Jessie Marion King was born in Bearsden, Scotland in 1875. As the daughter of a conservative minister, her initial pursuits in art were strongly discouraged. In 1891, however, King and her father reached a compromise and she was allowed to enroll at Queen Margaret College to become an art teacher. She completed her education at the Glasgow School of Art, home to the Scottish form of Art Nouveau known as the Glasgow Style. In 1897, she exhibited highly-praised drawings for a nursery frieze based on Rudyard Kipling’s story, Jungle Book. After graduating in 1899, she was offered a teaching position in bookbinding and illustration at the Glasgow School of Art.

In 1902, King was awarded a Gold Medal at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts at the Royal Society of Art in Turin, Italy, establishing herself as one of the eminent artists of the Glasgow Style. She married Ernest Archibald Taylor, a furniture and stained glass designer and fellow teacher at the Glasgow School of Art in 1908. With the birth of her first and only child in 1909, King hired her childhood nanny to care for her daughter so she could continue to focus on her career.

When Taylor was offered a job as the Paris correspondent for The Studio School of Drawing and Painting, the family moved to Paris. King and Taylor set up their own art school, the Shealing Atelier for Fine Art. King continued working, creating illustrations for books including Milton’s Comus and Oscar Wilde’s A House of Pomegranates. She exhibited often and became well known for her drawings. While in Paris, King became fascinated with batik and wrote and illustrated a textbook on the process. Her years in Paris were very productive, and King enjoyed great success and frequent commissions.

When war was declared in Europe, King moved her family back to Scotland but maintained her Paris studio. They settled in Kirkcudbright where she began designing costumes and theater sets. She also produced watercolors, jewelry, ceramics, and murals. In 1928, she gave up her Paris studio when her daughter decided to attend the University of Glasgow instead of studying art in Paris. King accepted commissions until late in life. Her last series of illustrations was published in The Parish of New Kilpatrick in 1949, the same year as her death.

Instructor, Lecturer, Teacher, Writer

Paris

Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland (1892-1900) Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, Scotland (1891-1892)

wife of Ernest Archibald Taylor student of Charles Rennie Macintosh student of Francis M. Newbery friend of and influenced by Frank Zimmerer influenced by Léon Bakst colleague of John Macbeth friend and colleague of Helen Paxton Brown

Lauder Award, Lady Artists' Club, Paris, France (1921) Gold Medal, International Exhibition of Decorative Arts, Royal Society of Art, Turin, Italy (1902) Queen's Prize, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland (1897)

National Competition, South Kensington Museum, London, England (1897)

Jessie Marion King, Mackintosh House Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland (2005) Jessie M. King: 1875-1949, The Scottish Art Council Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland (1971)

Kirkcudbright (died at)