Watercolor: Alfred the Great Coin (880 BC)

Watercolor: Alfred the Great Coin (880 BC) - 10" x 10"

I've had decades-long enjoyment of genealogy. But in January 2021, I discovered a new colonial ancestor, Rose Stoughton Otis (1629-1672), who emigrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1644 at the age of 14 and died nearly 30 years later when Indians torched the blockhouse in which her family was hiding. It turns out that her father was descended from a long line of English noblemen whose ancestors came from many of the royal families of Europe in the Early Middle Ages, including Charlemagne (742-814), Alfred the Great (849-899), and William the Conqueror (1027-1088). Since then, I've tried to process what it meant to have great and sometimes devout, but hard and cruel ancestors. Part of my processing has involved painting this image of Alfred the Great, who (I think) was both good and great. This is my interpretation of a silver penny minted in London during his reign between 880 and 899, now in the possession of the British Museum. The letters spell out " ÆLFRED REX" (Alfred King). 220201. Watercolor, 10" x 10".