GLEYRE, Charles-Gabriel
(b. 1806, Chevilly, d. 1874, Paris)

The Queen of Sheba

1838
Oil on canvas, 54 x 43 cm
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne

Gleyre handled Oriental themes as well as his antique Neoclassical subjects. Numerous watercolours document his travels and depict ruined Egyptian temples. In adventurous compilations of oriental components he succeeded in intensifying the fairy-tale element into historic imaginative depictions, as in the Queen of Sheba, which is fantastic and theatrical in both colouring and scenery.