lost Scandinavian artist

October 18, 2005 9:54 AM

When I was a kid I really liked a particular illustrator who painted? drew? these pastel-colored, rather depressing, and often romantic pictures, many of which were illustrations of the Anderson sorts of fairy tales, e.g. The Snow Queen, or Hansel & Gretel.

I'm 99% sure she was Scandinavian, and she may have died in the 1950s or so.

The people in her pictures always had those creepy blank Lil Orphan Annie eyes. Does anyone have any clue who that was? I've been googling away with no results, but I might be remembering things all wrong.

posted by small_ruminant to media & arts (16 answers total)

Doubt its this, but Kay Nielsen was a Danish illustrator who did some great illustrations for Nordic folkstories.
posted by atom128 at 10:26 AM on October 18, 2005

I think you either mean Elsa Beskow or John Bauer. About half the question fits one and the other half fits the other.
posted by rycee at 10:35 AM on October 18, 2005

Is it any one of the female illustrators listed on this page?
posted by orange swan at 10:39 AM on October 18, 2005

Nope- not Kay Nielsen, Elsa Beskow, or John Bauer. Orange Swan, I'm still working through your link, but even if I don't find the answer posting will have been worth it for this great site!
posted by small_ruminant at 10:50 AM on October 18, 2005

Tove Marika Jansson or Henriette Willebeek Le Mair?
posted by iconomy at 10:51 AM on October 18, 2005

Nope and nope, sadly. And nope to Orange Swan, too, as far as I could tell- those seemed heavy on the western European children's illustrators. I never saw her pictures actually illustrating a story- it was a collection of just her stuff. So maybe she just drew them independent of prose? Please please keep posting ideas- one them will be her, I'm sure. I was up way too late last night trying to find her.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:59 AM on October 18, 2005

That is a great site. I've been working through it myself and am considering working it into an FPP.
posted by orange swan at 11:01 AM on October 18, 2005

Found it- Sulamith Wulfing- not Scandinavian at all. Sorry. And now I'm not really seeing the attraction, but when I was a kid I was really taken by her stuff. Well, curiosity satisfied anyway.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:34 AM on October 18, 2005

Sure you're not thinking of Maxfield Parrish?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:34 AM on October 18, 2005

Too late...
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:35 AM on October 18, 2005

Ok how did you find that!
posted by iconomy at 11:46 AM on October 18, 2005

Wikipedia suggested I try http://www.artcyclopedia.com/ and they have a Search By Genre section. I searched fantasy.
posted by small_ruminant at 12:07 PM on October 18, 2005

I know you already found who you wanted...but I have to plug Edmund Dulac here because he is magnificent.
posted by jeanmari at 1:56 PM on October 18, 2005

I like Dulac a lot too, but I only discovered him as an adult. Same with Bilibin, whose work I love and plug whenever possible.
posted by small_ruminant at 2:03 PM on October 18, 2005

My God, those Dulac pictures are fabulous. They remind me of Klimt.

Thanks for the links, lots to browse here.
posted by essexjan at 3:01 PM on October 18, 2005

Thanks atom128 for the Kay Nielsen link. Long ago had a copy of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". Couldn't remember even the title or the illustrator's name until I clicked on your link. How beautiful.

I grew up with my mother's worn copy of "Once Upon A Time", illustrated by Margaret Evans Price. All of the illustrations on this link are from that book. She also did wonderful illustrations for "A Child's Book of Myths and Enchantment Tales". Can't find a link for those illustrations though.
posted by marsha56 at 11:50 PM on October 18, 2005