DISNEY ART HISTORY / SLEEPING BEAUTY GUIDE
AN ART HISTORIAN'S GUIDE
Discover the Art History
Behind Sleeping Beauty
Walk through New York City's greatest museums and discover the medieval manuscripts, Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and modernist art that inspired Disney's most visually radical film.
3 NYC MUSEUMS
20+ FEATURED ARTWORKS
DIY MUSEUM TOUR
VIRTUAL OPTION
Why is
Sleeping Beauty
so different?
THE ART HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Watch Disney's Sleeping Beauty next to any other Disney film and something feels immediately different. The figures are flat. The forest is lushly detailed. The color is bold, the shapes angular and almost geometric. It doesn't look like any Disney movie before it. It looks like a moving medieval tapestry.
That's not an accident.
Sleeping Beauty was Walt Disney's most expensive, most ambitious, and most art-historically rich film to date when it entered theaters in 1959. It helped that the film was shaped by one artist's vision—that of Eyvind Earle—and centuries of world art history. Medieval manuscripts, Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Chinese paintings, Japanese prints, and modernist abstraction.
This guide takes you directly to the artworks that shaped it, in New York City museums where you can see them in person.
INSIDE THE GUIDE
THE ART YOU'LL DISCOVER
From The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters & The Morgan Library
CONCEPT ART
Images made by Disney artists
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
19TH-CENTURY PAINTINGS
Pre-Raphaelite Works
MODERNISM
A wide-range of abstract artworks
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MEDIEVAL TAPESTRIES
The Unicorn Tapestries
JAPANESE PRINTS
Including works by artists like Hokusai
What's
Inside
01
DIY Museum Tour
A self-guided tour through The Met, The Cloisters, and The Morgan Library. Do it in person or virtually from anywhere in the world.
03
Original Photography
Gorgeous museum photographs and original paintings by the author.
02
20+ Featured Artworks
Medieval tapestries, Japanese prints, Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and modernist works—each connected to a specific scene or visual choice in the film.
04
Visiting Tips + Links
Hours, ticketing and direct links to museum resources to plan your in-person or virtual visit easily.
Who It's
For
Disney fans and Disney adults
Who want to go deeper than the surface of their favorite films
Art and Art History lovers
Who want a genuinely expert-led experience
Adventurous museum-goers
Looking for a fresh way into NYC's greatest collections
Movie aficionados
Fascinated by the creative process behind iconic films
Educators
Looking for genuinely engaging art history content for students
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READY TO EXPLORE?
Art History just
got a lot more fun.
This guide is for anyone who has ever sat in a museum and wondered what the person next to them sees that they don't. It's expert-led, visually rich, and written for curious humans—not academics!
Pair it with a weekend trip to New York, or do the whole thing from your couch. Either way, you'll never watch Sleeping Beauty the same way again.