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Like soaring under the Big Top on the flying trapeze, finding love is a feat of aerial artistry - requiring a leap of faith, trust in your partner, and perfect timing.
$995.00
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$995 USD
Pigment print on archival paper
Authorized Estate Edition
Dimensions: 22” x 17.25”
Limited Edition of 850 Arabic Numbers
99 Patrons’ Collection
155 Collaborators’ Proofs
2 Printer’s Proofs
5 Hors d’Commerce
Canvas 16” x 12.5” (reserved for future release)
295 Arabic Numbers
55 Collaborators’ Proofs
Falling in love is much like swinging on a trapeze high above the ground:
IT REQUIRES “PERFECT TIMING”
IT ASKS US TO TAKE A RISK AND BE DARING
IT BEGS US TO TRUST
And above all, it asks us to commit gracefully and with an ease that pulls us together in a high-flying choreography that continues to exhilarate.
Love is daring, but graceful. Love is a leap, but certain. In a trapeze performance one will grab the other, and they can let go – trusting in their partner. Here the kiss is the thing that holds them. Her confidence in him catching her is electrifying. Eyes closed, awaiting the moment with commitment and ease.
With Love with the Greatest of Ease we gain a rarely seen sentimental side of Ted Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. Just like discovering new love in your life, you never know what you’ll find under the Big Top. In our case, the Big Top was the Geisel Library archive, proving there’s oh so much romance in the search…
The excitement of entering the archive is palpable every time I am there – I feel like a child entering the big top ready to see the greatest show on earth. I don’t know what I am going to find, I just know that when I stumble upon a rare gem that my heart beats in the same way. I know in those moments that I am holding a piece of history. When I first saw this image, I was stunned. I have rarely seen such energy, emotion, and beauty wrapped up in a single drawing of Ted’s.
— Robert Chase, Jr.
An archive of over 20,000 artifacts belonging to Ted Geisel, is housed at the Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego. It is the ongoing commitment of the Art of Dr. Seuss Collection to always discover the undiscovered, to reveal the hidden.
We have spent over 25 years exploring the archive, one artifact at a time, an ongoing discovery that continues to reveal the mastery of this American icon.
Entrance to the Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego.
Rediscover Love with the Greatest of Ease everyday in your own space.
To fully grasp the origin story of this artwork and the singular uniqueness of Dr. Seuss, you have to venture back a lot earlier than you may think...
When Ted Geisel was twenty-two, he was already in love with the theater, with travel, and with Paris. During his sojourns around Europe in 1926, he returned to the City of Lights time and again, calling it "perfect."
Ted Geisel's fascination with the theater prompted him to paint early watercolors based on new theatrical production concepts. These pieces are reminiscent of the Folies-Bergère from Paris of the twenties, and they humorously and irresistibly bear Ted’s hallmark style.
A performance of the Folies-Bergère circa 1925.
Ted's wartime film work with Frank Capra made him want to give Hollywood a serious try. Between 1946 and 1951 he won three Oscars, two for World War II documentaries and one for the animated cartoon Gerald McBoing-Boing. In 1951, on the basis of that success, Ted sent Columbia Studios his treatment for a feature-length fantasy film, and Hollywood called back.
Theatrical release poster for the film 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953).
Love with the Greatest of Ease is believed to have been created around the same time of the earliest concept drawings for The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. - a movie musical that was to be produced by Stanley Kramer and directed by Roy Rowland. Ted was instantly immersed in the production and moved to Hollywood to write the lyrics and co-author the screenplay. He also drew sketches for the vast, curvaceous sets, which Helen Geisel compared to the drawings in The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938).
Ted had high hopes that this film would be his entree into Hollywood- his big break. A creative line can be drawn between Ted's 1926 experience of the Erte sets for the Folies-Bergère and his Scenes from a Theatrical Production. The connection continues through his 1938 drawings in The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins and into the set designs for The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. In the end, only those set designs remained faithful to Ted's sketches.
