Gustaf Adolf Tenggren (November 3, 1896 – April 9, 1970) was a

Swedish-American Swedish Americans ( sv, svenskamerikaner) are Americans of Swedish ancestry. They include the 1.2 million Swedish immigrants during 1865–1915, who formed tight-knit communities, as well as their descendants and more recent immigrants. Today, ...

illustrator. He is known for his

Arthur Rackham Arthur Rackham (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) was an English book illustrator. He is recognised as one of the leading figures during the Golden Age of British book illustration. His work is noted for its robust pen and ink drawings, ...

-influenced fairy-tale style and use of

silhouette A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...

d figures with caricatured faces. Tenggren was a chief illustrator for

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

in the late 1930s, in what has been called

the Golden Age of American animation The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the late 1960s, where theatrical animated shorts began losing popularity to the ...

, when

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s such as ''

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

'', '' Fantasia'', ''

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten ...

'' and ''

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...

'' were produced.

Early career

Gustaf Tenggren was born in 1896 in Magra parish (now part of

Alingsås Municipality Alingsås Municipality (''Alingsås kommun'') is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the stad (Sweden), city of Alingsås. The present municipality was formed in 1974 then ...

), in

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County ( sv, Västra Götalands län) is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1 ...

, Sweden. In 1913 he received a scholarship to study

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

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 Nordic folklore is the folklore of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. It has common roots with, and has been mutually influenced by, folklore in England, Germany, the Low Countries, the Baltic countries, Finland and Sapmi. ...

and fairy tales annual '' Bland Tomtar och Troll'' (" Among Gnomes and Trolls"), 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 The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

, to work as a chief illustrator with ''

''. 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 ''

'' and ''

'', as well as backgrounds and atmospheres of films such as ''

The Ugly Duckling "The Ugly Duckling" ( da, Den grimme ælling) is a Danish literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875). It was first published on 11 November 1843 in '' New Fairy Tales. First Volume. First Collection'' ...

'' and ''

The Old Mill ''The Old Mill'' is a 1937 ''Silly Symphonies'' cartoon produced by Walt Disney Productions, directed by Wilfred Jackson, scored by Leigh Harline, and released theatrically to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on November 5, 1937. The film depicts ...

''.

Children's books

Although his work for the studio was still that way, Tenggren never painted in the Rackham fairy-tale illustration style again after he left the Disney. From 1942 to 1962, Tenggren worked for

Little Golden Books Little Golden Books is a series of children's books, published since 1942. ''The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden Books have b ...

with illustrations for children's books such as ''Saggy Baggy Elephant'', ''Tawny Scrawny Lion'', '' The Shy Little Kitten'', ''

Little Black Sambo ''The Story of Little Black Sambo'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Scottish author Helen Bannerman and published by Grant Richards in October 1899. As one in a series of small-format books called The Dumpy Books for Children ...

'', and ''

The Poky Little Puppy ''The Poky Little Puppy'' is a children's book written by Janette Sebring Lowrey and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. It was first published in 1942 as one of the first twelve books in the Simon & Schuster series Little Golden Books. The copyri ...

'', which became the single all-time best-selling hardcover children's book in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

; and "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table," Emma Gelders Sterne's retelling of the

Arthurian Legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...

. 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 Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

, 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 The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

to be included in the

Kerlan Collection The Kerlan Award is a literary award given by the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection, a special library focusing on children's literature. Many awards focus on the finished product, but the Kerlan Award is given based on the creative proc ...

, a special library focusing on children's literature. In memory of Gustaf Tenggren, a bronze sculpture of

, designed by the American pop artist

Jim Dine Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American artist whose œuvre extends over sixty years. Dine’s work includes painting, drawing, printmaking (in many forms including lithographs, etchings, gravure, intaglio, woodcuts, l ...

, has been erected in downtown

Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them th ...

, 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

*''

'' (1937) *''

'' (1940) *'' Fantasia'' (''Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria'' segment)(1940) *''

'' (1942)

Background illustrations

*''

Little Hiawatha ''Little Hiawatha'' (also called ''Hiawatha'') is a 1937 animated cartoon produced by Walt Disney Productions, inspired by the poem ''The Song of Hiawatha'' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It does not appear to have historical correlation to legen ...

'' (1937) *''

'' (1939)

Illustrated works

1927 *''Small Fry and the Winged Horse'', Ruth Campbell 1932 *''

The Ring of the Nibelung (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibel ...

'', Gertrude Henderson 1938 *'' Stories from a Magic World'', Elizabeth Woodruff 1942 * ''Runaway Home'', Elizabeth Coatsworth * ''Bedtime Stories'', Gustaf Tenggren * ''

'', Janette Sebring Lowrey * ''The Tenggren Tell-it-Again Book'', Katharine Gibson 1943 * ''The Lively Little Rabbit'', George Duplaix * ''The Story of England'', Beatrice Curtis Brown * ''Stories from the Great Metropolitan Opera'', Helen Dike * ''Sing for Christmas'', Opal Wheeler 1944 * ''Little Match Girl'', Hans Christian Andersen * ''Sing 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 Duplaix * ''The Saggy Baggy Elephant'', Kathryn and Byron Jackson 1948 * ''Little Black Sambo'', Helen Bannerman * ''Cowboys and Indians'', Kathryn and Byron Jackson 1950 * ''The Little Trapper'', Kathryn & Byron Jackson * ''Pirates, Ships and Sailors'', Kathryn and Byron Jackson 1951 * ''

The Night Before Christmas ''A Visit from St. Nicholas'', more commonly known as ''The Night Before Christmas'' and ''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously under the title ''Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas'' i ...

'', Clement C. Moore 1952 * ''The Tawny Scrawny Lion'', Kathryn and Byron Jackson 1953 * ''Thumbelina'', Hans Christian Andersen * ''Topsy Turvy Circus'', George Duplaix * ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', English Folk Tale 1954 * ''The Golden Goose'', Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm 1955 * ''The Giant with the Three Golden Hairs'', Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm * ''Snow 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

References

Conrad, JoAnn. Fantasy Imaginaries and Landscapes of Desire: Gustaf Tenggren’s Forgotten Decades
*John Canemaker, ''Before the animation begins : the art and lives of Disney inspirational sketch artists'', New York : Hyperion, 1996 *Steve Santi, ''Illustrators/Authors-Collecting Little Golden Books'', Florence, Alabama : Books Americana, 1989 *''From Swedish fairy tales to American fantasy : Gustaf Tenggren's illustrations 1920-1970'', Minneapolis : University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, 1986 *''Pinocchio delar Borås befolkning'', by Lars Råde, in the ''Expressen'', March 24, 2006
Kultur Väst: ''Jim Dines Pinoccio har landat''
;Notes

External links

Gustaf Tenggren's World
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090520071643/http://www.torehartung.se/content/vastgoten-som-ritade-sagofigurer-walt-disney Gustaf Tenggren - Västgöten som ritade sagofigurer åt Walt Disneybr>BPIB : Gustaf Tenggren

Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081012011629/http://www.boras.se/kultur/kulturevenemang/presstjanst/upprorinnanhanarpaplats/pinocchioiscausingastirevenbeforehisarrival.4.2f054c5e118a738a526800022023.html Pinocchio — or Walking to Borås] * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tenggren, Gustaf 1896 births 1970 deaths People from Alingsås Municipality Swedish emigrants to the United States American illustrators American animators Swedish illustrators Little Golden Books Swedish animators People from Southport, Maine Walt Disney Animation Studios people Fleischer Studios people Valand School of Fine Arts alumni