Hans Christian Andersen was born 1805 in Odense, Denmark as the son of a poor shoemaker. He undertook journeys through Germany, France and Italy, which inspired him to create impressionistic studies. The fame of Andersen is based on his 168 unforgettable fairytales. Andersen died 1875 in Copenhagen.

Illustrations by H. Tegner, H. Paar and A. Mathiesen from 'The fairytales of Andersen', published 1922 in Amsterdam by Scheltema & Holkema´s Boekhandel.