What first seizes the eye in The Battle in the Storm (East of the Sun and West of the Moon) is the headlong rush of horse and rider, both swept forward by a force that seems to come from beyond the frame. The horse’s legs stretch impossibly, almost as if flying rather than galloping, while the rider leans low, hair and cloak streaming in the wind. Every surface glimmers with fine pattern: the horse’s coat, the rider’s trousers, even the rocky ground below, each detail inviting a closer look.

Light slashes down in dramatic bands, cutting through a sky heavy with storm, and the mountains behind bristle with strange, watchful faces and flowers—half landscape, half living presence. The palette is pale and icy, yet pierced with sudden reds and golds, setting a mood of peril and enchantment. Created in 1922 as part of a lavish illustrated edition of Norwegian fairy tales, this work by Kay Nielsen belongs to a world where illustration was both high art and popular delight. The early twentieth century saw a flowering of such books, often commissioned by publishers eager to bring old stories to new audiences, and Nielsen’s style—at once delicate, decorative, and charged with drama—embodies the spirit of the era.

His art draws from Art Nouveau and Symbolist traditions, but also from the flatness and ornament of Japanese prints, which were much admired in Europe at the time. History has kept few traces of the individual journeys of these illustrations, but their power endures: each page was meant to stop the reader, to hold them in the spell of the tale. Let your gaze linger on the storm, and see how the story still gallops forward.