Graphite, ink, crayon, watercolour and gouache on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/david-jones-1370" aria-label="More by David Jones" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">David Jones</a>
Illustration to Arthurian Legend Four Queens Find Launcelot Sleeping
Purchased 1941
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
animals: birds
animals: mammals
architecture
Arthurian legend
building
chapel
characters
clothing and personal items
danger
diseases and conditions
dog - non-specific
dreaming
emotions, concepts and ideas
glove
helmet
hill
history
horse
knight
landscape
Launcelot, Sir
literature and fiction
lying down
man
military: World War I
military: World War II
monuments
objects
people
queen
religious
royalty and social rank
ruins
sleeping
standing stone / henge
swan
tales, legends and traditional
universal concepts
woman
work and occupations
World War I - non-specific
World War II - non-specific
<p>The stories of King Arthur and his knights had long been of interest to artists and writers as a remnant of a mysterious, lost national past. This drawing illustrates a passage in which Sir Launcelot is abducted by four queens. Launcelot, however, lies dreaming of his love, Queen Guinevere, who appears as a swan. The recumbent figure wears a German helmet and is deliberately reminiscent of the bodies of soldiers that Jones had seen on the battlefields of the 1914–18 war. Thus Medieval themes and styles are used to comment on more recent conflict.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique graphite ink crayon watercolour gouache
25 June 2001 – 2 August 2004
2004-08-02
25 June 2001
2001-06-25
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-06-25
Modern Art and Tradition
Collection based display
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
2005-06-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-06-15
A Picture of Britain
Exhibition
23 January 2010 – 21 March 2010
2010-03-21
23 January 2010 – 21 March 2010
2010-03-21
2010-01-23
Towner (Eastbourne, UK)
http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/
2010-01-23
Dark Monarch; Magic and Modernity in British Art
Loan-out
1 June 2023 – 31 October 2023
2023-10-31
1 June 2023 – 31 October 2023
2023-10-31
2023-06-01
y Gaer Museum, Art Gallery & Library (Brecon, UK)
2023-06-01
David Jones
Loan-out
Illustration to the Arthurian Legend: The Four Queens Find Launcelot Sleeping
support: 629 × 495 mm
frame: 880 × 727 × 50 mm
Purchased 1941
<div class="para8">
<span class="text0">The stories of King Arthur and his knights had long      been of interest to artists and writers as a remnant of a mysterious, lost      national past. This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> illustrates a passage in which Sir Launcelot is      abducted by four queens. Launcelot, however, lies dreaming of his love,      Queen Guinevere, who appears as a swan. The recumbent figure wears a German      helmet and is deliberately reminiscent of the bodies of soldiers that Jones      had seen on the battlefields of the 1914–18 war. Thus Medieval themes      and styles are used to comment on more recent conflict.  </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-09-09T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05316</b>	ILLUSTRATION TO THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND: THE FOUR QUEENS FIND LAUNCELOT SLEEPING 1941
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘David Jones 1941’ b.l.
<br/>Pencil, pen and watercolour, 24 3/4×19 1/2 (63×49·5).
<br/>Purchased from the artist (Knapping Fund) 1941.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> C.E.M.A. tour, 1944 (27); Arts Council Welsh tour and Tate Gallery, 1954–5 (54).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Ede in <i>Horizon</i>, VIII, 1943, p.135; Ironside, 1949, pp.16–18, repr. pl.32; John Rothenstein, <i>The Tate Gallery</i>, 1958, p.112, repr.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Anthony Bertram, <i>A Century of British Painting 1851–1951</i>, 1951, pl.76; V. &amp; A., <i>Twentieth Century British Water-colours</i>, 1958, pl.17.</p>
<p>This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a>, a companion to <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/jones-illustration-to-the-arthurian-legend-guenever-n05315" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05315</span></a>, illustrates a passage from the ‘Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot’ (<i>Le Morte d'Arthur</i>, Bk. VI, Ch. 3). Sir Launcelot lies sleeping under an apple tree and is being watched by the four queens: Morgan le Fay, the Queen of the Out Isles, the Queen of Eastland and the Queen of Northgalis. They have been hunting and have been attracted by the neighing of Launcelot's horse, leaving their white mules in the background. Morgan le Fay puts a sleep-spell on Launcelot which enables the queens to abduct him to a castle as their prisoner. He, however, dreams of Guenever, present at his elbow in the form of a swan.</p>
<p>The scene is placed in Wales and in the background can be seen Capel-y-Ffin with its ruined chapel. The animals incised on the mountains are in part evoked by the actual horses common in the Welsh hills and in part by the cult-horses carved in the chalk hills elsewhere in Britain. The apple trees are associated with wire-netting in the artist's mind, irrespective of the fact that there was no wire-netting in the Middle Ages, while the recumbent figure of Launcelot reminds him of the bodies of soldiers on the battlefields of the 1914–18 war: Launcelot wears a German helmet but his feet rest on a dog, an association with medieval tomb-<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a>. (Based on a draft approved and expanded by the artist, October 1958.)</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults animals: birds animals: mammals architecture Arthurian legend building chapel characters clothing and personal items danger diseases and conditions dog - non-specific dreaming emotions, concepts and ideas glove helmet hill history horse knight landscape Launcelot, Sir literature and fiction lying down man military: World War I military: World War II monuments objects people queen religious royalty and social rank ruins sleeping standing stone / henge swan tales, legends and traditional universal concepts woman work and occupations World War II - non-specific World War I - non-specific