1924. Colour plate, measuring 27.8 x 34.3 cms in acid-free double mount with stiff card backing, the tipped-in plate itself measuring 10.9 x 17.7 cms. One of a series of 24 colour plates commissioned to illustrate a lavish early-twentieth century edition of Dasent’s ‘Popular Tales from the Norse’, a collection of fifteen Norwegian folk tales recorded by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe, and translated into English (the tales were earlier praised by Jacob Grimm). The resulting sumptuously produced book, a exemplar from the ‘golden age of book illustration’, featured line-drawn illustrations and decorations by Nielsen, as well as tipped-in colour plates, and was published in 1914 under the title of the lead tale: East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a story in which a young lover must supernaturally traverse the constraints of the everyday world to free her beloved Prince from enchantment. The parallel themes of enchantment and the natural landscape which recur throughout the tales are perfectly suited to Nielsen’s fantastical vision: he later became known for his contribution to two sequences in Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (’Ave Maria’ and ‘Night on Bald Mountain’). The plates blend then-popular Art Nouveau and early Art Deco features, seen through a uniquely Scandinavian lens.

1924. Colour plate, measuring 27.8 x 34.3 cms in acid-free double mount with stiff card backing, the tipped-in plate itself measuring 10.9 x 17.7 cms. One of a series of 24 colour plates commissioned to illustrate a lavish early-twentieth century edition of Dasent’s ‘Popular Tales from the Norse’, a collection of fifteen Norwegian folk tales recorded by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe, and translated into English (the tales were earlier praised by Jacob Grimm). The resulting sumptuously produced book, a exemplar from the ‘golden age of book illustration’, featured line-drawn illustrations and decorations by Nielsen, as well as tipped-in colour plates, and was published in 1914 under the title of the lead tale: East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a story in which a young lover must supernaturally traverse the constraints of the everyday world to free her beloved Prince from enchantment. The parallel themes of enchantment and the natural landscape which recur throughout the tales are perfectly suited to Nielsen’s fantastical vision: he later became known for his contribution to two sequences in Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (’Ave Maria’ and ‘Night on Bald Mountain’). The plates blend then-popular Art Nouveau and early Art Deco features, seen through a uniquely Scandinavian lens.

1924. Colour plate, measuring 27.8 x 34.3 cms in acid-free double mount with stiff card backing, the tipped-in plate itself measuring 10.9 x 17.7 cms. One of a series of 24 colour plates commissioned to illustrate a lavish early-twentieth century edition of Dasent’s ‘Popular Tales from the Norse’, a collection of fifteen Norwegian folk tales recorded by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe, translated into English (the tales were earlier praised by Jacob Grimm). The resulting sumptuously produced book, a exemplar from the ‘golden age of book illustration’, featured line-drawn illustrations and decorations by Nielsen, as well as tipped-in colour plates, and was published in 1914 under the title of the lead tale: East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a story in which a young lover must supernaturally traverse the constraints of the everyday world to free her beloved Prince from enchantment. The parallel themes of enchantment and the natural landscape which recur throughout the tales are perfectly suited to Nielsen’s fantastical vision: he later became known for his contribution to two sequences in Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (’Ave Maria’ and ‘Night on Bald Mountain’). The plates blend then-popular Art Nouveau and early Art Deco design elements, seen through a unique and recognisably Scandinavian lens.

1924. Colour plate, measuring 27.8 x 34.3 cms in acid-free double mount with stiff card backing, the tipped-in plate itself measuring 10.9 x 17.7 cms. One of a series of 24 colour plates commissioned to illustrate a lavish early-twentieth century edition of Dasent’s ‘Popular Tales from the Norse’, a collection of fifteen Norwegian folk tales recorded by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe, and translated into English (the tales were earlier praised by Jacob Grimm). The resulting sumptuously produced book, a exemplar from the ‘golden age of book illustration’, featured line-drawn illustrations and decorations by Nielsen, as well as tipped-in colour plates, and was published in 1914 under the title of the lead tale: East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a story in which a young lover must supernaturally traverse the constraints of the everyday world to free her beloved Prince from enchantment. The parallel themes of enchantment and the natural landscape which recur throughout the tales are perfectly suited to Nielsen’s fantastical vision: he later became known for his contribution to two sequences in Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (’Ave Maria’ and ‘Night on Bald Mountain’). The plates blend then-popular Art Nouveau and early Art Deco features, seen through a uniquely Scandinavian lens.