Erik Hjort Nielsen was born in Copenhagen but as a teatcher he lived i Brazil in the early 1970s. In 1981 he returned to Brazil for a short stay and he experienced at close hand how the Brazilian people coped with a flooding catastrophe with stoical calm. The way in which they dealt with this situation fascinated Erik Hjorth Nielsen so much that he subsequently wrote and illustrated The Boy and the Water, which was published in 1986.
The magnificent natural surroundings of Brazil seemed almost overwhelming to Erik Hjorth Nielsen, and he discovered that the stark and imposing landscapes of Greenland, Iceland and the Faeroe Islands were more suited to his temperament. One summer he was given the opportunity to borrow a house in Greenland, and before going there he read a series of Greenlandic legends, from which he selected five as the most suitable for him to work on in depth.
Erik Hjorth Nielsen painted and drew that summer in Greenland, and during his stay he used the legends to create the illustrated book My ulo! My ulo! in which, in addition to telling a gruesome story, he also describes life at the settlement throughout the year. The Faeroese Horse – or Rossini á Skoradali, which is the Faeroese title – has the same structure as the picture book My ulo! My ulo!. It presents human wickedness in vast, natural surroundings.
Erik Hjorth Nielsen is essentially a realistic
illustrator, and this is due to – according to the artist himself – his educational background, and partly because it is also important for children to draw “correctly”. Trolls are also “correct”, but naturally they should not
resemble people. He also thinks that it is more enjoyable to draw a horse-drawn carriage than a car, and that a horse is more exciting than a moped. Erik Hjorth Nielsen takes a lot of interest in people: in their faces, bodies,
movements and expressions. He feels the same way about animals. Things are merely objects and interest him less than living creatures. For example, the horse has always been an important animal historically, and it has played an important part in adventures. In Erik Hjorth Nielsen’s opinion, a horse is an extremely beautiful animal that unites masculine and feminine qualities.
Besides this Erik Hjorth Nielsen has also illustrated a number of classics, which have been published as picture books. These include the Icelandic saga Gunløg Serpent Tongue – an illustrated
saga, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels where he plays along with the story using a host of imaginative details, and Robin Hood – an illustrated story in which he himself has re-told five stories about the outlaw.
In 1985 he worked together with Hans Hansen to produce The Sun God’s Chariot, which was a free adaptation of the work of Ovid. This is the classic story of the Sun God’s son who forces his father to lend him the chariot of the sun, but the son’s journey across the heavens turns into a natural catastrophe. The Sun God’s Chariot was included in IBBY’s list of honour in 1986.
Another type of classic that Erik Hjorth Nielsen has worked on is Nordic mythology. This has resulted in some outstanding illustrations, for example in Lars-Henrik Olsen’s Erik – Son of Man and The Fight for the Sword.
Needless to say, Erik Hjorth Nielsen’s art as
an illustrator covers a wide spectrum, and his entrance into the field of illustrating children’s books towards the end of the 1970s marked the start of a golden era. His work reached its peak during the 1980s and 1990s, when he
established his name as one of our most prominent illustrators. It was also during this period that he achieved recognition for his talents. In 1988 he
received the Ministry of Culture’s Prize for Illustrators for his work. In 1989 he was awarded the Danish Cartoon Convention’s Diploma for the best Danish strip cartoon, White & Black like Milk & Blood. And in 1991, together with the Faeroese writer Ólavur Michelsen (1933-1978), he was presented with the Nordic School Librarians’ Prize for Children’s Literature for the beautiful and
powerful book entitled The Faeroese Horse.
(2002)
