An original watercolor drawing from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved children's book The Little Prince fetched approximately $380,000 at Christie’s auction in London yesterday. The 1942 illustration, depicting the Little Prince conversing with a snake in the Sahara desert, far...
An original watercolor drawing from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved children's book The Little Prince fetched approximately $380,000 at Christie’s auction in London yesterday. The 1942 illustration, depicting the Little Prince conversing with a snake in the Sahara desert, far exceeded its pre-auction estimate of £25,000–35,000 ($32,000–44,000), reaching a final bid of about £302,400 ($379,550).
Previously auctioned at Sotheby’s in 1989, this watercolor is one of the few original drawings from the first edition of The Little Prince to be sold publicly. Christie’s highlighted the rarity of such works, noting that their final or near-final forms are especially sought-after by collectors and enthusiasts.
This auction follows noteworthy sales of several other illustrations from The Little Prince, including at a 2017 Artcurial auction in Paris, where a watercolor of the Little Prince sitting in a chair gazing at the sun fetched around $317,680.
The Little Prince is one of the best-selling fiction books in history. Saint-Exupéry, who created these enchanting illustrations and stories while exiled in the United States during World War II, did not live to witness the success of his work. The writer and artist died in July 1944, a year after the book’s initial publication in New York.
