A huntsman vanquishes the seven-headed dragon

Details

Kay Nielsen (Danish, 1886-1957)
A huntsman vanquishes the seven-headed dragon
signed 'Kay.Nielsen.' (upper left) and inscribed 'Two brothers/The Two Brothers, Grimm/Then the dragon made a dart at the hunter, but he swung/his sword round & cut off three of the beast's heads' (on the reverse)
pencil, pen and black ink and watercolour heightened with bodycolour, gold and silver, unframed
15 x 10 5/8 in. (38.2 x 27 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 19 February 1965, lot 24.

Literature

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Hansel and Gretel and Other stories by the Brothers Grimm, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1925, pl.12.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Kay Nielsen was born in Copenhagen but studied art in Paris before moving to England in around 1911 and then later to America. He was commissioned to produce illustrations for a number of well known fairy tales including Fairy Tales by Hans Anderson [1924] and Hansel and Gretel, and Other Stories by the Brothers Grimm [1925]. The present work is taken from the latter volume and depicts a scene from the tale of The Two Brothers. Here a hunstman slays a seven-headed dragon by cutting off each of his heads with a magical sword before rescuing a princess who has been offered as a sacrifice to the beast. Nielsen produced twelve colour plates for this collection of fairy tales, each demonstrates his skill as a colourist and his ability to interpret well known stories in a decorative and and inventive manner.

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