‘The King and I’ is based on the true story of Anna Leonowens, who tutored King Mongkut’s royal family from 1862-1868. She published an account of her experiences in ‘An English Governess at the Siamese Court’ in 1870. Although she fictionalized and embellished portions of her work, the descriptions and inner dialogues paint a beautiful and revealing portrait of the real woman who inspired so many artists and writers. The quotes in this installation are all from Anna’s published book.
“I rose before the sun, and ran on deck to catch an early glimpse of the strange land we were nearing; and as I peered eagerly, not through mist and haze, but straight into the clear, bright, manytinted ether, there came the first faint, tremulous blush of dawn, behind her rosy veil.�
“As, month, after month, I continued to teach in the palace,—especially as the language of my pupils, its idioms and characteristic forms of expression, began to be familiar to me...By slow processes, as one whose sight has been imperceptibly restored, I awoke to a clearer and truer sense of the life within ‘the city of the beautiful and invincible angel.’”
“The Grand Royal Palace, the semicastellated residence of the Supreme King of Siam, with its roofs and spires pointed with what seem to be the horns of animals, towers pre-eminent over all the city. It is a great citadel, surrounded by a triplet of walls, fortified with many bastions.�
“The love of children was the constant and hearty virtue of this forlorn despot. They appealed to [the King] by their beauty and their trustfulness, they refreshed him with the bold innocence of their ways, so frolicsome, graceful, and quaint.�
“Eyes inquisitive and penetrating, his was the massive brain proper to an intellect deliberate and systematic...In the Oriental tongues this progressive king was eminently proficient; and toward priests, preachers, and teachers, of all creeds, sects, and sciences, an enlightened exemplar of tolerance.�
“[Prince Chulalonkorn] was attentive to his studies, serene, and gentle, invariably affectionate to his old aunt and his younger brothers, and for the poor ever sympathetic, with a warm, generous heart.�
Finished lobby installation
Finished lobby installation