GALLERY FOUR
KAY NIELSEN'S DISTINCTIVE, STYLISED ILLUSTRATIONS enjoyed a great revival in the 1970s thanks to being published as art postcards by Gallery Five and the like. In fact they also did much to help create the boom in such cards and posters that followed. Personally I always thought it a shame he more or less abandoned illustration to design Hollywood film sets, but no doubt he had his reasons. Below are some of his pictures from East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a classic collection of Norwegian folk tales. Nielsen's genius was to blend their mood with Japanese graphic style. Then comes a set of illustrations in the same vein for the Arabian Nights by Virginia Frances Sterrett - less well known perhaps but just as good. Plus some others, some more famous now than others, who contributed to a golden age of illustration.
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