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Where Eagles Fly
Where Eagles Fly
Where Eagles Fly

Where Eagles Fly

Date1993
MediumOil and lacquer on board
Dimensions48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of the Earle Family Trust
Object number2017.027
DescriptionEyvind Earle, best known to many as the famed Disney artist responsible for the look and design of the 1959 animated feature "Sleeping Beauty," was also a fine artist whose distinctively stylized landscapes -- often based on his travels around California -- are immediately recognizable.

This very large (60" x 60") landscape is one of eight paintings gifted to the Hilbert by the Earle Family Trust following our 2018 "Magical Visions: The Enchanted Worlds of Evvind Earle" exhibition. It depicts a semi-fantasy landscape based on the forested cliffs of Northern California -- perhaps inspired by the area near his home in Carmel, CA, where he moved in 1988.

There are some touches in this painting that seem uniquely Asian, such as the overhanging tree on the left, and the crags receding into the mist. Earle traveled frequently and picked up new artistic ideas wherever he went. The painting includes hundreds of tiny dots of red, green, yellow and white, each applied meticulously by hand.

“For 70 years, I’ve painted paintings,” Eyvind once said, “and I’m constantly and everlastingly overwhelmed at the stupendous infinity of nature. Wherever I turn and look, there I see creation. Art is creating… Art is the search for truth.”

He often wrote short poems based on his paintings. The poem that accompanies this painting reads:

“Out of the ocean deep powerfully rising
Black cliffs turn into mountains way up high
Covered with spruce and pine and redwoods hiding
In canyons deep where lonely eagles fly”
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