Lady and the Unicorn

Lady and the Unicorn is a new painting to add to my mythical creatures series. I’ve always been fascinated by unicorns and wondered if they ever actually existed. One Christmas while in high school, my older sister gave me a jigsaw puzzle which had a striking image of a tamed unicorn in a lovely garden from a medieval tapestry. I loved it.

Years later while living in New York City every so often I would trek up to the Cloisters Metropolitan Museum to view the original tapestry which is part of The Hunt of the Unicorn series on view there. The building and tapestries made me feel as if I had gone back to a more meditative time. In this painting I wanted it to have the feel of a medieval tapestry so I painted a floral pattern background and a traditional unicorn with his billy goat’s beard showing, The unicorns from that period also had a lion’s tail and cloven hooves.

In myths unicorns are mysterious, beautiful and hard to tame. They are seen as gentle, strong and kind. The innocent maiden is able to tame him with her open heart and trusting nature.

Purchase the print here: Lady and the Unicorn