[Kay Nielsen] | Pencil study for "The Swineherd" in Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen, c.1923

[Kay Nielsen]

"The Swineherd", preliminary ideas for illustration

470 x 395mm. (comprising 5 sections of paper pasted together to form one sheet); ( frame 736 x 601mm.), pencil, mounted, framed, and glazed

"A large preliminary pencil study for the illustration gives a fascinating insight into how Nielsen planned his work. In it two scenes from the story are interwoven, in much the way that a Renaissance painter might show several episodes from a biblical narrative on the same canvas. The scene of rejection, with certain differences from the finished watercolour in the palace wall and the princess’s pose and dress, fills the lower third of the drawing. The upper two thirds, though, show the earlier episode of the first kiss bestowed by the princess on the Swineherd in the pig yard surrounded by the maids of honour, with the Emperor staring over the wall, and the palace and the city in the background. This upper part was never used in the book and Nielsen’s decision to concentrate on the more moving scene of the rejection was surely correct" (White).

PROVENANCE:

from the collection of the late Colin White

LITERATURE:

cf. Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen. London, 1923; reproduced in Colin White, Kay Nielsen: A Biography, forthcoming, fig.148, discussed on p.174