Kay Nielsen | Original illustration for In Powder and Crinoline ("Each Was Delicious in Her Own Different Way"), 1912, signed and dated by the artist

Kay Nielsen

"Each Was Delicious in Her Own Different Way", original illustration for Rosanie and the Inconstant Prince

315 × 275 mm. (frame 632 x 510 mm.), pencil, pen, ink, and watercolour, SIGNED AND DATED BY THE ARTIST ON LOWER LEFT ("KAY•NIELSEN•1912"), framed and glazed, worming to back of frame (not affecting illustration)

This fine watercolour was reproduced to illustrate "Rosanie and the Inconstant Prince" in Arthur Quiller Couch's In Powder and Crinoline. Kay Nielsen worked in London between 1911 and 1916 and In Powder and Crinoline was the first major book he illustrated. The stylised postures of the figures owe much to the world of the theatre, and in particular the "spectacular presentations of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes... the world of fairy tale come true. The compliment that Nielsen paid it was to people his illustrations for In Powder and Crinoline with the dancers of the ballet" (White).

For another original illustration for the same work, see lot 296.

PROVENANCE:

bought from The Leicester Galleries by R. Cory Esq. in December 1913: purchase note and gallery label to back of frame; From the collection of the late Colin White

EXHIBITION:

"Ernest Brown & Phillips: The Leicester Galleries" label, and excerpt from exhibition catalogue, [December 1913], Item no.19 ("Nielsen's first exhibition at the Leicester Galleries opened in November 1913 to coincide with the publication of In Powder and Crinoline. Some fifty drawings and watercolours were on display" (White))

LITERATURE:

Reproduced as a colour print in Powder & Crinoline, London, [1913]; reproduced in Colin White, Kay Nielsen: A Biography, forthcoming, fig.63