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Lot 123

STEIG, WILLIAM. 1907-2003.
Original illustration for Fortune, c. 1953, ink over pencil,

5 December 2019, 10:00 EST
New York

US$1,000 - US$1,500

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STEIG, WILLIAM. 1907-2003.

Original illustration for Fortune, c. 1953, ink over pencil, 210 x 115 mm, signed in ink lower left ("W. Steig") with printer's marks on verso.
Published: William H. Whyte Jr., "The Executive's Problem: The Executive," Fortune, January 1954, p. 79.
WITH: Two unidentified pen-and-ink drawings, 120 x 115 mm and 140 x 105 mm, both signed lower left, possibly unpublished, glue residue on verso of the smaller one.
Provenance: William Steig, the artist; by descent.

As the son of socialists, William Steig was ambivalent about working for Fortune. After all he never tried climbing the corporate ladder himself. This drawing shows a businessman in pursuit of a bird in flight while being held back by three colleagues, the bird is missing from the published version. The first of the two additional drawings shows a businessman gleefully riding a roller coaster and the larger of the two depicts a man gingerly stepping through a minefield of words and is identified on verso as "a page of handwriting."

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