Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba

By Kind Permission of a Private Collection

Claude Lorrain, Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba (1648), (Oil on canvas, 148.6 x 193.7cm). National Gallery, Number 14. The painting was inspired by the Old Testament story of the Queen of Sheba's encounter with King Solomon, whom the queen visited in Jerusalem to question his celebrated faith and wisdom (Kings 10). The scene of the queen's leaving the great city represented in Claude's painting is not, however, part of the originating biblical narrative. The painting, along with its pendant NG 14, was originally commissioned by Cardinal Camillo Pamphili. However, the scandal of Pamphili's renunciation of orders to marry and his subsequent exile in Frascati, compelled Claude to complete the paintings for another client, the Duc de Bouillon, who was a general in the army under Urban VIII (see Baker and Henry, National Gallery Catalogue, p.126). The painting is one of three seaports by the artist that are part of the National Gallery collection. The catalogue also states that the painting 'corresponds with the sheet no.114 in the Liber Veritatis' ( National Gallery Catalogue, p.126). Ruskin alludes to The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba in The Three Colours of Pre-Raphaelitism (1878), (see Works, 34.154) and in an 1852 letter to The Times (see Works, 12.407).

AT

Claude Gellée (le Lorrain) 1600-82
Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba 1648
Oil on canvas, 148.6x193.7cm
Provenance: Duc de Bouillon, 1648; bought with the J.J. Angerstein Collection, 1824
Collection: National Gallery, London