Beschreibung:

1940, watercolor on paper, depicting the street scene of Gideon and J. Worthington Foulfellow when they run into Pinocchio on his way to school, Tenggren signature on the lower left margin has been partially painted over, but can be seen with a black light, the watercolor is mounted on a vintage piece of cardboard, matted and framed. Gustaf Tenggren was a famed Swedish children's book illustrator by the time he had joined the Disney Studios in 1936. His first project was to work on preliminary paintings of Snow White's terrifying flight through the forest, a forest with elongated and spindly hands reaching out to grab her. His style was very reminiscent of both Dore and Rackham. For Pinocchio, he painted many street scenes of quaint villages with cobbled narrow streets, diminutive houses with carved details, street lamps and townspeople doing their daily chores. Many of these street scenes were inspired by a small Bavarian medieval town by the name of Rothenburg ob de Tauber, a tourist destination spot. While at Disney, Tenggren kept to himself and was a bit aloof and not particularly well liked by his colleagues. A bit disgruntled by the fact that he was not given screen credit for either Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Pinocchio, he left Disney by January 1939, a year before Pinocchio came out. He did continue with illustrating children's books and illustrated twenty-eight books for Golden Books from 1942-1962. He died on April 9, 1970. To read more about Gustaf Tenggren, refer to Before the Animation Begins by John Canemaker. 9 x 27 1/2in