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Fine Art, Murial King, Wooded Landscape, Vintage Watercolor, 1930

$275

Muriel King (1900-1977)
Wooded Landscape with Hay Wagon
American: 1930
Watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lower right
10.5 x 14 inches
$275

Leafy, wooded landscape on a hazy summer day, looking across a road towards a small carriage house or tool shed partially hidden by the trees in the middle distance, a wagon piled with hay beside it. The muted shades of green as light filters through the trees are sensitively observed.

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Description

Muriel King was an illustration artist and costumer primarily known as a fashion designer and important couturier from the 1930s into the 1950s. She was known for her practical approach to fashion, designing classic clothes that would look stylish for years. Her interesting and varied career included designing Katherine Hepburn’s personal wardrobe, and costumes for Hollywood movies between 1935 and 1945, such as Stage Door (1937) starring Ginger Rogers, and Cover Girl (1944) starring Rita Hayworth. She contributed the to the war effort with work clothes for female shipyard workers in World War II. Throughout her life, King was also a skilled landscape watercolorist, apparently drawn to complex compositions emphasizing the play of light and shadow. From 1957, she focused exclusively on painting rather than fashion and costume design.

Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall light toning and wear. Faint mat burn, outer edges, can be rematted out. Two brown paper tape hinges verso.

References:

Bawa, Mary P. “Muriel King.” Designer History. 2003. http://www.designerhistory.com/historyofashion/kingm.html (29 September 2006).

“Muriel King.” Internet Movie Database. 2006. http://imdb.com/name/nm0455090/ (29 September 2006).

“Safety Clothes for Women.” Kaiser Vancouver / SwanIsland & Oregon Shipyards. http://www.beadee.com/kaiser/bosns_whistle/vol_3_no_21/p-11.htm (5 September 2002).

Additional information

Century

20th Century