BIRTH OF THE PHOENIX

An original tempera painting on board depicting a phoenix being born from flames in the boughs of a fruit tree as a group of people reverently observe the spectacle in the depths of a forest. Signed on the bottom right corner. Framed and glazed. Fine condition, the colours remaining bright and rich. The frame has a little faint wear at the corners. The painting measures 20.7cm x 33.5; the frame measures 31cm x 44cm. There is an exhibition label to the back of the frame showing that the piece was displayed at the Exhibition of Contemporary Tempera, 22nd of January to the 19th of March 1949 at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth.

An exceptional example of the work of the Arts and Crafts movement artist and designer Jessie Bayes (1876-1970). Born into a family of artists, Bayes's father, Alfred Walter Bayes, an etcher and book illustrator, encouraged his four children in the arts from an early age, with Bayes initially studying alongside her siblings, the well-known artist and critic Walter Bayes, the noted sculptor Gilbert Bayes, and the painter Emmeline Bayes. It was, however, her enrolment at London's Central School of Arts and Crafts which truly kick-started her career, as she relates: "It was a school of idealists largely influenced by William Morris and staffed by dedicated enthusiasts - each in the top rank of his craft. Edward Johnston, the prophet and redeemer of pure script was the first to teach it and I was one of his first pupils...[along] with Eric Gill, who reached greater distinction... Yet it is to Sydney Cockerell that I owe still more as he rescued me from the Prudential [her former day job] and took me into his own exciting printing works which he had run hand in hand with William Morris, and was in fact next to his Kelmscott House on Hammersmith Mall." (Jessie Bayes, 'The Bayes Saga'). Following her formative experiences at the Central School, Bayes went on to become one of the leading miniature artists and illuminators of the period. In true Arts and Crafts tradition, she also practised a wide variety of other decorative art forms, including stained glass, iconography, furniture decoration, and interior design. In 1906 she became a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, sitting on its council from 1925 until 1935, when she was made an honorary fellow. During her career she exhibited widely with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, as well as at the Royal Academy, Ridley Art Club, Baillie Gallery, and Fine Art Society in London, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and elsewhere, including in Europe and North America. Imbued with an ethereal romanticism, Bayes' work is characterised by its exquisite detail and jewel-like colours, often created through the combination of tempera, watercolour and gold gilt. Bayes carefully developed her own personal sense of colour, often making particularly striking use of blues and golds in her work, grounded in her belief that colour could convey the deepest of human emotions; as she explained: "[the] idea of colour symbolising love should be above all precious to an illuminator, since, in illuminating, colour can reach its intensest height of purity and radiance." The present work is an excellent example of Arts and Craft sensibilities; the dense, pattern-like foliage and flowers rendered in shades of green and red are reminiscent of some of the best-known Arts and Crafts works (such as William Morris's 'Strawberry Thief' textile design) and, along with the figures' mode of dress, the media of tempera and the motif of the phoenix itself, are indicative of the movement's fundamental interest in medievalism. Tempera painting enjoyed a period of particular popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and The Russell-Cotes Gallery had a part to play in the promotion and preservation of the art form: "During the 1930-40s, The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum was strongly linked to the tempera revival. Norman Silvester, curator from 1932-1958, held at least 3 exhibitions of tempera paintings. He wrote in 1944 about the acquisition of the tempera work 'Pamela' by Poole artist, Arthur Bradbury 'this Gallery has played no small part in encouraging the revival of this mediaeval expression and now possesses enough examples to fill the smallest gallery'" (the Russell-Cotes website). The gallery's association with tempera continues to the present day, and it has recently been awarded a grant to put on a major tempera exhibition due to open in 2027.