Kings and Queens

The year 1966 marked the beginning of a period whose name, La Belle Qui Passe, was taken from the cover of a Paris fashion magazine, and a work by Lautrec.

It consisted of some fifty small-scale works, a series of which the forms emerged in consequence of a visit to St. Denis Cathedral and its stained glass windows.

My pictures were of kings and queens who had never existed. Outward representations of an inner salvage, those figures who although they had no special love or learning to recommend them, nevertheless enchanted and bewitched me by their names: Fearless John and his Beloved Wife, Peppin the Short, The King beloved by his People.

It was probably fear of losing my imaginative grasp on these subjects that made me reject a friend's suggestion to visit a museum of costume and dress at that time.