{"id":31891,"date":"2026-11-11T16:30:35","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T16:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=31891"},"modified":"2026-11-11T15:08:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T15:08:44","slug":"the-winged-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2026\/11\/11\/the-winged-king\/","title":{"rendered":"The Winged King"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"king.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An updating of a recent piece of work. The version of this that I drew two years ago showed a wingless King in Yellow, a result of my indecision as to whether I wanted the figure to be winged or not. Other factors also affected the decision (or lack of it). After spending a large portion of the drawing time working on the perspective and the shadows I was a little reluctant to cover the background with a huge pair of wings; and I’d spent so much time working on the picture as a whole that I simply wanted it to be finished so I could get on with other things. Well, one of the many advantages of layered, digital art is that you can always return to a piece at a later date to revise or add to it when a situation like this arises. The more I’ve looked at this picture since its ostensible completion the more I’ve felt the absence of those wings. In Robert W. Chambers’ stories that refer to the King in Yellow I don’t think he ever actually mentions wings but he did put them on the figure he drew for the cover of the first edition of the book, and this feature of the character appears in later depictions by other artists. My new additions sit well in the centre of the picture while inadvertently echoing the curved shape of the architecture above them. This is the kind of visual rhyme you often look for in a composition.<\/p>\n

\"chambers.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A promotional poster by Robert W. Chambers, circa 1895.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s also easy to overthink things like this when you’re illustrating a book or a story. Chambers was writing and painting in Paris at a time (the 1890s) when Symbolism was at its height. It may be that his depiction of the sinister monarch is more of a symbolic portrait than a literal one, with its stylised halo, black wings and what appears to be a guttering torch held in its right hand. The king that’s referred to in the stories is only ever mentioned in hints and suggestions which accumulate in the mind of the reader, creating an ill-defined presence whose ambiguities are dispelled by literal representations. Literality is another hazard of illustration, especially the illustration of horror stories.<\/p>\n

\"king-ace.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Cover art by Jack Gaughan, 1965. Red wings (black ones wouldn’t have worked on a black background) and he makes more of the mysterious flaming torch.<\/em><\/p>\n

A black-and-white version of my own literal representation will appear in the “Strange Aeons” section of my book of Lovecraft art, this being the section concerned with weird fiction by Lovecraft’s precursors, his influences and those he’s influenced more recently. In the meantime, I’ve updated my page for this picture at Redbubble<\/a> where prints and other items are for sale. I’m going to be making higher quality prints for sale (large gicl\u00e9e reproductions) here once I’ve organised the shop section. My Etsy sales have been very minimal since I opened an account, and the whole process of selling things at Etsy (setting up new pages, etc) is laborious and awkward. Now that I have a PayPal ordered system arranged with WordPress it makes sense to close the Etsy account and sell prints direct.<\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 In Carcosa<\/a>
\n\u2022 Eldritch idols<\/a>
\n\u2022 In the Key of Yellow<\/a>
\n\u2022 Lovecraft\u2019s Monsters<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Court of the Dragon<\/a>
\n\u2022 The King in Yellow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An updating of a recent piece of work. The version of this that I drew two years ago showed a wingless King in Yellow, a result of my indecision as to whether I wanted the figure to be winged or not. Other factors also affected the decision (or lack of it). After spending a large … Continue reading “The Winged King”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New blog post: The Winged King","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,42,22,23],"tags":[470,469,6340],"class_list":["post-31891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-books","category-horror","category-work","tag-jack-gaughan","tag-robert-chambers","tag-the-king-in-yellow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-8in","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31891"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31894,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31891\/revisions\/31894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}