Jessie M King: The Birds So Sweetly Sang

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Posted by Jessie M. King

Jessie M. King: Kirkcudbright, Scotland, United Kingdom; Jessie Marion King (March 20, 1875 – August 3, 1949) was a Scottish painter and illustrator of Children's books. She was born in Bearsden, near Glasgow. Her father was a minister with the Church of Scotland and she received a strict religious education and was discouraged from becoming an artist. Jessie M. King began training as an Art teacher in 1891 at Queen Margaret’s College. In 1892 she entered the Glasgow School of Art. King became a committee member of the Glasgow Society of Artists (1903) and a member of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists (1905). She married E. A. Taylor in 1907 and moved with him to Salford. In 1910 they moved on to Paris where Taylor had gained a professorship at Tudor Hart's Studios. In 1911 King and Taylor opened the Shearing Atelier School in Paris. Her works in Paris are considered as influential to the creation of the Art Deco movement. King and Taylor moved to Kirkcudbright in 1915 and continued to work there until her death.