Graphite, ink and watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
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<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 Guenever
Purchased 1941
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
altar
animals: birds
animals: mammals
arch
architecture
armour
bed
candlestick
Capel-y-ffin
cat
chapel
characters
clothing and personal items
column
crime and punishment
crucifix
diseases and conditions
domestic
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
features
female
fireplace
furnishings
Guinevere
heating and lighting
horse
interiors
kettle
kitchen
knight
Launcelot, Sir
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
love
lying down
maid
Malory, Thomas, Sir, ‘Le Morte d’Arthur’
man
nudes
objects
owl
people
places
Powys
prisoner
queen
religious
religious and ceremonial
royalty and social rank
sleeping
society
stonework
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
Wales
woman
work and occupations
wounded
paper unique graphite ink watercolour
14 September 2002 – 11 May 2003
2003-05-11
14 September 2002 – 19 January 2003
2003-01-19
2002-09-14
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg, Germany)
http://www.kunstmuseum-wolfsburg.de
24 February 2003 – 11 May 2003
2003-05-11
2003-02-24
Les Abattoirs (Toulouse, France)
2002-09-14
Blast to Freeze: British Art in the Modern Ages
Loan-out
16 February 2011 – 21 August 2011
2011-08-21
16 February 2011 – 21 August 2011
2011-08-21
2011-02-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2011-02-16
Watercolour
Exhibition
24 October 2015 – 5 June 2016
2016-06-05
24 October 2015 – 29 February 2016
2016-02-29
2015-10-24
Pallant House Gallery (Chichester, UK)
12 March 2016 – 5 June 2016
2016-06-05
2016-03-12
Djanogly Art Gallery (Nottingham, UK)
2015-10-24
David Jones: Poet and Visionary Artist
Loan-out
Illustration to the Arthurian Legend: Guenever
support: 622 × 495 mm
Purchased 1941
<p><b>N05315</b> ILLUSTRATION TO THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND: GUENEVER 1940
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘David Jones 1940’ b.l.
<br/>Pencil, pen and watercolour, 24 1/2×19 1/2 (62·5×49·5).
<br/>Purchased from the artist (Knapping Fund) 1941.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> C.E.M.A. tour, 1944 (26); Arts Council Welsh tour and Tate Gallery, 1954–5 (53).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Ede in <i>Horizon</i>, VIII, 1943, p.135; Ironside, 1949, pp.16–18, repr. pl.30.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Exh. cat., <i>Tate Gallery Continental Exhibition</i>, 1946–7, pl.24; Robin Ironside, <i>Painting since 1939</i>, 1947, facing p.15.</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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a>, which was done at Sidmouth, is an illustration to an episode in the ‘Book of Sir Launcelot and Queen Guenever’ in Malory's <i>Le Morte d'Arthur</i>, Bk. XIX, Ch. 6. Like <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-the-four-queens-find-launcelot-sleeping-n05316" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05316</span></a> below it reflects the influence of the artist's Welsh descent and Catholic faith in making medieval romances and legends in a sense as real to him as anything in the contemporary scene; this accounts for his ability to wed images of widely different origin, everyday objects, for example, becoming endowed with certain vital associations. The artist has described the picture as follows (written statement of October 1958, in part based on a draft by Hugh Macandrew): ‘The traiterous Sir Meliagrance has captured Queen Guenever and her knights, and hearing of her abduction and the wounding and capture of her knights Sir Launcelot comes to her rescue. After being ambushed by the archers of Sir Meliagrance and enduring severe ordeal, shame and mischance Launcelot reaches the castle where the queen and her knights are captive. Meliagrance is in great fear and a kind of truce is arranged by the queen and Launcelot is admitted into the castle. When all are asleep Launcelot takes a ladder and, after breaking the window bars, climbs into the queen's room.</p>
<p>‘The marks on Launcelot's feet, like stigmata, show that the knight has suffered greatly both in his journey to the castle and also in breaking down the bars. Chrétien de Troyes says that Launcelot “cared not for his wounds in his hands and feet” which inevitably suggests the wounds of the Passion, hence the attitude of the crucified Christ as seen on the Crucifix above the queen's head is echoed in the movements of Launcelot.</p>
<p>‘In this drawing and in “The Four Queens” there are fragments of a chapel and this chapel is in part associated with the ruined chapel of Capel-y-Ffin and in part with the church at Rock in Northumberland which appears in the Tate picture “The Chapel in the Park” [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/jones-the-chapel-in-the-park-n05054" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05054</span></a>]. But in this Guenever picture it is seen as the, so to say, “garrison chapel” of the castle, the altar has been made ready for the next morning's mass, with the mass-vestments laid out on it in the usual manner. In the Chrétien de Troyes version, when Launcelot approaches and leaves the queen's bed he genuflects to her and the text says he does this “<i>precisely as though he were before a shrine</i>”. I think the association of these ideas may account, in part, for the inclusion of the altar. The St John's Chapel in the Tower of London was also in mind.</p>
<p>‘The men of the garrison of the castle are symbolised by the gun-team asleep with their halberds against the wall on the right, in a recess to the right of the chapel. The figures in the foreground are the queen's wounded knights and her two maids; everybody is asleep except the little cat which is jumping off the queen's bed as the wounded feet of Sir Launcelot come forward from the broken window-bars.</p>
<p>‘In Chrétien, Launcelot is unarmed and wearing a shirt only, but in Malory he carries his sword and is slightly dressed. In this picture he is partly <i>naked</i> and partly <i>in mail</i>. The mail-coif and indeed the top part of Launcelot's body are derived from the very well-known English 13th Cent. drawing of a kneeling knight [Winchester Psalter, <i>c.</i> A.D. 1290, British Museum, Royal MS. 2A XXII]. This was deliberate - a further link with the veneration-concept.</p>
<p>‘The fire-dogs and ratchet for kettle etc. are those now in Mr Eric Gill's house in Wales and Pigotts. The figure on the extreme left foreground, with a gloved right hand half raised in blessing is again composite in idea: partly a suggestion of feudal warrior-bishops (cf. Turpin of Rheims) and partly one of the wounded knights - partly secular, partly sacred - his fore-shortened legs and the soles of his feet being taken in part from Mantegna's dead Christ.</p>
<p>‘The head of Launcelot's horse can be seen at the window neighing. In Chrétien this creature was pierced through with many arrows by the bowmen of Meliagrance, but follows his master, who has been forced to ride a cart used by the hangman, hence he is called the Knight of the Cart, and hence the French prose tale <i>Conte de la Charette</i>. All <i>this</i> part of the Launcelot and Guenever story is in fact called <i>The Knight of the Cart</i>; so that, in a sense, this is an illustration to “The Knight of the Cart” episode.’</p>
<p>In <i>Epoch and Artist</i>, 1959, pp.202–59, David Jones makes a detailed investigation into the origins and significance of the Arthurian Legend.</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 altar animals: birds animals: mammals arch architecture armour bed candlestick Capel-y-ffin cat chapel characters clothing and personal items column crime and punishment crucifix diseases and conditions domestic emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas features female fireplace furnishings Guinevere heating and lighting horse interiors kettle kitchen knight Launcelot, Sir literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) love lying down maid Malory, Thomas, Sir, ‘Le Morte d’Arthur’ man nudes objects owl people places Powys prisoner queen religious religious and ceremonial royalty and social rank sleeping society stonework UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions Wales woman work and occupations wounded