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Thursday, February 10, 2011

A Closer Look at Tenggren's Snow White Poster Art

Gustaf Tenggren's original 1937 promotional poster art, mixed media on paper (18.5" x 14.5") featuring all of the major characters from the film, is currently up for auction via Heritage Galleries lot 78338. This one-of-a-kind, extremely rare artwork served as the inspiration for one of the three original 1937 North American one-sheet movie posters. It was also used as the centerpiece for the 40 X 60 Snow White poster mentioned in the previous post.

Tenggren's original 1937 promotional poster art.





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Note that on the one-sheet (left), the original drawing has been "flopped".
Not the case for the 40x60.



One-Sheet Detail...








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40x60 Detail...










The fine print at the bottom left corner of both the one-sheet and 40x60 reads:
Copyright 1938 RKO Rado Pictures Inc. Property of RKO Rado Pictures Inc. Leased for restricted use only. Must be returned to RKO Radio Pictures Inc. and must not be sold, leased or given away by any other party.


Special thanks to both Brian and Matt for alerting me to the listing of the Tenggren auction.

9 comments:

  1. wish I had a spare 100K, I'd pick it up!

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  2. Thanks for sharing these; I really admire Tenggren's Style!

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  3. These illustration are very beautiful.
    The last one is so cute :)

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  4. Dave and Camille-- Tenggren's artistic interpretation of Snow White and the dwarfs is certainly my favorite amongst all the drawings created by the animators and inspirational artists.

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  5. Tenggren's illustrations are enchanting! I also love his work on "Pinocchio."

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  6. Dan-- Me too. The detailed "Old World" look of Pinocchio really show where Tenggren was coming from. Enchanting.

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  7. In the second group of photos what was the reason behind the artist using these colours and not the vibrant colours we see on snow white figurines today

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