Kay Nielsen (1886-1957) is one of the most celebrated Golden Age illustrators of the 20^th century, renowned for his exquisite gift books and interpretations of fairy tales that reflect evocatively on light & dark, love, passion, loss and death.

His drawings and illustrations are, for the most part, willfully flat; their depth comes from their dusky, warm colours and patterns. His figures are almost stereotypically Nordic: pale and androgynous. Despite his love of the solitary, he always manages to convey both community and a sense of ‘otherness’ in his illustrations.