Bayeux Illuminated | Art Kingdom

Oath
Coronation
Comet
William
Hastings
Harold

Bayeux Illuminated in association with the British Museum

Mia Hansson (b. 1974) is a Swedish textile artist, storyteller and illustrator. Hansson was born and raised in Skanör, Sweden’s southernmost point. Her introduction to embroidery began young: when Hansson was five, her grandmother, Greta, introduced her to cross stitch, and the love for various needlework has stayed with the artist to this day. A fourth-generation needleworker: Hansson’s great-grandmother was a quilter, her grandmother was a knitter and crocheter, as was her mother, who also made her own clothes.

Hansson’s hometown is located close to an open-air Viking Age museum, Foteviken, in Höllviken. It was here that she threw herself into the world of Viking reenactments from 2001, and her love for needlework blossomed as she began making period clothing.

In 2003, Hansson moved to London, where she practised specialist dementia care, before moving to Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, with her partner and his young adult disabled son, Tom. For Tom’s wellbeing, Hansson decided to become his full-time carer, which meant frequently spending time at home. This gave the artist plenty of time for needlework.

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Behind The Scenes With Mia Hansson

With complete fidelity to the original, Hansson studies the historic work closely, reproducing its imagery, colours, stitching and even its imperfections. Rather than correcting the mistakes found in the medieval embroidery, she deliberately incorporates them, treating these irregularities as part of the Tapestry’s history and character.

Through over ten thousand hours of painstaking hand embroidery, Hansson transforms the eleventh-century Tapestry into a living, evolving object, inviting audiences to reconsider the Bayeux Tapestry not as a distant museum artefact, but as a work made through human hands, patience and storytelling. Her practice demonstrates how traditional craft can become a powerful form of historical engagement, connecting the experiences of medieval makers with those of a twenty-first-century artist.

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Created in association with the British Museum, Bayeux Illuminated is an exclusive suite of six limited editions drawn from Mia Hansson’s extraordinary recreation of the Bayeux Tapestry.

The making of Bayeux Illuminated

The making of Mia’s tapestry was a labour of love. It was therefore important for us to emphasise every stitch, revealing the extraordinary skill and years of dedication that have gone into the project.

We wanted the print to go beyond simply reproducing the tapestry. Mia spoke about the painstaking effort involved in creating a faithful copy of the Bayeux Tapestry, but also saw the print as an opportunity to put her own spin on the work.

Mia Hansson working on the Bayeux tapestry

OUR INSPIRATION FOR BAYEUX ILLUMINATED

We took inspiration from early copyists and scribes, who transcribed and reinterpreted artefacts and manuscripts, illuminating their pages with precious metals.With this in mind, we experimented with highlighting the reds and yellows of Mia’s tapestry using gold and tinted silver leaf. Finally, we picked out the text itself in metallic leaf, a subtle nod to the tradition of illuminated manuscripts.We chose to produce the print on Canson Infinity Moulin du Roy, a beautifully crafted watercolour paper made in Annonay, France.

The choice felt particularly fitting: a French paper, made by a mill whose history stretches back to the 16th century, being used to recreate a French artwork depicting the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. That connection between material, place and history became an important part of the print itself. Centuries after the events of the Bayeux tapestry were first recorded, the story is being retold on paper made within its own long tradition of French craftsmanship.