From the Archives
Biography
Kay Nielsen
Danish artist Kay Nielsen (1886−1957) remains one of the most fascinating and beloved artists of the Golden Age of fantasy illustrations in the early 20th century. His books include East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1914), as well as Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales (1924) and Hansel and Gretel and Other Stories by the Brothers Grimm (1925), both featured in TASCHEN fairy-tale books. Nielsen also worked on the Disney film Fantasia (1940), designing the segment “Night on Bald Mountain.” Not long after a hopeful but ill-fated stint at chicken farming, he eventually died penniless and in obscurity.
