pen and watercolour on paper, signed, titled labels verso
mounted, framed and under glass

image size 34cm x 43cm, overall size 58cm x 65cm

Label verso: The Fine Art Society, London, 1972
Exhibition label verso: The Scottish Arts Council
Note: Jessie Marion King was born on March 20th, 1875 in New Kilpatrick, now Bearsden, Glasgow and was one of a group of artists known as “The Glasgow Girls”. As a child Jessie showed a natural talent for drawing. Her parents were against her following art as a career, but eventually agreed to her enrolling at the Glasgow School of Art. Under the direction of Francis Newbery, the School had become the centre of a new distinctly Scottish form of the “Art Nouveau” movement – which became known across Europe as “the Glasgow style”. Newbery noted and encouraged her remarkably original and imaginative talent in illustration and commissioned design work from her from the School itself. Around 1903 Jessie M King first visited Kirkcudbright. The town was already known for its community of artists, centred around the “Glasgow Boy” painter E A Hornel. On his advice, in 1908 Jessie purchased an eighteenth century house on the High Street which she later called “Greengate”. In 1908, her fiancée, Ernest Taylor chose to settle permanently in Salford, where he worked as chief designer for a furniture manufacturer. The couple were married, and in August the following year their only child, Merle, was born. In 1908, Taylor accepted an invitation to take a teaching post at a new art school in Paris. After a year, the Taylors opened their own art school in Montmartre, which they called “The Sheiling Atelier”. When War was declared in August 1914, the Taylors were unable to continue teaching in Paris. Returning to Kirkcudbright in August 1915, they carried on with the Summer Schools. After the war, they decided against re-starting their art school in Paris. Back in Kirkcudbright, Jessie’s book illustration work began to revive. She also began to work on “Batik” fabric design. In 1924 she wrote and illustrated a book about the technique, called “How Cinderella was able to go to the Ball”. Ceramic decoration was another new line of work. Her main outlet for decorated pottery was the Paul Jones Tea Room in Kirkcudbright. Here, in 1932, as a favour to the owner, Jessie had re-modelled the interior and exterior on a pirate theme. The Taylors had become key members of Kirkcudbright’s artistic community. Through their teaching and wide circle of acquaintances, many artists were drawn to visit the town. Both commission work and teaching was interrupted by the Second World War, and Jessie’s last commission for a cover design came in 1949, and was for a book titled “The Parish of New Kilpatrick” – the same Bearsden parish were she had grown up. At the end of July of that year, she suffered a heart attack, and on August 3rd she died.