Continuing the occasional series of works inpired by great pre-raphaelite inspired paintings; this one derives from Burne-Jones "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid", which is itself an illustration of a story form a 17th century ballad. It tells of a fictitious African King, Cophetua who falls in love from afar with a grey-clad beggar girl, Penelephon. Walking out into the street, he scatters coins for the beggars to gather and when Penelophon comes forward, he tells her that she is to be his wife. She agrees and becomes queen. The couple live happily and are much loved by their people. Pretty much every depiction of the story has the principles as distinctly un-African; on occasion Cophetua is a little swarthy, but Penelophon is invariably depicted as snow-white, so I thought I'd redress the balance with this version!