“The Man Gave Him a Pair of Snowshoes”
Now, to the Golden Age of Illustration…
“The Man Gave Him a Pair of Snowshoes” is a watercolor painting by the Danish illustrator, Kay Nielsen, from 1914. Nielsen is one of the artists who became world renown during the Golden Age of Illustration. His career culminated with his collaboration with Disney on the film, Fantasia.
This is one of the many gorgeous illustrations Nielsen created for the publication of East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North. This book contains a collection of Scandinavian Folk Tales collected by the Norwegian folklorists, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe and retold for children.
This piece illustrates a scene from the folk tale, “The Three Princesses of Whiteland”. In this scene, the young hero is trying to find his way back to the magical and hidden land of Whiteland. There, his wife, a young princess, awaits him. To move faster across the snowy landscape, a series of kings offer their snowshoes, depicted here as skis. The third and last king he meets informs the young hero that his wife is soon to be wed to another man, greatly increasing the stakes of the story.
Nielsen had received his first art commission in 1913, soon after moving to London, England. The collection of folk tales discussed here was commissioned the following year and included 25 original color illustrations and 21 monotone illustrations.
“The Man Gave Him a Pair of Snowshoes” is sold today online as poster art, cards, and in reproductions of the original publication.
For more on Kay Nielsen, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
