The Queen of Sheba

Series Title: L’Illustration

1911

Edmund Dulac

(British, 1882–1953)

Culture

England, 20th century

Medium

Pen and brown ink, watercolor, and gouache, with graphite and color wax crayon, on artist’s drawing board

Support

Artist's drawing board

Measurements

Sheet: 31.6 x 25.4 cm (12 7/16 x 10 in.)

Credit Line

Bequest of James Parmelee 1940.738

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Edmund Dulac was such a devoted Anglophile that as a student his contemporaries referred to him as "l'Anglais" (English).

Description

A celebrated artist of the golden age of British book illustration, the French-born Edmund Dulac was inspired by Persian miniatures and manuscript illustration. This watercolor was one of a series of four scenes painted to accompany a poem by André Dumas, Figures of the Orient. Dulac depicted legendary enchantresses of the East: Circe, Salome, Scheherazade, and here, the Queen of Sheba. Aloft a camel, the dark-haired beauty languorously surveys the arid landscape as she and her entourage approach the Holy Land. Vibrant silks spill out of the queen’s gold and lapis howdah, a veritable mosaic of texture and pattern.