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Mary Blair
Mary Browne Robinson (Blair) was born Oct. 21, 1911, in McAlester, Okla. Her family moved to Texas, then California when she was about 7. After high school she graduated from San Jose State College, then won a scholarship to the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. She married Lee Everett Blair, who also was an artist.
Because she graduated in the Depression, her dream of painting fine art took a back seat to animation.
Lee Blair landed a job at Disney, and soon was followed by Mary in 1940.
She made her mark with Disney, being credited with the color styling of Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953), among others. The influence of her art can be seen throughout those films as well as animated shorts she designed.
Animator Marc Davis put Blair’s use of color on a par with Matisse: “She brought modern art to Walt in a way that no one else did. He was so excited about her work.”
Animator Frank Thomas said, “Mary was the first artist I knew of to have different shades of red next to each other. You just didn’t do that! But Mary made it work.”
She continued to collaborate with Disney years after she resigned in the 1950s to do freelance work. Walt Disney asked Blair to assist in the design of the It’s a Small World attraction for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.
She was involved in advertising for Nabisco, Maxwell House and others. She also designed Golden Books for Simon & Schuster and Christmas and Easter sets for Radio City Music Hall.
Blair died in 1978, but her influence continues to this day, her admirers say.
Sources: Legends of Disney, Wikipedia
Samples of Blair’s work
Various forms of Cinderella
The stepsisters
Alice in Wonderland
From Peter Pan
