A Couple Collaborating

In additional to being a diverse and prolific painter, Alison Mason Kingsbury also has an impressive body of graphic work attached to her name, mostly in the form of book illustrations for her husband Morris Bishop. Marked by a distinctly different style from her paintings, A. M. K.'s graphic work was executed almost entirely in a clean, well-controlled black line, with the descriptive modeling that was so central to her painting nearly absent. The results were clear, easily read drawings that purposefully lent themselves to the medium of print.

Alison Mason Kingsbury. Untitled. For Morris Bishop's Memory Rhyme to be Sung While Packing the Suitcase. [1928 ca.]
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It is not difficult to locate the artist's graphic work for her husband within the tradition of such publications as The New Yorker, which is famous for its trademark grayscale cartoons. However, A. M. K. did come to the project with her own hand. When providing illustrations for Bishop's light verse, her work is marked by a sensitivity to line weight and a roundness to her forms that float on the page with little or no supporting composition, complementing Bishop's particular brand of quick, eloquent wit.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

Alison Mason Kingsbury. Untitled. For Morris Bishop's Love Rimes of Petrarch. [1932 ca.]
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A series of illustrations for one of husband Morris Bishop's many publications on Italian Renaissance humanist Francesco Petrarca.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

Alison Mason Kingsbury. Untitled. For Harry Persons Taber's Ezra and Me. [1943 ca.]
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One of a series of chapter illustrations for Bishop's novel Ezra and Me, published under the pen name of Harry Persons Taber.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

Alison Mason Kingsbury. Napoli. For Morris Bishops's Petrarch's World. [1963 ca.]
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The artist would often drastically change her handling of form and composition to tailor her style to the content. One case in which the artist truly invested herself in such a project was Bishop's Petrarch and His World, a biography of the Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarch. For this work, A. M. K. sought to model her illustrations after medieval aesthetics and visual understandings, from her treatment of the forms with an unwavering line to her organization of the compositions after medieval perspective systems, marked by larger figures occupying the foreground at the bottom of the page and objects becoming smaller, implying distance, as the viewer moves up the page and into the background.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

Alison Mason Kingsbury. Andraclus and the Lion. For Morris Bishops's A Classical Story Book. [1969]
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One of a series of illustrations for Bishop's collection of Classical tales.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

Alison Mason Kingsbury. Moral Tales. For Morris Bishops's A Medieval Story Book. [1970]
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The illustration for Part V, Moral Tales, for Bishop's collection of stories from the Middle Ages.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

Alison Mason Kingsbury. Sister Savina and Brother Girolamo. For Morris Bishops's A Renaissance Story Book. [1970]
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The illustration for Bishop's translation of Gentile Sermini for A Renaissance Story Book.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

Alison Mason Kingsbury. Chairolas. For Morris Bishops's A Romantic Story Book. [1971]
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The illustration for Bishop's translation of Edward Bulwer Lytton's Chairolas.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

Alison Mason Kingsbury. Ex Libris.
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A bookplate that Alison Mason Kingsbury designed for her husband Morris Bishop, featuring the view from his study and set in a frame inspired by the architecture of their home.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
Cornell University Library

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