I’m about to embark on a long overdue vacation to Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende and Queretaro, Mexico.
Before I left, I thought I’d put up the following as a Public Service to my fellow illustration collectors out there.
Gustaf Tenggren is one of my favorite artists. If you don’t know this Swedish artist by name, you’ve certainly seen his amazing, magical work. He was the guy who designed Snow White and Pinocchio for Disney. His early work combines the best attributes of Arthur Rackham and John Bauer. Later in life he was the original art director for the Little Golden Books and illustrated The Tawny Scrawny Lion, The Big Brown Bear and The Saggy Baggy Elephant among others in that series. His beautifully charming Poky Little Puppy and Little Black Sambo Little Golden Books were amongst the first books I ever owned as a child.
Tenggren was also one heck of a magazine illustrator, too, but his stuff in that arena is fairly unknown. So here is a checklist I’ve complied of some of the magazines he illustrated. I love his fairy tale work but you’ll see by perusing his magazine illustration that Tenggren really knew how to draw sexy women, too!
Happy Hunting!
COSMOPOLITAN
1925
August
pp. 64-65: Dexter, Gayne “Serpent of Lies”
1 double page (top half) spread half tone vignette.
1929
September
p. 58: Lowell, Joan “Devils!”
1 full page 2-color; 1 half tone vignette.
November
pp. 70-71: Seabrook, W. B. “Vampire Woman” (1 illustration; 1 title vignette)
1930
January
pp. 68-71: Morris, Governeur “Téa Núa Núa” (4 vignettes)
April
p. 65: Morris, Governeur “Pearls”
1 halftone vignette; 1 pen & ink spread.
1931
August
pp. 30-33: Masefield, John “Emily the Fair”
1 two-color double page spread; 5 two-color vignettes; 1 two-color illumination; 1
two-color decoration.
October
pp. 60-61: Botkin, Gleb “The Miracle of the 17 Camels”
1 three-color illustration; 2 two-color illustrations.
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
1925
December
pp. 46-48: Wells, Catharine & Frank “The Last Fairy”
1 full page full color illustration; 1 double page two-color spread.
p. 92: “Write to Santa and He Will Answer and Send You a Present”
1 two-color vignette.
1926
April
pp. 44-45: Sangster, Margaret E. “The Island in the Mist”
Black & white illustration spread across the top halves of the two pages.
p. 104: Elaine “A Celebration for Everybody Who Has a Birthday”
1 two-color vignette (gnome holding a birthday cake)
May
p. 106: Elaine “Showers of Diamonds”
1 small half-tone vignette (reprint of April 1926 gnome & cake)
July
p. 104: Elaine “Brides’ Showers – Birthdays – Fancy Costumes – Scissor-Painted Vases”
1 small half-tone vignette (reprint of April 1926 gnome & cake)
October
p. 96: Elaine “Sunrise Supper Hallowe’en Party”
1 two-color vignette
November
p. 96: Elaine “The Thanksgiving Gabbler Dinner Party”
1 two-color vignette
1927
January
pp. 48-49: Woodruff, Elizabeth “Dickey Byrd” (from Dickey Byrd)
1 full page full color illustration.
February
pp. 49-50: Woodruff, Elizabeth “Dickey Byrd’s Giraffe” (from Dickey Byrd)
1 full page full color illustration.
March
pp. 48-49: Woodruff, Elizabeth “Dickey Byrd’s Camel” (from Dickey Byrd)
1 full page full color illustration.
April
pp. 48-49: Woodruff, Elizabeth “The Bold, Bad Bat” (from Dickey Byrd)
1 full page full color illustration.
May
pp. 48-49; 318: Woodruff, Elizabeth “The Double Birthday Party” (from Dickey Byrd)
1 full page full color illustration.
June
pp. 51-52: Woodruff, Elizabeth “The Story of the Soap Boat” (from Dickey Byrd)
1 full page full color illustration.
1928
December
pp. 48-51: Dawson, Coningsby “A Christmas Legend of Hamelin Town”
1 full page full color illustration; 1 double page two-color spread.
1929
August
pp. 62-65: Crompton, Richmal “On Pixie Hill”
1 double page two-color spread; 1 three quarter page two-color illustration.
December
pp. 34-37: Dawson, Coningsby “Why Father Christmas Got Married”
1 two-color spread; 1 two-color full page illustration; 1 small two-color illustration.
1931
August
pp. 30-33: Ling, Princess Der “Beyond All Riches”
1 four-color double page spread; 1 three-color double page spread.
November
pp. 36-39: Ling, Princess Der “Love Waited — At the Gate of Kwan Yin”
1 four-color double page spread; 1 three-color double page spread.
1932
February
pp. 44-47: Ling, Princess Der “The Honorable Five Blessings”
1 four-color double page spread; 1 three-color double page spread.
1933
October
pp. 34-37, 230-238: Patterson, Norma “Calamity Camp”
1 full page full color plate; 1 double half page ink and wash spread.
1934
March
pp. 32-35: Petersen, Elizabeth Benneche “The Lad Who Reached For The Sky”
1 full page full color; 1 two-color double page spread.
1937
November
pp. 35-38: Disney, Walt “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
4 full color illustrations; 2 full color vignettes; 1 black & white illustration; 2 black &
white vignettes.
December
pp. 35-38: Disney, Walt “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – Part II”
4 full color illustrations; 3 full color vignettes; 2 black & white illustrations; 1 black &
white vignette.
THE HOUSEHOLD MAGAZINE
1932
March
p. 28: Stuart, Margaret “The Mend Shop” (? – possibly not Tenggren)
1 silhouette vignette.
August
pp. 1-3: Princess Der Ling “Singing Kites of Tai Shan”
2 two-color half tone vignettes; 1 ink vignette.
November
pp. 1-3: Gowen, Emmett “Bugle Call”
2 two-color illustrations; 1 half tone illustration.
December
p. 7: Songer, Ernestine M. “The Flight”
1 two-color illustration.
1933
February
pp. 4-5: Evans, Ernestine “Clever Man, Clever Woman”
1 two-color illustration; 1 pen vignette.
1934
April
pp. 2-3: Chambers, María Cristina “Miracle of Miracles”
1 large two-color vignette; 1 large brush & ink vignette.
1935
April
p. 24: Eagle, John M. “Babes in Far Places”
3 pen vignettes.
May
Full color cover (Little girl sewing).
1936
February
pp. 2-3: Bercovici, Konrad “High Tide”
2 large two-color line vignettes.
March
p. 7: Shaw, Dorothy Derry “My Sugar”
1 two-color line illustration.
November
p. 30: Mecham, Ada Jean “Suki San and the Lord Mayor”
1 two-color vignette’ 1 line vignette.
1937
March
pp. 3, 24: Neagoe, Peter “Little Marie, the Goose Girl”
1 two-color illustration; 1 two-color vignette; 1 wash & ink vignette.
August
pp. 2-3: Dungan, Alice Blackburn “This Is Petra”
1 two-color vignette; 1 line vignette.
September
pp. 8-9: Dungan, Alice Blackburn “This Is Petra”
1 two-color illustration; 1 two-color vignette.
October
pp. 6-7: Dungan, Alice Blackburn “This Is Petra”
1 two-color vignette; 1 pen vignette.
November
pp. 6-7: Dungan, Alice Blackburn “This Is Petra”
1 two-color vignette spread.
That’s a start. I’ll post more as my own collection of Tenggren’s work in other magazines becomes complete.
¡Hasta la vista!