In the pantheon of classical Golden Age illustrators, there are names that inspire and excite, such as Arthur Rackham and N.C. Wyeth. The romantic and otherworldly creations of Kay (rhymes with “high”) Nielsen, however, are the indelible images of fever dreams. Through Jan. 20 at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) you can view dozens of the artist’s works. If his name seems unfamiliar, he doubtless created the most terrifying animation sequence ever, in the Disney Studio’s “Fantasia” of 1940. His conceptual art, forgotten for decades and then rediscovered, so impressed studio artists that they spent years resurrecting what became 1989’s “The Little Mermaid.”
In 2016, Nielsen’s vivid imaginings inspired a collection of haute couture and an upcoming definitive hardbound biography is in the works.
The MFA exhibit derives from the collection of Franklin County residents Kendra and Allan Daniel. Twelve years ago, the “Flights into Fantasy” display at the Eric Carle Museum highlighted their acquisitions of original children’s book art.
The galleries contained a cornucopia of illustrations, ranging from Rackham and Edmund Dulac to Beatrix Potter, however, among the more than 80 works, nine uniquely stood out.
“The star was really Kay Nielsen,” Kendra said during an interview with her husband Allan at their home.
Serendipitously, at a dinner party a few years back, Kendra met with an MFA fashion curator who became intrigued while looking at a wall of Nielsen images. The artist was not unknown, as the museum had two of his illustrations in their collection. Many staffers became excited as to the idea of an exhibit and the concept gained momentum. The display has since won praise from periodicals as diverse as The Boston Globe and Vogue.
“A number of staff have said to me that it’s their favorite exhibit and I’m not making this up,” Meghan Melvin said recently, speaking from her museum office. She’s the curator of design and organized the show, which traces the illustrator’s work from its beginnings to the early 1940s. She’s also the author of an upcoming book on Nielsen, slated for a 2021 publication.
“It’s been gratifying to walk through and see visitors deeply engaged with the works of art,” Melvin continued. “They’re spending time, not just blowing through the galleries.”
Nielsen was born in Copenhagen to a theatrical family. His mother, Oda, was an internationally renowned actress and his father Martinius was director of the Royal Danish Theater. Tutored from the age of 12, his mother would often entertain him with readings of Danish folk tales and myths. He also became immersed in the designs of backdrops and stagecraft.
“A lot of his paintings have an aspect of theater sets,” Kendra said. “They’re dramatic and theatrical.”
While his watercolor backgrounds may be filled with voluptuous trees, characters in the foreground are clothed in ornamental costumes, visually stunning with detail upon detail.
In his mid-teens Nielsen left for Paris and undertook studies for some five years at such prestigious institutions as the Academie Julian. As he developed a unique style, among his influences were the works of English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley and the Japanese woodcut artists.
For artists depicting the romance and fantasies of children’s literature, at the time the action was in London and Nielsen was later drawn to the city.
“There was an explosion of illustrated books,” Melvin said. “One reason was due to the advances in print technology, the reproduction of a broad spectrum of color with excellent detail.”
In 1913, Nielsen received his first commission to illustrate In Powder and Crinoline, a collection of faerie tales.
“It was so eye-opening and beautiful that it set him on a career path,” Kendra explained.
This was the first of four “gift books” that the Dane created. They were bound in vellum, in limited editions and priced for the well-to do. Far less expensive versions were also produced.
“They really weren’t for children as much as for parents to hold and read from, ” Allan said. “Although Kay was the third most famous (illustrator, after Rackham and Dulac), he was the most artistic, the most sensitive and the most otherworldly.”
One year later, just as the relationships between European countries were about to become volcanic, his gift book, “East of the Sun and West of the Moon,” was published. The books made money, yet more was to be made for illustrators by selling the individual artworks at various galleries. The tragedy, however, was that these original works were then widely dispersed to the four winds and often lost forever.
“Here he is, just before the First World War finally getting success as a best-selling artist and a book illustrator at a time when the luxury book trade was at a pinnacle,” Melvin said.
It’s been said that World War I destroyed Europe’s ruling classes. It also cratered its economy for years and such extravagances as gift books lost importance.
“Significant events of the early 20th century had an impact on his career,” the curator added.
During the 1920s, Nielsen returned to stagecraft in Copenhagen designing sets and costumes for professional theater. During that time, at age 40, he married 22-year-old Ulla Pless-Schmidt and they became a devoted couple. At this point, he was Scandinavia’s most famous artist.
In 1936, he was beckoned to California to design stage sets at the Hollywood Bowl for Max Reinhardt’s “Everyman.” His work caught the eye of Walt Disney who then employed him as a conceptual artist, charged with creating the guiding designs for animation projects.
Kendra noted that a Disney staffer had remembered Nielsen as “quiet and kindly … very conscientious and very serious about his art … he was highly respected by the other illustrators … they were thrilled that he was among them.”
During his brief tenure there, he created designs for the demonic creatures that descend to earth in Fantasia’s “Night on Bald Mountain.” Approaching its 80th year, the sequence still produces chills abetted by the devilish “Chernabog” monster, modeled upon Hollywood Dracula Bela Lugosi. As a much-welcomed and restful counterpoint to all the creepiness, the artist also designed the accompanying “Ave Maria” segment.
As he approached his twilight years, commissions were few. An inveterate smoker, his health declined and he and his wife struggled financially.
“The demand for Kay’s kind of work and even Arthur Rackham’s fell off,” Kendra noted.
“It’s a different world after the Second World War,” Allan added. “He really should have a high place in the pantheon of artists. He was denied, somehow, at the end of his life.”
Nielsen did receive commissions to create murals in three public places in the Los Angeles area; however, he could not find steady artistic work. After he passed away, his wife died just 14 months later.
The Dane, however, casts a long shadow. In his last years, the late clothing designer Karl Lagerfeld discovered Nielsen’s works and created an entire 2016 line of fashion redolent of his art. No slouch at showmanship, the designer debuted the dresses and gowns at Rome’s Trevi Fountain. Through the miracle of plexiglass, the models appeared to be walking on water.
Recently, Taschen publishing released “A Thousand and One Nights,” a full-color gift book of an unrealized Nielsen project, which had been under lock and key for 40 years and dormant for another 60.
As to why the artist’s work is so enduring, Allan was succinct.
“It’s the otherworldliness,” he said. “He produces creatures that are really not human and not seen anywhere else. I like the idea of worlds that live alongside us that we can’t perceive.”
Kendra explained that in 1998, she met what would become the two loves of her life. That year she bid on her first Nielsen illustration at Sotheby’s.
“I knew when I bought my first that it was not going anywhere,” she said. “I never sold, I just collected him.”
That same year she became acquainted with Allan. They wed five years later.
As a legacy, the dozens of Nielsens accrued over the years will later be gifted to the MFA by the Daniels.
“Allan and I are basically excited to be sharing it,” Kendra said. “Why have (the collection) unless you can share it? The more people who see it, the more gratifying it will be.”
“Kay Nielsen’s Enchanted Vision” continues through Jan.20. Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is open daily; Sat. – Tues. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Weds. – Fri. 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. Admission: Ages six and under, free; Ages 7 -17, $10; stdts $23; adults $25. For more info: mfa.org.
Don Stewart is a freelance writer who lives in Plainfield. He has written for the Greenfield Recorder since 1994.