Let the children come

The renowned NY auction house Illustration House has a great Tenggren piece at their auction March 15 2014. It is one of a series of paintings made for The Sunday World Magazine, each illustrating a humorous verse with a fairy tale or mythological theme. This one is for The Pied Piper of Hameln, and shows the rat catcher luring a row of children to bring them away from the parents of Hameln, since they refused to pay him for exterminating the rats of the town. A horrible story with a wonderful illustration!

The Pied Piper of Hameln, 1930

 At the time of producing this series of paintings, Gustaf Tenggren lived in Primrose Hill, Rhinebeck, in Dutchess County, N. Y. Gustaf and Mollie bought the place November 29, 1929, just a month after the big stock market crash. It was a small farm where they kept a horse, a cow, a pig, a dog and 40 hens.

Print from Sunday World Magazine, December 7, 1930

The row of illustrated verses were published from early 1930 up to the closing of the magazine in spring 1931. The illustrations included Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hood, Pandora's Box and Snow White to mention some; unfortunately they were printed with a rotogravure process and on low-quality, brittle paper, and very few of these clippings are left today, which makes the originals yet more desirable.