{"id":13075,"date":"2019-08-14T21:52:34","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T01:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=13075"},"modified":"2019-08-14T21:52:34","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T01:52:34","slug":"kay-nielsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/08\/14\/kay-nielsen\/","title":{"rendered":"Illustrator And Disney Artist Kay Nielsen’s Glittering Fantasies And Difficult Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most famous creation of Kay Nielsen (1886-1957), one of the outstanding illustrators at the dawn of the 20th century, is the demon that steals the show at the end of Disney\u2019s 1940 animated film \u201cFantasia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The character was famously brought to life by animator Bill Tytla, who closely followed Nielsen\u2019s planning sketches of the glowing-eyed devil, his taut chest wreathed in smoke, flames dripping from his palms, orchestrating the bats and lesser demons that swirl about.<\/p>\n

Nielsen\u2014the subject of the exhibition \u201cKay Nielsen\u2019s Enchanted Vision: The Kendra and Allan Daniel Collection\u201d at Boston\u2019s Museum of Fine Arts<\/a> from July 20, 2019, to Jan. 20, 2020\u2014had arrived in California in 1936 to design sets and costumes for plays. But work was hard to come by. Playwright Alice Kauser took his \u201cArabian Nights\u201d drawings to Hollywood movie folks to try to drum up business.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cKay<\/a>
\u201cKay Nielsen\u2019s Enchanted Vision: The Kendra and Allan Daniel Collection\u201d at Boston\u2019s Museum of Fine Arts, July 19, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI have now been here 15 months but Hollywood has not reacted,\u201d he wrote her in November 1937.<\/p>\n

Nielsen showed up with his portfolio at the Disney studio\u2019s front door in late 1938. \u201cJesus, this guy\u2019s great!\u201d Joe Grant, who headed Disney\u2019s Character Model Department, remembered in a 1994 interview with John Canemaker. The Disney studio newsletter The Bulletin described the artist as \u201cinternationally known as an illustrator of fine books\u201d when it announced he had begun employment there on Jan. 9, 1939. His job? To help imagine Disney\u2019s artistically ambitious classical music feature \u201cFantasia.\u201d<\/p>\n