He was born in the small town of Magra outside Alingsås in 1896. The house is not left, but a new one is built in the same place, about the same size. It is called Lottehagen and is not big, here Gustaf lived with his six siblings and his parents.

After two years the family moved to Gothenburg and Gustaf started at Valand art school when he was 19 years old. The talent was expressed in condensed dream fairy tales, with a certain preference for pirates, and Gustaf had to take over after John Bauer's tragic death on Vättern in 1918, ending the illustrations for Bland's plot and troll .

Studio manager and chief illustrator at Disney

In 1920, he moved to the United States to work for Walt Disney as studio manager in the 1930s with films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi . Here he worked to create an artistic feel for the films, a style that was perhaps best expressed in Pinocchio, the story of the doll that comes alive and has a nose that lives its own life.

He was married twice, but had no children himself, but illustrated several children's books after the Disney period, and one of the books The poky little puppy has been sold in over 15 million copies in the United States.

Gustaf Tenggren died in 1970 in Dogfish Head, Maine USA.