AKA Kay Rasmus Nielsen

Born: 12-Mar-1886
Birthplace: Copenhagen, Denmark
Died: 21-Jun-1957
Location of death: Altadena, CA
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Artist

Nationality: Denmark
Executive summary: Danish Golden Age illustrator

Danish illustrator best known for In Powder and Crinoline (published in the US as Twelve Dancing Princesses) and East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Nielsen was strongly influenced by Asian and Persian art, and by the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley.

He moved to London in 1911 but returned in 1916. During World War I he lived in Copenhagen and worked in theatre. In 1924 he illustrated Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales followed by Hansel and Gretel and Other Stories From the Brothers Grimm in 1925. He returned to Copenhagen and the theater, designing stage sets for the Theater Royale productions of Aladdin, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest.

Later, Nielsen painted twenty Arabian Nights paintings. He created a mural for Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Hollywood discovered him, and he worked on the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence in Fantasia.

Nielsen died in poverty, and only became known to Western readers after David Larkin's book was published in 1973.

Wife: Ulla
Father: Martinius Nielsen (theater actor)
Mother: Oda Larssen (theater actor)

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