Hans Christian Andersen as an Artist

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This is the largest selection of Hans Christian Andersen's visual art ever presented in one book. Heltoft emphasizes the connection between Andersen's writing and his visual art, presenting a wealth of illustrative material within a framework of excerpts from Andersen's works, correspondence, and diary entries. The originality and charm of Andersen's visual art are moving, and it is through modernism's expansion of the concept of art that we have come to understand the values in his naivistic drawings, surrealistic collages, and subtly executed paper cuts. These works are based on a pronounced ability to observe and an uncompromising artistic instinct. The drawings have been restored to their original graphic beauty, and the festive coloring of the paper cuts has been re-created. New material has been added, and lost works have been reproduced from the author's archives, making the book additionally interesting. It represents the best starting point for an appreciation of Andersen's gifts as a visual artist.