Kay Nielsen
Danish Illustrator
1886-1957
Kay Nielsen is one of the world's greatest ever book illustrators.
Often ranked alongside Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, Kay's artwork reflects the core principles of the Art-Nouveau movement and remains one of the finest examples of book illustration ever produced. The Golden Age of illustration, running from the 1880's to the early 1920's was a time when books became artworks and illustration was really transformed into an art form. Previously colour and black and white illustration could only be simple affairs with basic shading and creativity limited by the printing and engraving process.
With the invention of the new four-colour printing process, Kay Nielsen became one of the true illustration pioneers and produced an array of glorious dream-like colour illustrations for books ranging from Andersen's Fairy Tales' to the renowned 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon'. Characterized by haunting ethereal scenes with elegant costumes, exotic backdrops and fantastic creatures, his illustrations have gained such acclaim that a single illustration taken from one of his books can be sold and framed.
Now coveted amongst collectors, Kay Nielsen's few and sought-after books offer a glimpse into a time when days of work went into a single illustration and books took years to illustrated. Perhaps because of the time care that went into the illustrations they still look beautiful today. Below I have selected two of Kay's best known books and I hope that this tribute illustrates the best of his work for you to appreciate. Each illustration could provide an essay's worth of analysis and description but I think that I will let the pictures themselves do the talking.
East of the Sun and West of the MoonIllustrated by Kay Nielsen
George H. Doran publishers
Circa 1914
Illustrated by Kay Nielsen
Garden City Publishing Company
Circa 1920
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