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.
Provenance
James Parmelee [1855-1931], Washington, DC, by descent to Alice Maury Parmelee, Washington, DC (?-1931); Alice Maury Parmelee [1862-1940], Washington, DC, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1931-1940); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1940-)
Accession Number
1940.738
Medium
Pen and brown ink, watercolor, and gouache, with graphite and color wax crayon, on artist’s drawing board
Dimensions
Sheet: 31.6 x 25.4 cm (12 7/16 x 10 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Bequest of James Parmelee
Tags
Drawing Early Modern (1901–1950) Watercolor Ink Graphite & Pencil Gouache Board British Color: Orange Color: Green
Background & Context
Background Story
Edmund Dulac (1882-1953) was a French-born British illustrator known for his lavishly illustrated gift books of fairy tales and legends that are among the most accomplished examples of the golden age of book illustration. The Queen of Sheba from 1911 depicts the biblical queen in the lavishly decorative manner that distinguishes Dulac's best illustration work. The 1911 date places this in Dulac's most productive period, when he was producing the lavishly illustrated gift books that are his most accomplished works, and the Queen of Sheba subject allows him to exercise his talent for exotic, decorative illustration.
Cultural Impact
The Queen of Sheba is important in the history of book illustration because it demonstrates the lavishly decorative manner that Dulac brought to illustrated gift books during the golden age of book illustration. Dulac's combination of exotic subject with decorative manner—inspired by Persian miniature painting and Japanese woodblock prints—created a type of illustration that was simultaneously exotic and decorative, and his gift books were among the most accomplished examples of the golden age of book illustration.
Why It Matters
The Queen of Sheba is Dulac's lavishly decorative illustration: the biblical queen rendered in the exotic, decorative manner inspired by Persian miniatures and Japanese prints that distinguishes the golden age of book illustration. The 1911 illustration shows Dulac at his most decorative, combining exotic subject with ornamental manner.
