Kay Rasmus Neilsen (1886 -1957) was a Danish Illustrator who was popular in the early 20th century, the "golden age of illustration"

The Danish illustrator claimed he was brought up in a “tense atmosphere of art” and said that “since early boyhood I have been drawing.  Anything I heard about I tried to put in situations on paper. I remember I loved the Chinese drawings and carvings in my mother’s room. My artistic wandering started with the early Italians over Persia, India, to China.” 

Neilsen so beautifully captured the ethereal, otherworldly romance of Fairy Tales, but also played with the sinister undertones of these dark morality tales.  He worked for a time for Disney, including the iconic Fantasia but couldn’t bear to work to tight schedules and later moved into theatre set design. I cannot even begin to imagine how incredible it would have been to witness the worlds he created on the page come alive on a dimly lit stage at night…