GUSTAV TENGGREN

Gustav Tengrenn was born in in Sweden on November 3, 1896.  

I first discovered his illustrations as a child when I read The Pokey Little Puppy.  

I later discovered more of Tenggren's Little Golden Books, as well as other children's books.    I was entranced by his work, right from the beginning.  But well into my adulthood I was unaware that I had barely scratched the surface as to this artist's accomplishments.  

Then a good friend introduced me to Disney films like Snow White. (No, I never saw these films until I was an adult---but that's another blog post.)  

Tenggren was a major contributor to these films, creating huge amounts of artwork, and of ideas (though he was never credited at the time).  I was stunned by the visual power and beauty of these films, particularly the backgrounds and scene settings.  

"Ah," I thought, "now I've  seen the complete range of this artist's work."

But when I began searching the internet for more information about Tenggren, I was---well, embarrassed because I saw that there was much more of Tenggren's art and his innumerable styles and prolific output that I had never seen.  I realized that all my life I had actually known hardly anything about the person whose talent I had admired for so long.  And I was also completely bowled over by the diverse range, the beauty, and the superb excellence of his art.  I hope you already know more than I did about Tenggren's work.  Or if you don't, I invite you to embark on a journey of discovery with me, and learn more about this incredible master of art-making.  To get you started, here are a few links (though the internet is disappointingly sparse in its information about this illustrator, and in fact about almost any illustrator from earlier eras): 

http://www.gustaftenggren.com 

http://sacredartpilgrim.com/collection/view/39

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Gustaf_Tenggren