Jais Nielsen

Johannes Knud Ove Jais-Nielsen (23 April 1885 – 8 November 1961) was a Danish painter, designer and ceramist, best known for the religious figure groups that he designed for the Royal Copenhagen pottery.

Nielsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was married to artist Ville Jais Nielsen (née Oppenheim). He died at Gentofte Hospital in Hellerup, Denmark and is buried at Mariebjerg Cemetery.

Nielsen studied painting at the Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler under Kristian Zahrtmann and Johan Rohde, but abandoned the academic style under the influence of modern art that he saw on his study trips. Nielsen made several excursions to important art centres, travelling to Berlin (1909) and Paris (1911–1914). In 1920 he travelled to Italy, where he took a particular interest in the Renaissance art.

Nielsen's art was influenced by the Cubism that he encountered in Paris. His paintings developed angular lines and fragmentation which, as in his early masterpiece Afgang (Departure), show a tendency towards Futurism. His paintings are predominantly of figures in motion and represent a wide range of subjects, including the circus, a subject which had inspired many avant-garde painters, including Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso. His work Circus Performance. Acrobats (1916) depicts trapeze artists soaring weightlessly through the air. His trip to Italy in 1920 was the inspiration for monumental works such as Brylluppet i Kana (Marriage at Cana). He also painted landscapes on Bornholm in a style resembling that of the other Bornholm painters.

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