Here are two nice and rare images from 1941-1942 from Gustaf Tenggren's home at Waverly Place, New York City. Tenggren is sitting in an arm-chair, busy fine-tuning one of the illustrations for Cinderella in Tenggren's Tell-It-Again. Around him are on display other paintings for this volume, including Hansel and Gretel and Beauty and the Beast. The photos are probably taken for marketing, possibly by the publisher Little, Brown & Company. I have not seen them in any newspaper or magazine article. They seem a bit arranged; Gustaf didn't likely sit like this while working, but at a desk surrounded by his material.
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Gustaf Tenggren in his study 1942, painting on one of the illustrations for Cinderella.
His watercolor box on the shelf shows that the illustrations were made in watercolor,
not tempera that he used used for Tenggren's Mother Goose. |
They had already in 1940 published Gustaf's first book after his leaving the Disney Studio in 1939, The Tenggren Mother Goose. The book was a great success and was hailed as "The best Mother Goose ever!" by excited
critics.
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Gustaf holds a finished illustration for Cinderella fleeing
down tha staircase after loosing her shoe. Leaning on the edge of the table is a
portrait study from travels in Mexico during 1939 and 1940. |
The new book was a fairy tale compilation, presenting a selection of classics, such as Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk. Katharine Gibson had chosen the tales and edited them. The book was not
as an immediate hit as its predecessor, but were to become a long-life classic with a number of reprints during the years.
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Illustration for Beauty and the Beast.
The image of the princess is a portrait of Gustaf's wife, Mollie.
It has been suggested that this is an allegoric image of their marriage. |
