One of the most famous paintings ever!
Did you know that the portrait of Mr. Toad on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland was based on the most famous painting in the world (at least for a time)?
That's right: Disney Imagineers looked to the painting The Blue Boy by English artist Thomas Gainsborough. And they didn't have to look very far because The Blue Boy hangs in the Huntington Museum in Pasadena, CA.
Railroad magnate Henry Huntington and his wife Arabella Huntington bought the painting for an enormous sum, $728,000, in 1921 and brought it across the Atlantic to California. To put that into perspective, it was the most anyone had ever paid for a painting at that time! [Side note: The Mona Lisa wasn't quite yet the most famous painting in the world yet.]
To understand Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and its relationship to one of the most famous paintings in the world, we have to get to know Gainsborough better.
Gainsborough's The Blue Boy
Gainsborough painted The Blue Boy around 1770, though at that time, it was known as A Portrait of a Young Gentleman. The portrait shows a boy dressed in luxurious blue clothes and shoes. Gainsborough modeled this man's fashion on that of the previous century. But why?
Well, it turns out that Gainsborough was looking at the fashion on display in paintings by another very famous artist, Anthony van Dyck. The Flemish artist van Dyck was famous in the 17th century for his portraits of elite people dressed to impress. Gainsborough painted Blue Boy to be in conversation with van Dyck.
So Disney Imagineers looked to Gainsborough, and Gainsborough looked to van Dyck. This is very common in art history—artists love to quote other artists. Architects do this too.
And you know who does this all the time? Disney animators and Imagineers!
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Blue Boy (er, Blue Toad)
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is an attraction as old as Disneyland. That's right, it's an OG—it was there in 1955 when the park opened. But in 1983, Disney Imagineers revamped the outside and parts of the inside to make it even clearer that Toad lives in luxury.
And it truly is a wild ride. You enter the attraction by stepping into Toad Manor—a home befitting of a wealthy English gentleman, er, gentletoad. The ride is based on one of my all-time favorite stories, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Walt Disney adapted that story for his combined film, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949).
With the exterior revamping to include Toad Manor, it seems only fitting that Imagineers had Toad dressed like an English lord. Imagineers dressed Toad in the same dapper, fancy blue outfit and pointed shoes with blue bows that we see Blue Boy wearing. Gainsborough's Blue Boy and Toad share the same confident pose, each holding a feathered hat.
There is even a fancy art history term for the way they are standing. It's known as contrapposto, or "counter-poise," with one leg straight and the other bent to shift weight in the body. It makes the body look more natural and less stiff. The use of contrapposto dates all the way back to European classical antiquity. Here, it not only makes them look naturalistic but also makes them look in charge or authoritative. That elbow jutting out on one side adds to that feeling.
Perhaps it won't surprise you to learn that Gainsborough was the leading portrait painter in England in the later 18th century. The man could paint! When you see his portraits up close, you can really see the incredible brushwork that he applied to the canvas to portray all these fancy people. Plus, he uses gorgeous colors to create these portraits. They are best appreciated in front of the actual paintings—photographs don't do them justice.
From Blue Boy to Blue Toad
It's not surprising then that Imagineers placed a portrait of Mr. Toad, let's call him Blue Toad, at the point where you exit your car after finishing the attraction Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Toad is, after all, supposed to be a wealthy, elite toad who lives in an English manor. What better way to suggest this than to base a portrait of Toad on one of the most famous portraits of all time, showing a wealthy Englishman and a painting that also happens to be in southern California?
Nice job, Imagineers, nice job.
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Blue Boy are a perfect match.
Want to learn more?
Check out the video below from The National Gallery in London!
Are you an educator? The Huntington has learning resources about Blue Boy.
Here is a nice, short newspaper article from the BBC about Blue Boy's enduring influence.
Read more about Gainsborough's Mrs. Grace Dalrymple at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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