Kay Nielsen

The Dream of the Marquise, 1918

ink, graphite, and gouache on paper (251 x 357mm. unframed; 509 x 583mm. framed), heightened with gold, signed and dated by the artist in pencil on lower right, mounted, framed, and glazed, lightly toned, chips, loss, and wear to frame

This illustration depicts costume designs for Michel and Vera Fokine’s production of the ballet La Reve de la Marquise, performed in New York and Stockholm in 1921. Kay Nielsen was brought up arou💧nd the theatre – both his parents were actors – and he produced costume and set designs for a number of ballets in Denmark and America in the 1910s and early 20s, mostly in collaboration with the director Johannes Poulsen. 

PROVENANCE:

Exhibited Brooklyn Museum, 14 April to 10 May 1925; Index of American Watercolor Exhibitions, 1900-1945, p. 238