s, Sendak approached playwright Tony Kushner to write a new English version of the Czech composer Hans Krása's children's opera 'Brundibar'. Kushner wrote the text for Sendak's illustrated book of the same name, published in 2003. The book was named one of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Illustrated Books of 2003. In 2003, Chicago Opera Theatre produced Sendak and Kushner's adaptation of 'Brundibar'. In 2005, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in collaboration with Yale Repertory Theatre and Broadway's New Victory Theater, produced a substantially reworked version of the Sendak-Kushner adaptation.

Sendak chose the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, PA to be the repository for his work in the early 1970s thanks to shared literary and collecting interests. His collection of nearly 10,000 works of art, manuscripts, books and ephemera, has been the subject of many exhibitions at the Rosenbach, seen by visitors of all ages.


The Rosenbach Museum & Library is home to a collection of nearly 400,000 rare books, manuscripts, and fine and decorative art objects, including some of the best-known literary and historical objects in the world, the Rosenbach serves everyone from schoolchildren and families to scholars and casual visitors from around the corner and around the globe. The Rosenbach’s 1860s townhouse and garden provide an intimate setting for the brothers’ collections of rare books, manuscripts, furniture, silver, paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture. The house is located in the heart of the Rittenhouse-Fitler historic district in Center City Philadelphia. Museum visitors enjoy regular exhibitions drawn from the Rosenbach’s impressive holdings. Selections from some of the best-known collections are always on view, including the manuscript for 'Ulysses' by James Joyce, original drawings by children’s book author/illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the papers of Modernist poet Marianne Moore. In the years since its founding, the Rosenbach collections have continued to grow. The decorative and fine arts collections are rich and varied, ranging from Egyptian sculpture and English furniture to American portraiture. Highlights of these collections include a fine mid-18th century Philadelphia tall chest, silver by Hester Bateman and Myer Myers, a portrait by painter Thomas Sully of 19th century civic leader Rebecca Gratz, and the largest collection of oil-on-metal portrait miniatures in the United States. The Rosenbach preserves a nearly unparalleled rare book and manuscript collection, with particular strength in American and British literature and history. Exhibitions, programs, and research with this collection have focused on Colonial American history, African American history, children’s literature, book arts and technology, gay and lesbian literature, early Modernism, and much more. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.rosenbach.org

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