Mark Gertler

Queen of Sheba

1922

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Not on display

Artist: Mark Gertler 1891–1939
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1073 × 940 mm
frame: 1282 × 1156 × 92 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1963
Reference: T00605

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In the 1920s Gertler painted a series of female nudes, set in opulent surroundings. In these paintings his two favourite subjects, the human figure and the still life, were combined. Gertler admired the work of Renoir, especially his voluptuous female nudes, and was always on the look out for a model with Renoir-like features. Gertler's nudes and still lifes were always painted from the model and conveyed a sense of reality. But he liked to mix that reality with the unreality of the setting. Here the title confers upon the nude a mysterious and grand Middle Eastern lineage.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

T00605 QUEEN OF SHEBA 1922

Inscr. ‘Mark Gertler 1922’ b.r.
Canvas, 37×42 1/4 (94×107).
Purchased from Mrs Marjorie M. Bunnemeyer through the Hertford Art Society (Grant-in-Aid) 1963.
Coll: Probably purchased from the artist by Dr Joseph Scanlan; bequeathed in 1944 to his daughter Dr Elizabeth Mary Sheila Scanlan and by her to her sister Mrs Majorie M. Bunnemeyer; offered for sale at Christie's, 1 July 1960 (142), bought in.
Exh: London Group, October–November 1922 (12); Hertford Art Society, May 1963 (94), as ‘Female Nude’.

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Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I