From the estate of producer/director George Pal (The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds) comes a set of twelve (12) large, framed original portraits by illustrator Joseph Smith depicting the stars of Pal's Cinerama film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, in-character. Smith hand-painted several nearly identical sets of these stylized portraits to advertise the film. With the help of his wife, Smith built on the portraits by gluing pieces of actual fabric, beads, a toy crow on actress Beulah Bondi's shoulder, etc. to give them a unique, semi-three-dimensional quality. The set is comprised of portraits of actors Laurence Harvey, Barbara Eden, Carl Boehm, Yvette Mimieux, Clare Bloom, Walter Slezak, Oskar Homolka, Jim Backus, Buddy Hackett, Terry-Thomas, Russ Tamblyn, and Beulah Bondi.
This set of paintings was on display in George Pal's Beverly Hills home for years.
Sample images of the actual portraits for sale here are shown below. (To see a full set of similar paintings, refer to the hardbound Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm program book. It is not the exact same set--the types of fabric used, etc. vary, but most of their details match closely.)
NOTE: The copyright notices are NOT on the actual paintings, only on the photos accompanying this listing.
Joseph Smith's other distinguished credits as a movie poster artist include films like Ben-Hur, Spartacus, and Earthquake, among many others.
Serious inquiries are welcome.
