John Mackie
9 April 2024
Glasgow Girl Jessie Marion King was a Scottish artist, illustrator and designer known for her Art Nouveau style. Perhaps best known for her work as a book illustrator, King was one of the most commercially successful designers to emerge from Glasgow at this time.
This April, we are delighted to present an enticing selection of work by King in our DESIGN Since 1860 auction, including the remarkable Art Nouveau drawing that was the frontispiece design for ‘L’Evangile de L’Enfance’.
Join Head of Sale John Mackie as he takes a closer look at a few of the superb highlights by Jessie M King Featuring in our two-day April 2024 auction.
Born in Glasgow, King studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1892 to 1899. From 1899 her work was already beginning to attract attention, being selected for an exhibition at the Venice Biennale and illustrated in The Studio magazine. This was followed by the offer of a teaching position in the department of Book Decoration and Design at the Glasgow School of Art, a role she undertook whilst a student at the same institution. This was a time of stylistic experimentation and evolution for King, as her characteristic two-dimensional figures surrounded by halos and orbiting stars became increasingly abstract. At their furthest progression, her designs were entirely devoid of figural representation. This was the case in an 1899 cover design for ‘Rund um Berlin’ in which the spirits of her ethereal subjects are suggested purely through fine circles of ornamentation.
This remarkable Art Nouveau drawing by Jessie M. King was the frontispiece design for ‘L’Evangile de L’Enfance’, for which she designed the binding and illustrations circa 1902.
This frontispiece demonstrates the influence of continental and Scottish artists on King’s designs. The symmetrical arrangement of her figures possesses not only a German orderliness but also echoes the work of her Glasgow contemporaries, whilst retaining her particular interest in a fantasy world which she maintained throughout her career.
‘L’Evangile de L’Enfance’ was entered as part of the Scottish Section of the 1902 International Exhibition of Decorative Art in Turin, which was organised by Fra Newbery, director of The Glasgow School of Art and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The binding, a striking Art Nouveau design tooled in gilt on white vellum, was executed by the Glasgow bookbinders, MacLehose and won the coveted Gold Medal for bookbinding at the exhibition. The certificate was made out to ‘Signor Jessie King’ such was the assumption that a man would be the recipient of the award. This success however brought with it a raft of publicity and commissions as articles about Jessie’s work appeared in art journals around Europe. King's achievement is all the more remarkable given the early point in her career, as she was at this time both teaching and studying at the Glasgow School of Art. King taught at Glasgow School of Art from 1902-1908
Two near identical versions of this design exist, the key difference being on the other version a knight is given an extravagant moustache. This has led to the supposition that King made use of this embellishment to disguise an accidental ink blot in the making of the binding. Almost contemporaneous to this work is the binding for 'L’Evangile de L'Enfance'.
From 1911 to 1928, King moved to France together with her husband and their daughter, Merle, where they opened an art school. It can be argued that some of her finest works belong to this Paris period, incorporating her pen and ink technique with vivid colours. King’s work during this period can also be considered as influential to the creation of the Art Deco movement. On the onset of World War I, the family returned to the UK and settled in Kirkcudbright in 1915, where the couple remained and continued to work until their deaths.
A fascinating insight into the life of Merle Taylor, and her relationship with her parents, the artists Jessie Marion King and Ernest Archibald Taylor. The archive contains intimate familial letters, alongside well wishes and expressions of sympathy from friends. Two painter’s smocks, presumably having belonged to J.M. King, are also featured.
