Studio: international art (61.1914)

Jessie Bayes, Painter and Craftswoman

the richly gilded letters and decorated capitals of this
manuscript, but the owner of so exquisite a piece of
work is indeed to be envied. There were glimpses of
a celestial city, and of radiant beings in pale mauves
and blues, who walked in the midst of a spring-like
landscape, the birds and beasts also painted with
loving care.

It is perhaps by her illuminated manuscripts
that Miss Bayes is best known, and she has come to
be regarded as one of the leading authorities in this
branch of art. She has drawn upon Scandinavian,
Celtic and French poetry for inspiration, as well as
upon the Rubaiyat and other Eastern themes.
Much of her best work goes to America, where she
has many friends and patrons who eagerly collect
her works, and both in this country and on the
Continent, Miss Bayes has a large following.
Many who would fain buy her work but cannot
afford to purchase the originals will welcome this
opportunity to see them reproduced in The
Studio.

The manuscript reproduced on page 261 repre-
sents the opening page of The Lady of Shalott, a
double-page landscape border showing the road to
Camelot, with the river and town below, and
blossoming cornfields through which the people go
by. The rest of the borders are wild tangling
hedge flowers—blue vetch and white bedstraw.

On the following page is a manuscript poem—a
madrigal by Lapo Gianni—which represents a kind
of gathering together of all the things a lover would
offer to his lady. There are castles of silver, gardens
of fruits and flowers, strange, rare beasts and birds,
beautiful gold-clad maidens to wait on the lady, and
Love leading the lovers.

The manuscript reproduced on page 270 shows
a double-page opening of Shelley's Night, the illu-
minations wholly carried out in blues and two shades
of gold. The first miniature illustrates the lines,
Swiftly walk over the western wave
Spirit of Night !

The Spirit of Night is represented in blue draperiesj
treading the blue waters under a starry sky, fol-
lowed by white doves of sleep, the moon showing
through cloudy masses of her hair. The borders
are of green and gold leaves, amidst which are
white birds of sleep, and white poppies form the
decoration of the initials. There are medallions of
night scenes, and one of two symbolical figures,
representing "The Night kissing the Day."

But Miss Bayes does not confine her attention
to manus cripts. A whole series of small pictures—
many of them in tempera—have come from her
hand, the frames of which have been designed and
266

decorated by herself. One of her most important
pictures, The Dayspring fro??i on High, in Lord
Beauchamp's collection, was exhibited some few
years ago at an exhibition of the artist's works, an
exhibition which included some small pictures from
the Psalms of David and the Song of Songs. An
exquisite little work inspired by the latter, perhaps
one of the most perfect in idea, composition, and
colour that the artist has as yet given us, was
entitled I sleep, but my heart waketh. A work for
which Miss Bayes feels special affection is The Cross
of the Nine Angels (the title being a phrase which
often recurs in the old Celtic runes), in which
picture she gives also a vision of the grail, the
cross of angels holding the grail, telling as light
against an evening sky and landscape. Another
recent painting, in tempera upon silk, is a vision

PROCESSIONAL CROSS OF CARVED WOOD OVERLAID IN
BURNISHED GOLD AND PAINTED. DESIGNED AND EXE-
CUTED FOR THE WARHAM GUILD BY JESSIE BAYES,
ASSISTED BY EMMELINE BAYES AND KATHLEEN FIGGIS