The donkey lettuce

The other day I had the great joy to intermediate in the receipt of a nice Tenggren painting. Mr Clas Albanus from Mariefred arrived in Stockholm, carrying the little painting with the shimmering color and odd motif, and signed "Tenggren 1917". Mr Albanus had inherited the painting from his father, but didn't feel it fit in his home, which, I gladly declare, made me quite happy as it brought yet another hidden Tenggren treasure to the surface.

Mr Clas Albanus from Mariefred holding the watercolor "The Donkey Lettuce".

The motif of the picture was quite intriguing, but obviously an illustration for a special story. It pictured a hunter looking up a tree with a flock of birds fighting over some kind of clothing.

Front side of painting with original framing 

The frame backing carried a hand-written text which was almost impossible to read because of its age and wear. The line "Bought in 1917-1918" could barely be distinguished. The clipping from Saturday Evening Post 1956, where Diane Disney Miller's "My Father Walt Disney" was published, shows that the owner was well aware of Tenggren's fame.

Back side of painting with original backing

After I carefully had removed the backing, the truth was revealed. The watercolor was executed on a nice, high quality Whatman art board, which proved that Tenggren already at this early stage of his career had the economy to afford his careful choice of material. A text, presumably written by Tenggren himself, told me that this was an illustration for one of Grimm's fairy tales, "The Donkey Lettuce". I didn't recognize it as ever being published. I found the tale easily in the edition of Grimm's fairy tales from 1923. The clothing in the tree was a wishing cloak, as the hunterhad already been told by a witch. Later in the fairy tale the hunter found a field of magic lettuce; one sort of the lettuce turned you into a donkey, while another made you human again, hence the odd name of the tale. One comes to think of the frightful scenes in Pinocchio where Lampglass and Pinocchio turn into donkeys on the Island of Joy, but there is probably no connection.
Without its glass, the painting itself revealed the great handicraft and a subtle color treatment used in the tradition of Rackham and Dulac. Tenggren had applied fluid color washes over the surface and carefully washed it out with a damp brush to add light in the subdued areas. The whole rendition was held in ocher and turquoise which created a transparent, glowing light.

"The Donkey Lettuce", unpublished illustration for Grimm's Fairy Tales, Jespersen's 1923. 

This painting also showed that Gustaf Tenggren had started his commission for Grimm's Fairy Tales already in 1917, unlike in 1918 that was earlier presumed. Maybe this was a pilot for the job, but never used. I'm so happy that it was bought and kept by Clas Albanus' father to be enjoyed even today, almost a hundred years later.

Rare Tenggren books discovered

It was long known that Gustaf Tenggren spent time in Copenhagen in 1919 before he left for USA in July 1920. He had a commission for E. Jespersen's Publishing Company to make 32 illustrations fro Grimm's Fairy Tales. They were completed in 1920 and published in Denmark in 1923. Also in 1919, he painted a portrait of the daughter of publisher Halfdan Jespersen. The rest of his doings in Denmark that year has been benighted - until now.
Thanks to the illustrious Jules Verne Society in Denmark (Det Danske Jules Verne-selskab) and their fabulous website, 10 more titles has been added to Tenggren's row of book commissions. They were published in 1922 and contains a total of 59 black-and-white drawings, plus possibly some covers in full color. Most of the covers were reused from the previous editions but two  (20,000 leagues under the sea and The children of captain Grant) were new and might have been painted by Tenggren.

Cover for Illustration for
20,000 leagues under the sea, Jespersen's forlag 1922

Illustration for 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Illustration for 20,000 leagues under the sea.

I got on track when I read a letter from Gustaf Tenggren to a publisher, listing his illustrated work and mentioning these early illustrations. The 10 books had already been published in several illustrated editions before, but Tenggren was hired to re-draw the original french illustrations, perhaps of printing technical reasons. Despite his youth, being only 23 years at the time, he managed to produce a nice row of drawings, obviously without exceeding his very talented predecessors. None of the illustrations are signed, which is very unlike Tenggren. Maybe that is the reason these illustrations has been relatively unknown until now.

An advertisement announcing the publishing for
the series of  Jules Verne books in 1922.

List of the 10 Jules Verne books illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren in 1919 and published in 1922.

1. "En Verdensomsejling under Havet" (20,000 leagues under the sea) 6 B-W illustrations. 
2. "Kaptajn Grants Børn" (The Children of Captain Grant), 6 B-W illustrations.
3. "Den hemmelighedsfulde Ø" (The Mysterious Island) 5 B-W illustrations
4. "Det rullende Hus" (The Steam House) 6 B-W illustrations. 
5. "Fem Uger i Ballon" (Five Weeks in a Balloon), 6 B-W illustrations. 
6. "Jorden rundt i 80 Dage" (Around the World in 80 Days) 6 B-W illustrations.
7. "Kaptajnen paa 15 Aar" (A Captain at Fifteen) 5 B-W illustrations.
8. "Kejserens Kurér" (Michael Strogoff) 6 B-W illustrations.
9. "Rejsen til Maanen" (From the Earth to the Moon), 6 B-W illustrations.
10. "Keraban Stivnakke" (Kéraban the Inflexible) 7 B-W illustrations.

A detailed overview can be studied at The Danish Jules Verne Society's homepage.
Thank you for your kind help in retrieving this!

Old friends

The other day I visited the Studio of Bildmakarna Berg. It is maintained by the grandchildren of Folke Wilhelmsson Berg, Gustaf Tenggren's old friend and fellow art student at Valand's School of Art. Nowadays Folke's son, Björn Berg, is probably more well-known to the public, as the illustrator of Astrid Lindgren's Emil i Lönneberga and many other children's books. The Studio keeps all Björn Berg's art.

Maja Berg Lindelöw, next to a self-portrait by her father, Björn Berg.

The Folke Berg family went to USA at about the same time as Gustaf Tenggren, and Björn Berg himself grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He admired Gustaf a lot and during his first years he aspired to work in the same style as his idol. Later he became one of Sweden's foremost newspaper illustrators.

Emma Miller Bolenius and Marion George Kellogg
Mother Goose, Houghton Mifflin 1929

Björn had saved some nice keepsakes from Tenggren, like photos, letters and paintings, which I was lucky enough to be able to borrow. One his dearest was a Mother Goose book that he received at a visit to Gustaf Tenggren's New York flat.

Early morning Christmas Day Mass, 1934.
Painting by Gustaf Tenggren presented to Folke Berg.

Some very nice letters from the Tenggrens are in the collection too, including this nice one, written on Disney stationery (not designed by Tenggren). Mollie is happy to announce that after Gustaf has completed his work for Pinocchio they will go on a vacation to Sweden! Unfortunately, this never happened - Gustaf Tenggren never returned to Sweden, not even to be buried, as he had wished.

Letter from Mollie Tenggren to Folke and Gertrud Berg,
December 2, 1938. 

In 1973, after Gustaf Tenggren was gone, Björn and his family went to visit Mollie in Maine and was guided around the house and got to see Gustaf's kept originals. There were piles and piles of art, all sorted and well preserved for storage.

Home and studio of Gustaf Tenggren, Dogfish Head, West Southport, Maine.

Some nice photos from the home and studio shows a tidy home with a mixture of Tenggren art and antique folk art items from Dalarna in Sweden. In the bookshelf, a yellow row of National Geographics gives a hint of Gustaf's big interest for travels. Too bad none of them included Sweden.

A date you can't refuse

During the nineties, when I trawled Ebay for all kinds of Tenggren art, I bought this great advertisement, cut from Saturday Evening Post. I have always thought it to be one of Gustaf Tenggren's most beautiful paintings, applying his fairy tale sense to a professional context, including one of his favorite themes throughout his career, the Arabian Nights motif.

Dromedary Dates advertisement, Saturday Evening Post Christmas issue 1929

So I was quite excited when I got an e-mail with some blurred iPhone photos and an inquiry from the owner. She had inherited from her father, who in his turn had saved it from being put in the garbage at a company cleaning. After a closer look I could confirm that it was indeed the stunning original for this ad. 

Original painting for the advertisement above, pencil and watercolor on Whatman artboard.

It's very rare that you see one of Tenggren's advertisement paintings. They seem to have been kept at the printer or hidden in the piles of art in the backrooms of the ad bureaus, as a lot of other great illustration art. So it's wonderful to see that an almost ninety year old painting has survived in pretty good shape. From Tenggren's order book we learn that this commission for Dromedary dates was ordered by Pedlar & Ryan Agency for Saturday Evening Post's Christmas issue 1929. It was completed in September 19th that year, and Tenggren was paid $650 for the job ten days later, September 29th. A sum Tenggren was accustomed to, being one of the top paid illustrators, just a decade after his arrival from Sweden.

Just a month later, at the 29th of October 1929, was the date of the Black Tuesday which started the depression and put a black cloud over USA for the next ten years.

Elegant as ever

This image was published in November 29, 1956. The famous Saturday Evening Post Cover with Walt Disney had been published just a couple of weeks ago and the local Maine paper The Boothbay Register was making a visit by the artist. At the time his main scope was to meet the deadline for the 100 full color illustrations for Arabian Nights, that were to be delivered in December.

Gustaf Tenggren had just recently celebrated his 60 year birthday in November 3, 1956, when this picture was published.
He doesn't look too overwhelmed, being disturbed in his work.

This 60 year old gentleman is painting along in a nice suit and and tie. On the drawing board is one of the stunning pages illustrating a ferocious fight at sea. It all turned out to be one of his most beautiful books ever. Below is the remarkable original, kept in the vaults of Kerlan Collection in University of Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Full page from Sindbad the Sailor, Margaret Seifer's compilation of Golden Tales from Arabian Nights
published by Simon & Schuster in 1957.
Kerlan collection of the University of Minnesota Libraries with permissions from the Archives and Special Collections.

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.

Over-commissioned

During the 1920ies, Gustaf was overwhelmed with jobs for the commercial market. There where a number of companies producing silverware, glassware, watches and silk stockings, all wanting to hire "Gustaf Tenggren, the young talented artist, rapidly coming into fame", as The New York Daily Mirror put it in an article from the mid twenties.
But at the same time he kept his illustration commissions. As his time was heavily scheduled he often worked double, as can be seen from these examples.

Cover for Bland Tomtar och Troll, Åhlén och Åkerlund 1926

1926 was the last year he illustrated the Swedish fairy tale annual Bland Tomtar och Troll (Among Gnomes and Trolls). The cover of his tenth book in the series shows a small boy on a winged horse, which has got nothing to do with any tale in the book. The illustrations were delivered to Åhlén och Åkerlund in May 1926.

Cover for Ruth Campbell, Small Fry and the Winged Horse, Volland 1927

In July the same year he delivered illustrations for Small Fry and The Winged Horse to be published Volland in 1927. The thought that the Bland Tomtar och Troll cover was first meant for Small Fry but refused by the publisher is not far away. 

Mercury running on the waves, illustration from Small Fry and the Winged Horse

Additionally you can see sea swallows on the BToT cover that appear in an illustration in Small Fry. It's easy to imagine the piles of drawings and paintings all mixed up on the drawing table in Tenggren's Manhattan Studio. And in the parlor at the same time, a young woman is waiting to sit for her portrait. Poor man.