On view February–March 2025.
To celebrate the release of our new book, Walt Disney Treasures: Personal Art and Artifacts from The Walt Disney Family Museum, we are displaying rare and unique objects from the collection that are also featured in the book. Some of the artifacts showcased in the book and here have never been seen by the public. These objects will be on view for free in the museum’s Awards Lobby and will rotate periodically through the beginning of 2025. The second installation in this series celebrates the influence of German artist Heinrich Kley on the aesthetic of Disney's early animated features.
Walt Disney regularly looked to European art for inspiration and used those influences to inform story development central to a film’s visual concepts. Using elements drawn from traditional European artworks and storybook illustrations, in particular, Walt encouraged his animators to be inspired and adapt those elements to create unique and influential visual narratives.
On a trip to Europe in 1935, Walt acquired 335 illustrated books and additional artworks to serve as inspiration for animators on future Disney projects. These included works by German artist Heinrich Kley, who became one of Walt’s favorite illustrators. In a 1964 television interview, Walt said, “Without the wonderful drawings of Heinrich Kley, I could not conduct my art school classes for my animators.”
Kley’s influence resonates in classic Disney films such as Peter Pan (1953) and Dumbo (1941), but his work is most reflected in the demons of “Night on Bald Mountain” and the anthropomorphic animals in “The Dance of the Hours” from Fantasia (1940). The menacing Chernabog in “Night on Bald Mountain” is deeply influenced by Kley’s work Jugend Titelblatt (Title Page of Youth), c. 1920, where the painting depicts two demons lording over a mechanical factory, turning it into their own industrial playground.
Heinrich Kley’s influence on the Disney visual aesthetic is unmistakable. Like Kley, Disney artists now inspire future generations to continue the tradition of infusing creative processes with compelling art.