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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, <em>Figures of the Orient</em>. 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.

Page data

Page
1
Source index
0
Type
photo
Media ID
1e52092e95db5deb
Size
unknown

Document data

ID
119940
Core
obj
Type
drawing
DTO data
{
    "id": "119940",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "title": "The Queen of Sheba",
    "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, <em>Figures of the Orient</em>. 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.",
    "date": "1911",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.738",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q80015256"
    ],
    "creators": [
        1438
    ],
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    ],
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    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.738/1940.738_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.738/1940.738_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Sheet: 31.6 x 25.4 cm (12 7/16 x 10 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "England, 20th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1940.738"
}

Context sent to Scholar

Document identity
{
    "localId": "119940",
    "label": "The Queen of Sheba",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "drawing"
}
Document source metadata
{
    "id": "119940",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "title": "The Queen of Sheba",
    "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, <em>Figures of the Orient</em>. 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.",
    "date": "1911",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.738",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q80015256"
    ],
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    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
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    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.738/1940.738_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.738/1940.738_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.738/1940.738_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Sheet: 31.6 x 25.4 cm (12 7/16 x 10 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "England, 20th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1940.738"
}
Document source extras
{
    "tec": "Pen and brown ink, watercolor, and gouache, with graphite and color wax crayon, on artist’s drawing board",
    "tombstone": "L’Illustration: The Queen of Sheba, 1911. Edmund Dulac (British, 1882–1953). Pen and brown ink, watercolor, and gouache, with graphite and color wax crayon, on artist’s drawing board; sheet: 31.6 x 25.4 cm (12 7/16 x 10 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of James Parmelee, 1940.738",
    "series": "L’Illustration",
    "supportMaterials": [
        {
            "description": "artist's drawing board"
        }
    ],
    "collection": "DR - British",
    "inscriptions": [
        {
            "inscription": "signed and dated, in black ink, at lower left: Edmund / Dulac 11"
        }
    ],
    "didYouKnow": "Edmund Dulac was such a devoted Anglophile that as a student his contemporaries referred to him as \"l'Anglais\" (English).",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "<em>L'Illustration</em> (1911).",
            "page_number": "Reproduced"
        },
        {
            "citation": "White, Colin. <em>Edmund Dulac</em>. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 49-50"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Hughey, Ann Conolly. <em>Edmund Dulac: His Book Illustrations, A Bibliography</em>. Potomac, MD: Buttonwood Press, 1995.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: no. 28"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lemonedes, Heather. <em>British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. </em>Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 138-41, 145, no. 48a; Reproduced: p. 139"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.738",
    "creditline": "Bequest of James Parmelee",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 06:11:52.674000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.738/1940.738_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 119940,
    "dept": "Drawings",
    "coll": "DR - British",
    "med": "Pen and brown ink, watercolor, and gouache, with graphite and color wax crayon, on artist’s drawing board",
    "creatorTags": [
        "male"
    ],
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}
Page context
{
    "seq": 1,
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    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.738/1940.738_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "1e52092e95db5deb"
}