Back to the Classics

In 1959 Golden Press published The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends. It was a compilation of antique tales retold by Anne Terry White and illustrated by Martin and Alice Provensen. But several finds in the collections of University of Minneapolis, Minnesota, proves that Gustaf Tenggren was considered as an alternative artist for the book. A number of fully executed paintings depicting ancient gods of the greeks shows that Tenggren spent a whole lot of work in the belief that he would get the commission for this Giant Golden Book. 

Anne Terry White:
The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends, 1959
Illustrated by Martin and Alice Provensen

Cover draft for
Tenggren's Golden Treasure of Myths and Legends
Kerlan collection of the
University of Minnesota Libraries
with permissions from the Archives and Special Collections

Artemis
Kerlan collection of the
University of Minnesota Libraries
with permissions from the Archives and Special Collections

Prometheus
Kerlan collection of the
University of Minnesota Libraries
with permissions from the Archives and Special Collections

Pandora's box
Kerlan collection of the
University of Minnesota Libraries
with permissions from the Archives and Special Collections

Centaur
Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Achilles
Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Orpheus
Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

It is not known whether the Golden Press editors felt that Tenggren had more than enough of jobs for the publisher or if Tenggren just didn't have time to complete another Giant Golden Book. Around this time he would have been very busy completing the illustrations for one of his most beautiful books, Golden stories from Arabian Nights. The Provensens were earlier commissioned to do another classic,  The Iliad and the Odyssey, while Tenggren were to concentrate on two Anglo-Saxon classics: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales as well as King Arthur and the Knights Around the Round Table.

California Watercolors

From his first years as an illustrator, watercolours had been the major painting method for Gustaf Tenggren . All the artists he admired had worked in the same media: Carl Larsson, John Bauer, Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, to mention a few. He was a member of the American Watercolor Society along with many of his colleagues within commercial art, and as they he had learned to master the technique to perfection. The paintings were very accurate and meticulously rendered down to the tiniest detail.

Laguna Beach 1936
Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

But after his arrival in Los Angeles in early spring 1936, he seems to have become aware of an alternate, looser and more vivid watercolor style.
At this time, the art scene was significantly influenced by the painters in The Californian Watercolor Society. Among the members were Mary Blair and her husband Lee Blair. Mary Blair never met with Gustaf Tenggren at work while employed at the Disney Studio; she came to Disney's in April 1940 and Gustaf left in January 1939. But Tenggren exhibited at the Pomona Country Art Fair in fall 1939, where Lee Blair had some paintings, so they're likely to have met and to have known each other.

Gustaf Tenggren painting at Catalina Island 1937

He started to make free-air painting excursions in the neighbourhoods; Hollywood and Wilmington, Laguna Beach and even to Catalina Island. Walt Disney himself bought a Catalina landscape from Tenggren in 1938.

Catalina Landscape 1936

In the same way that the climate made both Gustaf and Mollie Tenggren more happy and relaxed, it helped to vitalize Tenggren’s imagery and added yet a style to his visual toolbox. It might also have helped to loosen up his painting all over; a change of style is clearly visible in his post-Disney works.
A number of Gustaf Tenggren's watercolors are held by the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who have kindly given permission to publish them here.

Hollywood 1936
Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Hollywood 1937

Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum

at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Hollywood 1937
Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Wilmington 1937
Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Wilmington 1937