Viking mural in Tenggren's studio discovered and restored

This hidden mural painting was discovered during a renovation of Gustaf Tenggren's home and studio on Southport Island, Maine.  The restoration is made by Fogg & Dalton Art Restoration, Maine. 

In 1944, Gustaf and Mollie Tenggren bought a property on Southport Island, Maine, where they were to spend the rest of their days. The old seaman’s homestead required a considerable renovation to make it suitable for living, accommodating guests and, above all, give Gustaf the peace and space to work intensly. With the help of local workers, Gustaf undertook a thorough remodeling and turned the place into an appropriate combined home and studio. Much of the work was done by himself, including the masoning of a giant fireplace, 10 ft wide and large enough enough to burn 6 ft logs. 

After Gustaf’s death in 1970 and later Mollie’s death in 1984, the property was sold, and has apparently had a few owners up to this date. Just recently, the art restoration company Fogg & Dalton in Maine carried out an impressive work, renovating a mural painting on this very fireplace. The fireplace had been damaged in a earlier refurbishing and built in to cover it. The present owners had removed the covering walls and discovered the fireplace with the decorated mantelpiece. Now, they wanted it to be restored, which has been done with the most accuracy and respect to Gustaf’s original intentions. 

Gustaf Tenggren by his fireplace, at this time undecorated. On the mantelpiece sits a few of the large collection of Swedish antiques he bought in 1945. From a Christmas card, 1940ies.

From the beginning, the fireplace was lacking any decoration, save for a number of Swedish antiques kept on the mantelpiece. But in the 1960ies, when Gustaf’s commissions had reduced, he seemed to find the time to apply a mural painting to it. A number of sketches, now kept in the archives of The Weisman Museum of Art in Minneapolis, MA, shows how the idea was developed into the finished mural. I am deeply grateful to the Weisman Art Museum for providing and letting me use their images for this article.  

Initially, Gustaf Tenggren meant to decorate the total front of the fireplace. Eventually, he only painted the sides and front of the mantelpiece. 
Gustaf Tenggren, Untitled, 20th century, pencil on paper. Collection of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Bequest of Mollie Froberg Tenggren. 1985.33.171

Details for the decorations include a gryphon.
 Gustaf Tenggren, Untitled, 20th century, pencil on paper. Collection of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Bequest of Mollie Froberg Tenggren. 1985.33.169

For some parts of the decorations, Gustaf seems to have been inspired by rune stones.
 Gustaf Tenggren, Untitled, 20th century, pencil on paper. Collection of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Bequest of Mollie Froberg Tenggren. 1985.33.168

In line with his return to his Swedish cultural heritage during his later years, Gustaf has been inspired by the myths and legends of the Nordic viking tales, applying onto them a modern, (at the time) stylized form. The decorative style reminds of the illustrations for some of the last books he illustrated: ”The Canterbury Tales” from 1961 and ”King Arthur and the Knights around the Round Table” from 1962. This mural work was probably made shortly after that. 

The sketches for the mantelpiece starts to find its eventual form.
Gustaf Tenggren, Untitled, 20th century, pencil on onionskin paper. Collection of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Bequest of Mollie Froberg Tenggren. 1985.33.166

Thor's arm with his hammer is introduced, referring to the fights Thor had with the serpent.
Gustaf Tenggren, Untitled, 20th century, pencil on onionskin paper. Collection of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Bequest of Mollie Froberg Tenggren. 1985.33.164 

Gustaf has chosen to illustrate a mythological scene where two dragon ships are attacked by the giant sea serpent, Midgårdsormen. This was a frightful creature, large enough to embrace the whole World and bite its own tale. Gustaf has included some early petroglyphs, i. e. carving onto rock faces, depicting a hunter, a horse and a viking ship. Following the shape of the serpent he has written ”RAGNARÖK” , meaning the end of the World,  and ”FENRISULVEN”. The latter is a misunderstanding by Tenggren; Fenrisulven is really a large wolf, a sibling of Midgårdsormen. Tenggren has mixed them up. The sketches originally included Thor's arm and hammer, referring to Thor's fight with the serpent. It was eventually exchanged for another dragon ship.  

An early colorized sketch for the final motif, still with Thor's arm. An interesting fact is that Gustaf still use the Acme Animation register punch holes he used during his years at the Disney Studio 1936 – 1939. In the early 1940ies, he planned to produce animated movies and apparently bought a hole punch and register tabs for that reason.
 Gustaf Tenggren, Untitled, 20th century, watercolor and gouache on paper. Collection of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Bequest of Mollie Froberg Tenggren. 1985.33.167

This late sketch is starting to find its eventual form, though still with Thor's arm. 
Gustaf Tenggren, Fenrisulven, 20th century, pen, pencil and gouache on onionskin paper. Collection of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Bequest of Mollie Froberg Tenggren. 1985.33.165

My knowledge of runes is rudimentary, so anyone capable to decipher the runes inserted is greatly encouraged to do so. 

Gustaf Tenggren by his decorated fireplace in the 1960ies. The image shows that the decorations were applied on the sides as well. The front remained blank, though initially meant to be decorated.  

When Fogg & Dalton received the commission to restore the mural, the fireplace was built in and hidden. It was discovered during a remodeling by the new owners. 

Since the fireplace was cut and shortened in the earlier refurbishing, the end of the serpent was improvised by Fogg & Dalton. They did not know of the sketches at the time, but has made a great job restoring the monster’s tail in a plausible way. 

The lost parts of the fireplace was rebuilt and the total was re-plastered and painted. There was no images of the original so the motif had to be imagined and applied. The result is quite credible.  

I am very thankful to Fogg & Dalton for letting me use their images for the article. Go to their webplace to see their tremendous work: FOGG & DALTON ART RESTORATION

Two legendary Snow White illustrations up for grabs

Update: World record for Gustaf Tenggren!

This evening, August 7, these two illustrations by Gustaf Tenggren were sold for record prices:

The Prince and Snow White sold for 102,000 USD and The Witch in Her Laboratory for 168,000 USD, both including commissions.

This is the most ever paid for Tenggren art.

On August 7 – 11, 2025, Heritage Auctions are selling two remarkable illustrations by Gustaf Tenggren. They are both made for the Good Housekeeping two-part publishing of the fairy tale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in the two last issues of 1937.  The set of some 30 illustrations, made by Tenggren just preceding the World premiere of the Disney movie that Christmas, were later to be used for numerous promotional items, such as lobby cards, books, music sheets, flyers, ads and, not least, the iconic Snow White movie poster. 

These works of Tenggren very seldom come up for sale, and are very sought after. Don't miss out!

Heritage Auction's The Art of Disney Signature® Auction

The evil witch preparing the poisonous apple in her laboratory

The moment before the Prince wakes up the sleeping Snow White with a kiss

On the importance of attention to details

Recently I was contacted by a fellow collector and admirer of Gustaf Tenggren’s art. He told me that he had localized a Tenggren watercolor painting at an online art dealer in USA. The dealer had picked it up some twenty years ago while traveling the west coast. It was nicely signed and looked like an ordinary landscape painting, but a small detail caught the eye of my contact: the word “Chico”. After some negotiating where the price was halved, the painting was acquired and sent to Sweden. It was quite large, 40 x 46 cm; Tenggren used full size watercolor paper sheets while painting in free air.

The buyer had done his homework properly, and his contacting me was just to finally affirm his qualified guess. Maybe he wanted to make me envious? If so, he managed well.

A Disney aficionado, he owned a copy of John Canemaker’s amazing book on Herman Schultheis. Schultheis was a photographer, engineer and inventor, working at the Disney Studio from mid 1930ies to early 1940ies. He collected all sorts of facts, materials and photos related to the film production in a big album, which was found after his death. In 2014, the notebook was published in facsimile along with a biography on Herman Schultheis as “The lost notebook”, a wonderful treasure chest of intricate technical facts from inside the studio. 

One page deals with the travels made 1938 by a group of artists, including Tenggren, to various National Parks in Northern California to make research for the feature film “Bambi”. The page contains photos from the trip, taken by Schultheis, one of which is the famed portrait of Gustaf Tenggren painting in the forest. Some of the photos have pencil notations beneath them, indicating where they were taken: “Tuolumne district”, “Muir woods” and “Chico, oak”. This is the only indication I have ever seen confirming Tenggren’s visiting Chico, a town in Northern California with one of the USA’s largest municipal parks, Bidwell Park. There is no doubt that this is where Gustaf Tenggren painted the impressive oak tree trunk surrounded by a rich foliage. The trip also included visits to the Yosemite and Sequoia national parks. 

So the tiny pencil notation “Chico, oak” transformed this Californian watercolor landscape, the kind of which Tenggren produced many during his leisure time while working at the Disney Studio, into a true gem: a genuine preliminary study for “Bambi”. No need to mention that this increased its pecuniary value. It also emphasized the importance of research and attention to details.