Sometimes I discover something and all of a sudden I cannot stop thinking about it. Sometimes it is dumb internet videos, or a food. Today it is Gustaf Tenggren, a Swedish artist born in 1896 who worked on many childrens books, Milton Bradley products, and Disney films.
I discovered Tenggren while going through the bonus features on the new Snow White Blu-Ray. His art for that film immediately caught my eye. Then I discovered that the disc featured a whole gallery of production art he did for the film. Immediately I could see his style in two of my favorite current comic book artists, James Jean and Michael Allred. I am not typically much of an art connoisseur outside of comics so, of course, that is what I relate other work back to, but in this case it seems likely they might even reference him as a direct influence.
Tenggren got his start working in Sweden, but quickly moved to the states where he did some childrens books. He worked for Milton Bradley after that and moved to Disney in 1936 to work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He also worked on Pinocchio, Bambi and some Disney shorts. After this he spent 20 years working on more children's books in a decidedly different style. His most famous work from this period is The Poky Little Puppy.
What saddens me is how little information and pictures of his work I could find online. There is a website dedicated to him here (thanks for the info) and some other mentions of him around the web, but for an artist of his caliber it doesn't seem like enough. I want an over-sized book filled with his work. I want prints to put on walls. I want people like me to have heard of him more than just by chance. It is very rare that art actually makes me wish I was an artist like this. There is not a whole lot more to say about it, but I took some photos of the production work from the Blu-Ray (forgive the poor quality) so check those out. You can find a bit more around the web. Enjoy.
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