Eyvind Earle

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Eyvind Earle (April 26, 1916 – July 20, 2000) was an American artist, author and illustrator, noted for his contribution to the background illustration and styling of Disney's animated films in the 1950s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art,<ref>The Met, collection search for Eyvind Earle, downloaded 9 October 2024.</ref> New York, Rahr West Art Museum,<ref>RWAM Board Minutes, Dec 21, 2023</ref><ref>Rahr West Art Museum, Eyvind Earle search, downloaded 9 October 2024.</ref> Phoenix Art Museum and Arizona State University Art Museum have purchased Earle's works for their permanent collections. His works have also been shown in many one-man exhibitions throughout the world.

Early life

Eyvind Earle was born in New York on April 26, 1916 to General Ferdinand Pinney (F.P.) Earle and Charlotte Kristine Herman, F.P.'s fourth wife.<ref name="F.P. EARLE DIVORCED AGAIN.">Template:Cite news</ref> The family moved to Hollywood in 1918, where F.P. worked as a film director and Earle's mother was a piano teacher.<ref name="animazing">Animazing bio of Eyvind EarleTemplate:Webarchive</ref> The marriage was strained, and Earle's father was heavily abusive toward his mother. A year after the couple's marriage on October 7th 1915, F.P. was reported to have stabbed Charlotte with a pair of scissors while verbally and physically abusing her.<ref name="F.P. EARLE DIVORCED AGAIN."/>

A childhood bout with polio affected muscles on the left side of Earle's face. He began painting when he was 10 years old. Shortly after his artistic start, his parents divorced, leaving Eyvind in his mother's custody for a period of time.<ref name="F.P. EARLE DIVORCED AGAIN."/> During Earle's early teenage years, he and his father traveled to Europe to study art.<ref name="DEATH OF GEN. F.P. EARLE">Template:Cite news</ref> It was during this trip that Earle held his first solo art show in Paris at the age of 14.<ref name="SF's Walt Disney Family Museum"> Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery. (Jan 8, 2018). "Eyvind Earle at SF's Walt Disney Family Museum."http://bodegabayheritagegallery.com/BBH_Gallery_Monthly_July_17.html</ref>

Career

Earle's first New York exhibition was at the Charles Morgan Galleries in 1937.<ref name=artbiz>Art Business News, Nov 2005.</ref> In a 1939 exhibition, the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased one of his works for its permanent collection.<ref name=artbiz/> His work at this time was realistic painting.<ref name=artbiz/>

Starting in 1939 Earle began his long and successful career of selling Christmas cards, that he designed and printed himself for the American Artist Group.<ref name=artbiz/> Starting out merely as a means of survival, he formed a Christmas card company called "Monroe and Earle" with an old family friend of his. He printed these cards with the help of Everett Ball, with whom he later formed a separate company by the name of "Earle and Ball". He created over 800 designs between 1938 and 1995, and sold more than 300 million copies.<ref>Ioan Szasz, Awaking Beauty: The Art of Eyvind Earle, 2017, p.28-29</ref>

In 1951 he joined Walt Disney Productions as an assistant background painter and received credit for the experimental background painting in the Goofy short, For Whom the Bulls Toil.<ref>[[[:Template:GBurl]] Page 536] in: Template:Cite book</ref> In 1953 he created the look of Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, a short animated film which won an Academy Award<ref name=artbiz/> and a Cannes Film Festival Award.<ref name="animazing"/> He also worked on Peter Pan, Working for Peanuts, Pigs is Pigs, Paul Bunyan, and Lady and the Tramp. He was responsible for the styling, background and colors for the highly acclaimed Sleeping Beauty.<ref name=artbiz/>

In 1961, Earle completed an 18-minute animated segment of the Nativity story for the Tennessee Ernie Ford hosted television special The Story Of Christmas on NBC.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>

Earle returned to full-time painting in 1966,<ref name=artbiz/> producing watercolors, oils, sculptures, drawings, scratchboards, and limited-edition serigraphs.<ref name="animazing"/> Much of this work was not exhibited in his lifetime.<ref name=artbiz/>

He died of esophageal cancer in 2000.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Legacy

Earle was critically acclaimed by such publications as Time, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New York World-Telegram, The Art News and The New York Sun.

Earle's work and distinct graphic styling has continued to inspire new generations of artists and animators, serving to influence the look of other animated films. These have included the Disney features Pocahontas and Frozen,<ref>The Art of Frozen, Charles Solomon, Chronicle Books, 2015</ref> as well as the graphic style of Sony Pictures Animation's debut film, Open Season.<ref>The Art of Open Season, Linda Sunshine, Insight Editions, 2006</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Banner Saga, a video game by developers Stoic, draws heavily from Earle's style and contains a character named after him. He is credited for 'Artistic Inspiration'.

In May 2017 The Walt Disney Family Museum hosted an 8-month original retrospective exhibit: Awaking Beauty: The Art of Eyvind Earle.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> An accompanying hard cover exhibition catalog was published under the same name Template:ISBN.

Awards

In 1998, Earle was honored at the 26th Annie Awards with the Winsor McCay Award for a lifetime achievement in the art of animation.

In 2015, in a presentation at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, Earle was inducted as a Disney Legend.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His daughter, Kristin Thompson, accepted on her father's behalf.<ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:Peterphile
• Eyvind Earle – Peter and Wendy (Little Golden Books illustrations)