The Queen of Sheba

About the Artwork

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.

Inscriptions

signed and dated, in black ink, at lower left: Edmund / Dulac 11

Exhibition history

British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013). Fairy Tales and Fables: Illustration and Storytelling in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 4-September 8, 2024).

Quick Overview

Artist: Edmund Dulac (British, 1882–1953)
Date: 1911
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.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: Bequest of James Parmelee
Accession no.: 1940.738

Provenance

?-1931: James Parmelee [1855-1931], Washington, DC, by descent to Alice Maury Parmelee, Washington, DC 1931-1940: Alice Maury Parmelee [1862-1940], Washington, DC, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH 1940-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.