Visions of 1001 Nights – Art Portfolio of Kay Nielsen’s Illustrations – This extra-large fine art portfolio revives Kay Nielsen’s illustrations for a world heritage classic, A Thousand and One Nights. Printed for the first time ever in five colors including gold, the 21 prints are reproduced directly from Nielsen’s original watercolors, allowing his sumptuous hues and rich influences to dazzle. A companion book features image descriptions, essays, and other rarely seen artworks. Limited and numbered edition of 5,000 copies. In the late 1910s, in a Europe ravaged by World War I, Danish illustrator Kay Nielsen put the finishing touches on his illustrations of A Thousand and One Nights. The results are considered masterpieces of early 20th-century illustration: bursting with sumptuous colors of deep blues, reds, and gold leaf, and evoking all the magic of this legendary collection of Indo-Persian and Arabic folktales, compiled between the 8th and 13th centuries. In the financially strapped postwar climate, however, publishers retreated from Nielsen’s project and the publication never happened. A rising star, Nielsen moved on to other work, and the spectacular pen, ink, and watercolor images of this world heritage classic remained under lock and key for 40 years. Published just once in the 1970s, the illustrations were rescued from oblivion after Nielsen’s…