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Moon Behind Big Sur, Doorway to the Universe

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Kobayashi Kokei

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Greatest movie's all Time

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L'attesa

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Halo of the Cat's Eye

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Mars and the Pleiades

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DG 129, Scorpion Claw

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Ring of the Milky Way

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Kay Nielsen illustrations for East of the Sun and West of the Moon

Kay Nielsen (1886 - 1957) was a Danish illustrator known for his distinctive graphic, intricate style. He was born to actors, and the influence of the performing arts is reflected in the detailed costumes and patterns of his artwork. He first studied painting in Paris and during his time there, he created a collection of pen and ink illustrations depicting literature and personal experiences, which garnered him an invitation to exhibit his work in London. He moved there in 1910, had his first exhibition in 1912, and worked on several gift book illustration commissions in the following years, including East of the Sun and West of the Moon. He had his first American exhibition in 1917, but following World War I, the popularity of such expensive illustration books waned. Nielsen left London and found work as a costume and set designer for the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, where he worked on productions of The Tempest and Aladdin. While in Denmark, he still found some work illustrating books for English publishers, including editions of Hans Christian Andersen and Brothers Grimm stories. Then in 1936, he went to California to work with his friend and colleague Johannes Poulsen (who had worked on Aladdin with him) to create the sets and costumes for a production of Everyman at the Hollywood Bowl and decided to remain in the States. In 1937, he found employment at Disney where he produced magnificent work for the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence in Fantasia and created concept art for an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." Decades later when Disney eventually did make an adaptation of this fairy tale, the filmmakers put Nielsen's name in the credits as a visual developer, demonstrating how influential his work continues to be. He was laid off by Disney in 1941 and afterward, worked as a muralist and chicken farmer. By the time of his death in 1957, he had fallen into poverty and obscurity. But by the 1970s, interest in his work had revitalized and continues to this day, for the originality, elegance, and decor of his style is truly one-of-a-kind.

photo sources [x][x]

research sources [x] and "Kay Nielsen's Life and Work: Artist, Designer, Innovator" by Kendra Daniel from the Taschen edition of East of the Sun and West of the Moon edited by Noel Daniel

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The Thin Red Line (1998)

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Casa Malaparte, Adalberto Libera, Capri photographed by John Hejduk

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Cat Anderson, Francine Winham

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NGC 6543, Cat's Eye

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SN1987, Supernova

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