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Provenance: Gift of the artist to the present owners

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Notes: Property from the collection of Andrew and Robert Schoelkopf

Christie's is pleased to offer this exquisite collection of small gift objects and boxes crafted by Joseph Cornell as gifts for the children of his close friend and dealer Robert Schoelkopf. The Schoelkopf Gallery was an artworld fixture on Madison Avenue at 69th street from 1962 until his death in 1991. Though Schoelkopf's artists were of a more figurative persuasion he admired Cornell's work and in 1966, provided the artist with the opportunity to exhibit his deceased brother Robert Cornell's drawings alongside his own.

Boxed and wrapped like miniature treasures for the sake of a child's discovery and surprise, each of these exquisite little items function as immediate and intimate versions of Cornell's larger scaled work, incorporating fragments of myth, nature, math and science, juxtaposed to incite wonder and enchantment. Using doll house glass, marbles, toys, and collaged antique book pages, the talismanic pieces here employ familiar themes found in Cornell's full scale boxes and collages. Returning again and again to a catalogue of found source material throughout his career, Cornell would deconstruct older works, integrating elements at hand that suited the moment. The glass eye in a dome is reminiscent of works from the 1930s and may well have been extracted by the artist from an earlier construction. The shard of galaxy map on an inner box lid is a staple image employed in Cornell's "constellation" series of the 1950s, and the blue colored sand is a ubiquitous element in his "sand boxes" from the late 40s and early 50s. Working in miniature Cornell has scaled his imaginary world to fit the hand of a small child. By sending these works through the postal service rather than gifting the works in person the artist maintains his distance and reclusive lifestyle while simultaneously attempting to connect to with the children through the act of gift giving and inviting them to enter into his uniquely personal universe.