I had to look up Tenggren (I’d never heard of him)… and lo’ and behold! For over a year now I’ve been digging deeper into the music of Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, and others of that period (circa 1910). In doing so I’ve seen that their ofttimes dark aesthetic is often paired with contemporaneous artwork touching on sinister folklore… and oblivion. (Stay with me here.) One Tenggren painting – Among Gnomes and Trolls – just popped right out; stylistically and thematically similar to the works of European painters who were representative of the pre-WWI Expressionist Movement (comprising composers, writers, poets, and painters…to an extent fueled by Freud’s popularized explorations of the subconscious to reveal ultimately dark inner truths). Looking at Tenggren’s early, mid, and later art, I see a clear evolving connection starting with the intentionally dark atmospheric themes (sometimes associated with death) explored by the Expressionists and Tenggren’s later children’s book art. In other words, if Tenggren’s Little Golden Books art had any influence on Ryden (and Ceccoli??) then they may owe something to the pre-WWI, death-obsessed, into-the-id, Expressionists. I think that’s worth looking into.
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