FOR THE BED AT KELMSCOTT

A beautiful, intricate original artwork by Jessie M. King illustrating William Morris's poem 'For the Bed at Kelmscott'. Ink, watercolour and pencil on vellum. Depicting a four-poster bed adorned with colourful and fantastical floral-patterned drapes and bedding. Angels, birds, stars and mystical figures surround the bed's occupant and adorn the poem that is inscribed boldly along the bottom of the painting, while cats and dogs can be spotted around the bed and owls sit in a tree seen through the window. In an attractive glazed contemporary floral-patterned gilt frame. Signed along the right edge. The artwork measures 30 x 33cm and the frame 34.5 x 37.5cm. A wonderful original painting with a pleasing single family owned provenance.

A gorgeous and exceptionally characteristic example of Jessie M. King's work. The painting illustrates and incorporates the 1891 poem 'For the Bed at Kelmscott', written by William Morris to be embroidered onto the hangings which were designed and embroidered by his daughter May Morris and her assistants for his prized four poster bed at Kelmscott Manor, which was constructed from Elizabethan and Jacobean panelling. The poem invokes the feeling of being safe and warm at home on a cold winter night, which Jessie M. King interprets through a host of beautiful spirits that surround the bed with magical activity. The lush and detailed composition display's her classic use of thin, flowing linework that builds up dense but airy naturalistic patterns, and is populated by her distinctive tall, elegant, Art Nouveau-styled figures. The artist was no stranger to illustrating Morris's poetry; one of her greatest achievements in book illustration are her enchanting illustrations for a 1904 edition of his 'The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems'. Jessie M. King (1875-1949) was one of the most influential of the 'Glasgow Girls' of the Glasgow School, helping to shape the British realisation of the Art Nouveau style, particularly in relation to book illustration, though she also worked across a wide range of disciplines and materials. She and her husband E. A. Taylor ran an art school in Paris called 'The Sheiling Atelier' for five years before returning to Scotland at the onset of WWII, where they lived in the artist's community of Kirkcudbright. King learned the wax resist 'batik' method in Paris and brought it with her to Scotland where it was mostly unknown. She popularised the technique with her batik scarf designs which were sold in Liberty's, and her own narrative guide book on batik called 'How Cinderella Was Able to Go to the Ball'. Provenence: Given by Jessie M. King to her friend Mary Murray (nee Geikie), thence by family descent.