Unseen Winnie-the-Pooh Preliminary Sketches Come to Light

Previously unseen preliminary drawings by E. H. Shepard have emerged from the Shepard family and are being offered for sale for the first time by Peter Harrington.

The two undeveloped pencil sketches for Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) depict scenes from the book that were ultimately never completed to create finished illustrations.

“It is extraordinarily rare to encounter preliminary drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh that capture what might be called the first moment of inspiration," said Dr Philip W. Errington, Senior Specialist at Peter Harrington, "the instant where Shepard is thinking through movement, character, and narrative in pencil alone."

The two unpublished sketches relate to episodes that will be familiar to readers, but were never pictured in the original book. Climbing Very Cautiously Up the Stream (1926, offered for £9,000) is a pencil drawing of Christopher Robin, Pooh, Piglet, and Owl, intended for Chapter VIII (In which Christopher Robin leads an “Expotition” to the North Pole), but one that ultimately was abandoned. Pooh and Piglet Tracking Woozles (1926, £9,000) is study for Chapter III (In which Pooh and Piglet go hunting and nearly catch a Woozle), again never realised in the final book.

“What makes these two drawings so compelling is that they were never taken beyond the sketch stage,” said Dr Errington. “Shepard had a very particular way of working. He would first draw in pencil, then graphite the reverse of the sheet so the image could be transferred onto artist’s board and worked up in ink. These two Pooh drawings have no graphite on the back, which tells us they were never transferred. For reasons we can only speculate about, Shepard abandoned them.”

While many of Shepard’s finished ink drawings were sold during the 1920s, he retained most of his preliminary material, later bequeathing the bulk of it to the V&A in 1969.  

“We don’t know why these drawing were kept back from the group he gave to the V&A," said Dr Errington. "Perhaps he was particularly fond of them, or perhaps they were already given to family members."

In addition to the unrealised Winnie-the-Pooh drawings, the group includes preliminary sketches for illustrations that did go on to appear in other Pooh books, as well as rare material connected to special broadsides and periodical illustrations produced at the height of Pooh’s popularity in the late 1920s. These include a large sketchbook drawing featuring Christopher Robin, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga, and Roo, later developed into a colour plate for the weekly magazine Home Chat (1928, £24,000), and preliminary drawings for The House at Pooh Corner and When We Were Very Young including rare Pooh images created specifically for limited-issue broadsides.

Peter Harrington is holding a special public exhibition Where It All Began, An Exhibition of Unseen Sketches by E.H. Shepard at its Mayfair gallery at 43 Dover Street through April 27.