Artist · 24 prints
Kay Nielsen Prints
About Kay Nielsen
Kay Nielsen was a Danish illustrator, born in Copenhagen on 12 March 1886 and died in Los Angeles in June 1957. His father ran a theatre and his mother was a celebrated actress. At seventeen he moved to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi until 1911, and he first exhibited his drawings in London that year.
For the London publisher Hodder & Stoughton he illustrated In Powder and Crinoline (1913), East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1914), a book of Norwegian folk tales often called his finest work, and editions of Andersen (1924) and the Brothers Grimm (1925). He later moved to California, and in the late 1930s he joined the Walt Disney studio, where he designed the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence of Fantasia (1940). Kay Nielsen spent his last years painting murals for Los Angeles schools and a church, and died in poverty.
Kay Nielsen prints: reproductions of the fairy-tale book illustrations Danish artist Kay Nielsen made between 1912 and 1925. The collection includes East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Hold Tight by My Shaggy Coat (1913), The North Wind Goes over the Sea (1914), She Saw the Lindworm for the First Time (1914), Princess Minon-Minette Rides Out into the World (1912) and Hansel and Gretel and Other Stories: The Dragon Made a Dart at the Hunter (1925).
This selection is drawn mostly from East of the Sun and West of the Moon, his book of Norwegian folk tales, with its trolls, princesses, polar bears, snowfields and winds. Smaller groups come from In Powder and Crinoline and his 1925 Grimm stories. The plates use tall, narrow compositions, flat areas of colour, swirling lines and fine pattern.
The tall formats and cool blues and golds suit bedrooms, children's rooms, hallways and narrow walls, and several plates hang well as a series. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
