Photo credit (L-R): Bonhams; New York’s Plaza Hotel
As reported by Art & Object, Eloise was created by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight. The mischievous six-year-old who lived at the Plaza Hotel became one of the most influential children’s book characters of the 20th century, and her connection to the hotel became inseparable from the story’s charm. Thompson loaned the painting to the Plaza, where it hung ceremonially in the lobby. Its presence turned the fictional child into part of the hotel’s public identity, giving visitors a tangible link to the character who had made the Plaza feel like a playground.
Painted by Hilary Knight in 1956 as a birthday gift for Eloise co-creator Kay Thompson, the tempera-on-board artwork hung in the Plaza’s lobby before disappearing during a Junior League Ball in November 1960. More than half a century later, after being found in a dumpster and forgotten in Knight’s closet, it sold at Bonhams for $100,000. The original Plaza Hotel portrait of Eloise has one of the strangest histories in American illustration. The painting’s history also reflects how artworks can acquire value beyond their materials. A tempera portrait painted as a personal gift became a stolen hotel treasure, a discarded object, a forgotten closet find and finally a six-figure auction lot. Its sale at Bonhams closed one chapter, but the story remains irresistible. Eloise may have been imaginary, yet the portrait of her had a real life full of theft, loss, recovery and rediscovery, making it one of the most memorable artworks ever connected to New York’s Plaza Hotel.
He rolled it up and, according to Bonhams, forgot about it for the next 50 years. Some years later, Knight received a call with surprising news. The painting had been found in a dumpster, stripped of its frame. Once identified as the missing Plaza portrait, it was returned to him. By then, Knight had already created a replacement for the Plaza. His new oil painting still hangs in the hotel, while the recovered original went into his closet.