Poster Drawing for The Ugly Duckling, 1939

I have been telling the world for over 20 years that Manuel Gonzales was one of the three major publicity artists for the Disney Studio during the 1930s. He was every bit as important and skilled as Tom Wood and Hank Porter, yet his work is still almost always attributed to one of the other two publicity artists. Although Gonzales rarely signed his work in any way, a few of his drawings bear his initials, such as this important design for the one sheet poster for The Ugly Duckling. If a publicity drawing has underdrawing in red pencil, it is almost certainly not by Tom Wood. If it has red underdrawing and does not have the initial P or the monogram formed from the initials H and P, it is almost certainly by the great Manuel Gonzles. When the totality of surviving publicity art from the Disney Studio during its peak years for short cartoons, c. 1934 - 1939 is considered, it is apparent that Manuel Gonzales was THE major artist responsible for this important type of Disney art. The composition in this, the last poster drawing for a true Silly Symphony, is absolutely brilliant in the way the eye is guided to the true focus of the design, the charming image of the Ugly Duckling himself. In fact, I consider this drawing by Gonzales to be every bit as accomplished as Hank Porter's late masterpiece, his poster design for the Goofy and Wilbur one sheet poster. It is hard to imagine that anyone could have better summarized the narratives of these two great animated shorts so directly and effectively summarized two of Disney's very best shorts through single images as we see in these two drawings -- they represent the highest artistic achievements of Disney's publicity department and of the Disney Studio overall.

I have known of this drawing since the early 1980s, when it and the Mickey's Trailer poster design were both in the collection of a Southern California physician. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get the chance to own it myself. I suppose that 36+ years is not too long to wait. Now, I can focus on convincing a friend who owns the Practical Pig poster drawing to finally sell it to me!