King gained international recognition for her book illustrations and her creative talents extended to posters, bookplates, jewellery, ceramics, wallpaper, murals, textiles, and furniture. In 1908, she married fellow artist E. A. Taylor, a furniture and stained glass designer who also worked in oil and watercolours. Their only child, Merle Elspeth, was born in 1909.
In 1910, the family moved to Paris, where King and Taylor ran the Shealing Atelier, an art school and gallery. Summers were spent teaching on the Isle of Arran. With the outbreak of World War I, they returned to Scotland, settling in Kirkcudbright, where King established Green Gate Close, a centre for women artists. She pioneered the batik technique in Scotland, designing scarves sold by Liberty’s. King also collaborated with Taylor on furniture and interior design projects. Taylor contributed to “The Studio” magazine as a Paris correspondent and continued to paint landscapes and lecture on art.
A highlight in the collection, Jessie M King’s How Four Queens Found Sir Lancelot in the Wood, was executed around the time King and Taylor were living in France and running the Shearing Atelier School of Art. It can be argued that some of her finest works belong to this Paris period, including pieces considered influential to the creation of the Art Deco movement.