Kay Nielsen Art
Distinct illustrator
Persian and Japanese influences

Kay Nielsen Art has gradually gained recognition and one cannot cease to admire his work as an illustrator...

He was a Danish painter and he was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1886.

He was also a popular illustrator from the Golden Age of Illustration of the early 20th century. He is among names such as Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rakham.

His Dad was the director of the Royal Danish Theatre his mother an actress in the theatre too, and this family environment lent a hand in his artistic up bringing.

He went to London in 1911 after having studied in Paris for seven years.

He was also commissioned to illustrate a collection of fairytales by Hodder & Stoughton, like some of his fellow artists.

Some of the tales he's known for can be found in the children's collection East of The Sun West of he Moon, 1914 which was included in The Blue Fairy Book by James Lang.

It's in fact a Norwegian version of a very old Scandinavian fairy tale.

His hard edged style was adaptable to cartoon cinema and thirteen years after his exhibition in New York, in 1917, he went to work on Fantasia for The Walt Disney Company.

He also did some work for The Little Mermaid story but that appeared years later.

During that time, until he began to work for Disney, he had illustrated Han Andersen's Fairy Tales and Brother Grimm's Hansel and Gretel and stories alike.

He also painted scenes from the Arabian Night. He died in poverty in 1957.

Back to top