{"id":31462,"date":"2016-12-01T17:49:58","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T21:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=31462"},"modified":"2020-07-29T09:59:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T13:59:15","slug":"kay-nielsen-life-undrawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2016\/12\/kay-nielsen-life-undrawn\/","title":{"rendered":"Kay Nielsen: Life Undrawn"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Sydney Vollmer, ARB Intern
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 <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>As mentioned in a previous blog post on the fairy tales in the Archives & Rare Books Library, this blog is about the illustrator of In Powder and Crinoline <\/em>and many other tales, Kay (pronounced \u201cKigh\u201d) Nielsen.<\/p>\n

Born on March 12, 1886 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Kay was the son of two actors. \u00a0His father, Martinus Nielsen, directed the Dagmarteater and his mother, Oda, was highly praised for her work both in the Dagmarteater and the Royal Danish Theater. \u00a0Despite his parents\u2019 high standing in the theatre community, Nielsen found his passion in a different art form. \u00a0He studied in Paris from 1904-1911 at Acad\u00e9mie Julian\u00a0and\u00a0Acad\u00e9mie Colarossi and after he received his education, he moved to England for five years. \u00a0It was during that time he received his first commissioned work as an illustrator.<\/p>\n

\"The \"Felicia\"<\/p>\n

The publisher Hodder and Stoughton hired Nielsen to work on In Powder and Crinoline<\/em> which was to be issued in 1913. \u00a0That same year, The Illustrated London News<\/em> commissioned him to create four illustrations for Charles Perrault\u2019s works, Sleeping Beauty<\/em>, Puss in Boots<\/em>, Cinderella<\/em>, and Bluebeard<\/em>. \u00a0A year later, Nielsen wowed the world by being of the first to introduce the four color process in the reproductions of his works. \u00a0This method used color separations of cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow, and black, or \u201ccmyk.\u201d\u00a0 Up until then, all other artists were using the three color process of filters, which was developed in the mid-nineteenth century.\u00a0 But Nielsen\u2019s new work had more sumptuous and vibrant colors which proved to be very attractive to readers, and which carried the nature of fairy tales quite effectively. \u00a0His debut using this printing mechanism was in what may be his most critically acclaimed book, East of the Sun, West of the Moon<\/em>, a classic gathering of Scandinavian folk tales. \u00a0This collection of stories contains titles such as its namesake, as well as \u201cThe Blue Belt,\u201d \u201cThe Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body,\u201d \u201cOne\u2019s Own Children are Always Prettiest\u201d, and more. \u00a0During the time of this work, Nielsen had also produced a few scenes depicting the life and struggles of Joan of Arc as well painted landscapes in Dover. \u00a0In Dover, he was introduced to The Society of Tempera which taught him how to reduce time in the printing process.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

By 1917, Nielsen began receiving some well-merited recognition.\u00a0 He was invited to New York to mount an exhibition of his work. \u00a0At the end of the show, he returned to Denmark where he painted scenery for the Royal Danish Theater for actor and director Johannes Poulsen. \u00a0He worked on other illustrations during this time, but some of these were not found until years after his death\u2014such as his illustrations for Scheherazade\u2019s\u00a0Arabian Nights<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Twele<\/p>\n

The year 1924 brought renewed prosperity for Nielsen as he was asked to work on a new edition of Fairy Tales<\/em> by Hans Christian Andersen and a year later, in a fresh translation of the folktales gathered by the Brothers Grimm, Nielsen brought to life the world of Hansel and Gretel<\/em>. \u00a0In 1930, he added another title to his resume\u2014Red Magic. \u00a0<\/em>At the end of that decade, he made the move to Los Angeles California where he tried his hand at working for Walt Disney in his animation studio.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

Although his work is featured in Disney\u2019s Ave Maria<\/em> and the \u201cNight on the Bare Mountain\u201d sequence of Fantasia<\/em>, Nielsen\u2019s time at Disney was ultimately unsuccessful. \u00a0As you can see by looking at his illustrations, he paid excruciating attention to detail. He also worked with soft pastels. \u00a0The hard lines and fast pace of the Walt Disney Company did not treat him kindly. \u00a0After only two years with the company, Nielsen was let go in 1941, although his name was given credit many decades later when The Little Mermaid<\/em> premiered in 1989.\u00a0 He had done concept work on the tale taken from the work of his fellow Dane, Andersen, but the project had been indefinitely delayed.<\/p>\n

\"TheBroken-hearted, he returned to his home in Denmark. \u00a0But unfortunately, it seemed that his motherland didn\u2019t want his work there either.\u00a0 As bad luck would have it, this was also when he contracted a chronic cough that stayed with him until his death.\u00a0 Eventually, Nielsen made his way back to Los Angeles where he obtained work painting a select few murals for schools and churches.\u00a0 On June 21, 1957, Kay Nielsen died. \u00a0Before her death the following year, Nielsen\u2019s widow, Ulla, gave his drawings to the artist and architect, Frederick Monhoff, who tried to place them in museums.\u00a0 Sadly, none took him up on his offer and it would be many years before Kay Nielsen\u2019s work would be appreciated to its beauty and artistic craftsmanship.\u00a0 Now, his works are difficult to come by, and expensive when they are found.<\/p>\n

\"The \"The The Archives and Rare Books Library holds many of Nielsen\u2019s illustrations in books that you can experience for the asking, along with a bounty of other illustrated fairy tale volumes.\u00a0 We are located on the 8th<\/sup> floor of Carl Blegen Library, open from 8:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday through Friday.\u00a0 You may also contact us by email at archives@ucmail.uc.edu<\/a>, callus at 513.556.1959, check out our website at http:\/\/www.libraries.uc.edu\/arb.html<\/a>, or find us on Facebook at https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchivesRareBooksLibraryUniversityOfCincinnati<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Sydney Vollmer, ARB Intern   As mentioned in a previous blog post on the fairy tales in the Archives & Rare Books Library, this blog is about the illustrator of In Powder and Crinoline and many other tales, Kay … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,83,13],"tags":[19,1260,67],"class_list":["post-31462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-langsam-library","category-uclibraries","tag-exhibits","tag-fairy-tales","tag-rare-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}