Gustaf Tenggren
Gustaf Adolf Tenggren was a Swedish illustrator and animator. He is known for his Arthur Rackham-influenced fairy-tale style and use of silhouetted figures with caricatured faces. Tenggren was a chief illustrator for The Walt Disney Company in the late 1930s, in what has been called the Golden Age of American animation, when animated feature films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi and Pinocchio were produced.
Early career
Gustaf Tenggren was born in 1896 in Magra parish, in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. In 1913 he received a scholarship to study painting at Valand, the art school in Gothenburg, Sweden. Tenggren's early schooling and artistic influences were solidly grounded in Scandinavian techniques, motifs and myths; he worked with illustrating in the popular Swedish folklore and fairy tales annual Bland Tomtar och Troll, where he succeeded illustrator John Bauer.After his first exhibition in 1920, Tenggren immigrated to the U.S. where he joined his sister in Cleveland, Ohio. Moving to New York City in 1922, he made a name for himself in magazine illustration and advertising, while continuing to illustrate children's books.
Disney Company
In the 1920s, while continuing to illustrate a large number of children's books, Tenggren worked consistently in advertising up until the Great Depression; in 1936, he was hired by Walt Disney Productions, to work as a chief illustrator with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Tenggren was not only a concept artist on this movie, but he did much of the illustrations for the non-animated tie-ins to the film, most notably the serialized version of Snow White which was featured in two successive issues of Good Housekeeping just prior to the film's release.He later worked with productions such as Bambi and Pinocchio, as well as backgrounds and atmospheres of films such as The Ugly Duckling and The Old Mill. In January 1939, during the early stages of Bambi, he left the studio and returned to New York, where he had lived before being hired by Disney.
Children's books
Image:Pokylittlepuppy.JPG|thumb|right|The Poky Little Puppy. Tenggren gave up his Rackham-esque fairy tale illustration style after he left Disney in 1940.Although his work for the studio was still that way, Tenggren never painted in the Rackham fairy-tale illustration style again after he left Disney. From 1942 to 1962, Tenggren worked for Little Golden Books with illustrations for children's books such as Saggy Baggy Elephant, Tawny Scrawny Lion, The Shy Little Kitten, Little Black Sambo, and The Poky Little Puppy, which became the single all-time best-selling hardcover children's book in English; and "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table," Emma Gelders Sterne's retelling of the Arthurian Legend. During these years his production increased, as did the marketability of his name with a stream of Tenggren books.
After he moved to the United States in 1920, he never returned to Sweden again. Gustaf Tenggren died in 1970 at Dogfish Head in Southport, Maine.
Legacy
Although the name Gustaf Tenggren remains relatively unknown, his work is widely recognized, both that in the Disney films and his work in the Little Golden Books. After his death, much of his non-Disney art was donated to the University of Minnesota to be included in the Kerlan Collection, a special library focusing on children's literature.In memory of Gustaf Tenggren, a bronze sculpture of Pinocchio, designed by the American pop artist Jim Dine, has been erected in downtown Borås, a city south of Tenggren's birthplace. At the cost of SEK 9.5 million, the Pinocchio sculpture was supposed to be paid for by private donations. The statue was erected on a tiered pedestal at the beginning of Allégatan, a main street in the center of Borås at the start of the Borås Festival of the Arts on May16, 2008.
Filmography
Illustrations
Background illustrations
Illustrated works
1925A Dog of Flanders1926Juan and Juanita, Frances Courtenay Baylor
1927
- Small Fry and the Winged Horse, Ruth Campbell
- Dickey Byrd, Elizabeth Woodruff
- The Ring of the Nibelung, Gertrude Henderson
- Stories from a Magic World, Elizabeth Woodruff
1943 The Lively Little Rabbit, George DuplaixThe Story of England, Beatrice Curtis BrownStories from the Great Metropolitan Opera, Helen DikeSing for Christmas, Opal Wheeler
1944 Little Match Girl, Hans Christian AndersenSing For America, Opal Wheeler Tenggren's Story Book, Gustaf Tenggren
1946 Farm Stories, Kathryn and Byron Jackson The Shy Little Kitten, Cathleen Schurr
1947 The Big Brown Bear, George DuplaixThe Saggy Baggy Elephant, Kathryn and Byron Jackson
1948Little Black Sambo, Helen BannermanCowboys and Indians, Kathryn and Byron Jackson
1950The Little Trapper, Kathryn & Byron JacksonPirates, Ships and Sailors, Kathryn and Byron Jackson
1951The Night Before Christmas, Clement C. Moore
1952 The Tawny Scrawny Lion, Kathryn and Byron Jackson
1953 Thumbelina, Hans Christian AndersenTopsy Turvy Circus, George DuplaixJack and the Beanstalk, English Folk Tale
1954The Golden Goose, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
1955 The Giant with the Three Golden Hairs, Jacob and Wilhelm GrimmSnow White and Rose Red, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
1957 Golden Tales from Arabian Nights, Margaret Seifer and Irving Shapiro
1959 The Lion´s Paw: A Tale of African Animals, Jane Werner Watson
1961 The Canterbury Tales, A. Kent Hieatt and Constance Hieatt
1962 King Arther and the Knights of the Round Table, Emma Gelders Sterne and Barbara Lindsay