"As a kid, it was just an amazing experience," said Larry Chertoff, 55, who with his sister Nina, 53, donated the mural in memory of their parents, Roslyn and Lionel Chertoff, and Sendak's longtime partner, Eugene Glynn.
"He just decided to do this," Chertoff said of the mural. "It was really sort of a very natural outgrowth of their friendship and hanging out together."
The Chertoff Mural is the only one known to have been painted by the famed children's author and illustrator, whose books include the Caldecott Medal-winning Where the Wild Things Are. ("That very night in Max's room a forest grew.")
Conservator Cassie Myers is restoring the 4-by-13-foot work inside the Maurice Sendak Gallery, using a scalpel to remove beige wall paint that house painters had applied in and around - and ever so slightly overlapping - the characters. She will fill in cracks, unite the two sides, and restore parts of the mural, such as the girl's face, where paint has flaked or loosened.
Not quite a wild rumpus, the procession of whimsical characters - who look familiar because they would find their way into some of Sendak's work - was painted on a wall leading to a window overlooking the exact midpoint of Central Park near West 84th Street.
"It was sort of a parade, with Jennie the little terrier in the front," said Chertoff, whose bed was near the window, right under the terrier. "It was like they were going to the park, sort of suspended in air, but grounded by the geometry of it. It was very soothing."
The first boy plays a drum, the second a trumpet, with eyes closed and heads thrown back, their right feet up in mid-march. The lion wears a party hat and holds an umbrella - with the words Larry and Nina - in his tail. The girl is in full dress-up - heels, gown, jewelry - with a flag in one hand and a rope leading to the top-hatted bear in the other. An ochre-and-yellow sun shines at right.
