KING, Jessie M.

"an illustrator of dreams"

Please scroll down to see our current stock of Jessie M. King's original artwork, first editions and other items.

Jessie Marion King (1875-1949) enrolled in the Glasgow School of Art at the age of 17 where she studied and taught alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh and was heavily influenced by Art Nouveau and the developing 'Glasgow Style'. At the 1902 Turin exhibition King won the gold medal for book design resulting in a new commissions and Europe wide publicity. 

Her style of drawing progressed through three distinct stages, beginning with intricate, gossamer line drawings, elegant knights and Art-Nouveau maidens. A sojourn in Paris coincided with a period of pastel shades and delicate watercolour images, whilst her later work introduced bold splashes of colour and a sometimes chaotic feel. All of her work is hauntingly beautiful and highly distinctive.  John Russel Taylor wrote   “…the image she conjures up of pale ladies festooned in stars and attended by flights of birds, of wan haloed knights, lost in reverie and drifting through wispy landscapes of faint transfigured trees and insubstantial dream-castles of the mind, is not quite like anything else in art, and once entered, never wholly escaped from.”

In addition to the books, Jessie M. King also designed jewellery and fabrics for Liberty, created large decorative batik panels and hand painted porcelain.

Jessie M. King and her husband EA Taylor were central figures in the development of the famous Glasgow School style and influential in 20th century design, establishing art schools in Paris and an artist’s community in the Scottish town of Kirkcudbright. 

Jessie M King’s work is highly sought by private collectors, libraries and museums.

Blog Post: Jessie M. King's Poetic Art