"La visite de la reine de Saba", Georges CLAIRIN 1843-1919

Oil on canvas depicting the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon in Jerusalem. Signed G.CLAIRIN, circa 1890. Mentioned in Hebrew biblical stories, evangelists, and Koranic, she reigns over a kingdom stretching from Yemen to Eritrea. She arrived in Jerusalem accompanied by a large retinue "with camels bearing spices and much gold and precious stones" (1Kings 10,2). Georges Jules Victor CLAIRIN, 1843-1919. French painter and illustrator, representative of the orientalist movement, but also symbolist, he entered the fine arts of Paris in 1861 in the workshops of Isidore PILS, then of François Edouard Picot. He began at the Salon of 1866, traveled to Spain with H. Regnault and the sculptress Marcello, to Italy with F. Flameng and JL Gérome. He meets Marià Fortuny in Morocco, Camille Saint-Saëns in Egypt. He became intimate with Sarah Bernhardt whom he painted many times, notably the most famous portrait of her painted in 1876 (given to the actress on the death of her in 1923 by her son to the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris). We know several ceilings painted by him: Paris Opera in 1874, Cherbourg theater, Tours, Paris Stock Exchange (Africa and Asia), Epernay. Works in Santiago de Chile (Cousino Palace). Museums: Baltimore, Princeton, Brest, Gray, Mulhouse, Paris (public assistance, Orsay, Petit Palais), Pau, Rouen, Saint Brieuc, Tarbes. The painting will be cleaned in our workshop.