“Queen Guinevere’s Maying,” by John Collier
John Collier is probably best remembered as a portraitist. During his long and productive life (1850 – 1934) he painted Lord Kitchener and Charles Darwin, Rudyard Kipling and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, the Duke of York (later George V) and the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII),
Like so many Pre-Raphaelite paintings, “Queen Guinevere’s Maying” was inspired by a Tennyson poem, in this case, “Guinevere,” from Idylls of the King. In the picture, Guinevere is riding in a May Day procession. “A-Maying” was a May ritual in which young people gathered May-sprigs—the white hawthorn in Guinevere’s hands—to celebrate the arrival of Spring.
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