Dagelijks archief: woensdag 12 januari 2011

er was eens … [ 1 ]

Kay Nielsen (1886-1957) uit Denemarken
 

De periode 1870-1930 wordt wel eens The Golden Age of Illustration genoemd. Door het populaire Edwardian Gift Book was het geïllustreerde sprookjesboek in Engeland tot een uitzonderlijk hoog niveau gekomen. De meeste tekenaars die zo’n honderd jaar geleden actief waren, stonden onder invloed van het symbolisme en Jugendstil met zijn geaccentueerde lijnenspel. In deze serie vijf van deze illustratoren uit vijf verschillende landen die in hun unieke beeldtaal bekende sprookjes en sagen visualiseerden: Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, Ivan Bilibin en Harry Clarke.

Kay Nielsen was a Danish illustrator who was popular in the early 20th century, the “golden age of illustration” which lasted from when Daniel Vierge and other pioneers developed printing technology to the point that drawings and paintings could be reproduced with reasonable facility, He joined the ranks of Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac in enjoying the success of the gift books of the early 20th century. This fad lasted until roughly the end of World War I when economic changes made it more difficult to make a profit from elaborately illustrated books.
Nielsen
illustratie van Kay Nielsen
Kay Nielsen studied art in Paris from 1904 to 1911, and then lived in England from about 1911 to 1916. He received his first English commission from Hodder & Stoughton to illustrate a collection of fairytales, providing 24 colour plates and more than 15 monotone illustrations – In Powder and Crinoline, Fairy Tales Retold by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, 1913. In the same year, Nielsen was also commissioned by The Illustrated London News to produce a set of four illustrations to accompany the tales of Charles Perrault – with the images for ‘Le Belle au Bois Dormant’ (‘Sleeping Beauty’), ‘Le Chat Botté’ (‘Puss in Boots’), ‘Cendrillon’ (‘Cinderella’) and ‘La Barbe Bleue’ (‘Bluebeard’) being published in the 1913 Christmas Edition. A year later, he also provided 25 colour plates and more than 21 monotone images for the children’s collection East of The Sun West of The Moon, old tales from the North, 1914. The colour images for both In Powder and Crinoline and East of the Sun and West of the Moon were reproduced by a 4-colour process – in contrast to many of the illustrations prepared by his contemporaries that characteristically utilised a traditional 3-colour process. In 1914, too, Nielsen produced at least three illustrations depicting scenes from the life of Joan of Arc (when published later in the 1920s, those images were associated with relevant text from The Monk of Fife).
 
Bron: en.wikipedia.org

Walt Disney verzamelde voor zijn tekenfilms de grootste talenten die hij kon vinden. Vaak waren dat illustratoren van sprookjesboeken. Voor de achtergronden in Sneeuwwitje (1937) had hij gekozen voor de stijl van de Engelse illustrator Arthur Rackham. Een paar jaar later, tijdens de productie van Fantasia, werd de bekende Deense illustrator Kay Nielsen aangetrokken als art director. Zijn stijl werd gebruikt voor de twee laatste composities in Fantasia: Nacht op de Kale Berg van Modest Moessorgsky en Ave Maria van Franz Schubert.

Voor Night on Bald Mountain uit Fantasia (1940) liet meesteranimator Vadimir Tytla zich inspireren door de stijl van Kay Nielsen die in 1939 art director was bij The Walt Disney Company
Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria is the final segment of Fantasia, following the music of the same name by Modest Moussorgsky and Franz Schubert. Deems Taylor introduces it as the conflict between the profane (represented by Night on Bald Mountain) and the sacred (represented by Ave Maria). At Walpurgis Night (the Witches’ Sabbath), Chernabog, god of evil, emerges from the peak of Bald Mountain (in reality Mount Triglaf, near Kiev in southern Russia) to summon all of his minions, including ghosts, demons, hags and harpies, who dance furiously as he throws them into the mountain’s fiery pit. Chernabog is driven away by the light of the dawn, and a procession of figures walks up a hill to witness a sunrise. It is perhaps the most famous sequences in Fantasia, if not, second to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The sequence showcases the animation of Vadimir Tytla and the style of Kay Nielsen, as well as the longest shot ever produced in the multi-plane camera (in the procession).
 
Bron: disney.wikia.com

nielsen.artpassions.net | artsycraftsy.com | Kay Nielsen [ surlalunefairytales.com]