Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
Willem de Poorter(Haarlem [?] 1608 – after 1648 Haarlem [?])

ca. 1630
oil on panel
35.3 x 44.4 cm
WP-100© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Van Tuinen, Ilona. “Solomon and the Queen of Sheba” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/solomon-and-thequeen-of-sheba/ (archived May 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrativeoccurs.

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In this vibrantly colored little painting, Willem de Poorter depicts the Old

Comparative Figures

Testament story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon, recountedin 1 Kings 10:1–13. The queen, increasingly skeptical about the legendary
wisdom and monotheistic religion of King Solomon, traveled with a large
caravan from Sheba (probably modern Yemen) to the king’s court inJerusalem to test him with challenging questions. After Solomon had
answered each of her queries successfully, and after she had witnessed hispeaceful, civilized court, she was moved with admiration for the king and hisGod. She then lavished Solomon with gold, spices, and precious stones.
De Poorter depicts the moment just after the Queen of Sheba’s disbelief hasturned into conviction. Accompanied by servants who hold the vessels withexpensive gifts, she kneels before the king, her royal status evident in her
golden crown and the elegant yellow mantle draped over her white dress.
With her back slightly bent and her right palm open, she respectfully looks up
to the king, who, clad in purple robes and a white turban, towers above theFig 1. Detail of infrared
reflectogram of Solomon and theQueen of Sheba, WP-100,
showing the Queen’s facequeen on a high, canopied throne with a brocaded tapestry cascading downfrom its platform. An infrared image indicates that De Poorter had originallyplanned for the queen’s head to be more raised and directed at the king’sface, but he lowered her gaze during the painting process to emphasize herhumility (fig 1).
De Poorter contrasted the bright, primary colors of the robes worn by thequeen and her entourage with the subdued purples, greens and grays wornby Solomon and his court, in order to emphasize the different culturaltraditions represented in this scene. Indeed, De Poorter depicted the visitors
gazing at the king with awe and the locals watching their guests withFig 2. Willem dePoorter, Tarquinius Finding
Lucretia at Work, 1633, oil onpanel, 44 x 54 cm, Musée desAugustins, Toulouse, inv. no. RO
481

curiosity. This sense of curiosity is repeated in the background, where thecourt’s guards watch members of the queen’s caravan carrying vessels into
the spacious interior.
Werner Sumowski first published this unsigned and undated work as apainting by Willem de Poorter in 1983.[1] Sumowski convincingly related thepanel to two early paintings by De Poorter of roughly the same dimensions:the artist’s earliest dated painting, Tarquinius Finding Lucretia at Work, 1633
(fig 2), and his Sacrifice of Jephta’s Daughter (fig 3).[2] In all three works, De
Poorter created similar figure groupings and positioned them close to thepicture plane.[3] Each composition is also closed at the right by a large

Fig 3. Willem de Poorter, The
Sacrifice of Jephta’s Daughter, ca.
1630s, oil on canvas, 46.9 x 57.1
cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister,Dresden, inv. no. 94/01

repoussoir figure. Moreover, the facial features of the queen’s servant
dressed in red are identical to those of the figure standing behind the high© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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priest in Sacrifice of Jephta’s Daughter. Stylistic similarities are even foundbetween the underdrawing of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (fig 4) andDe Poorter’s drawn copy of Rembrandt’s 1630 Jeremiah Lamenting theDestruction of Jerusalem in the Rijksmuseum (fig 5).[4] In each instance, De
Poorter drew contours with unbroken, firm lines and modeled his forms withstraight, parallel lines and free-flowing, zigzagged hatchings.
A striking difference between these works is that Solomon and the Queen ofSheba has no strong contrasts of light and dark. From the mid-1630s
onwards, De Poorter increasingly used dramatic lighting in his history
paintings.[5] Thus, it is probable that he executed Solomon and the Queen ofSheba in the early 1630s, before he started to develop his interest inchiaroscuro effects.[6] At this early stage of his career, De Poorter looked

Fig 4. Detail of the infrared
reflectogram of Solomon and theQueen of Sheba, WP-100,
showing the Queen

carefully at a number of his predecessors for inspiration. For the generalcomposition of this scene, De Poorter seems to have referred to theengraving Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, 1549, based on a design by
his fellow townsman Maarten van Heemskerck (1498–1574). In that print thequeen is similarly situated in the center of the scene, with her followers to theleft and the king and his court to the right.[7] Known also to De Poorter would
have been the works of the most important history painter of his day, Pieter
Lastman (1583–1633). A similar ornate curtain behind the main scene and adivision between the colorful foreground and gray-hued background appear
in Lastman’s 1619 David Gives Uriah a Letter for Joab in the Leiden
Collection.[8] Finally, the unusually high throne suggests that De Poorterknew the history paintings of the Delft master Leonaert Bramer(1596–1674).[9]In medieval typology, the story of Solomon visited by the Queen of Sheba

Fig 5. Willem de Poorter, Jeremiah
Laments the Destruction ofJerusalem, after 1630, pen andbrown ink with brown wash, 406 x304 cm, Cincinnati Art Museum,inv. no. 1953:72

was regarded as a prefiguration of the Adoration of the Magi. The magi alsocame from afar and carried exotic gifts to acknowledge the Lord.[10] Thistypology seemingly inspired Leonaert Bramer to pair his painting Solomon
and the Queen of Sheba with Adoration of the Magi.[11] It is possible that De
Poorter’s painting was originally conceived as part of such a typological pair,or belonged to a larger series of the life of Solomon.[12]- Ilona van Tuinen, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
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1. Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 4:
2406, 2418, no. 1605. While in the collection of Lord Forbes, the painting was attributed toSalomon de Koninck (1609–56). De Koninck painted several similar, small history scenes, butwith a more subdued palette and a looser handling of the paint. As Sumowski notes, theattribution to Willem de Poorter originally came from Albert Blankert, who was working at theRKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History)
at the time.
2. Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94),
4:2406, no. 1604, for Tarquinius Finding Lucretia at Work, and 2407, no. 1606, for Sacrifice ofJephta’s Daughter, at the time in the Marquis of Bristol collection as Sacrifice of Iphegenia, oilon canvas, 46.9 x 57.1 cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, inv. no. 94/01.
3. Compare, for instance, an earlier Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, which De Poorter
executed in the early 1640s and in which the figures are smaller and further away from thepicture plane. See Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols. (Landau andPfalz, 1983–94), 4:2409, no. 1615.
4. See Werner Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols. (New York, 1979–92),
9:4796–97, no. 2136x. This unsigned drawing, which is the mirror image of Rembrandt’spainting, was formerly attributed to Ferdinand Bol (1616–80), but Sumowski attributed it to De
Poorter on the basis of stylistic similarities with De Poorter’s signed and dated 1636 drawing
after Rembrandt’s Susanna at Her Bath at the Mauritshuis.
5. For a discussion of De Poorter’s Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas at Lystra, 1636, oil on panel,
55 x 82 cm, with a strong use of chiaroscuro inspired by Rembrandt, see Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr., “Willem de Poorter: Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas at Lystra,” in Albert Blankert et al.,Gods, Saints and Heroes: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Washington
D.C., National Gallery of Art; Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum)(Washington, D.C., 1980), 158–59, no. 33. It remains unclear whether De Poorter everstudied with Rembrandt, and if so, when. See Adriaan Waiboer, “Willem de Poorter:Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt Pupil,” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 5, no. 2 (2013):
DOI:10.5092/jhna.2013.5.2.12
Although it is traditionally assumed that he studied in Rembrandt’s Leiden workshop around
1628–31, Waiboer suggests that he might have briefly worked in the master’s Amsterdam
atelier around 1636 instead.
6. This dating is also supported by dendrochronological analysis performed by Ian Tyers inNovember 2012 on the lower of the two horizontal boards that make up the panel (the upper© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
Page 6 of 8board cannot be examined, report on file at the Leiden Collection, New York). According toTyers, the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1616 and the panel could have been readyfor use from 1624 onwards.
7. Dirck Volkertsz Coornhert after Maarten van Heemskerck, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba,
1549, engraving, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 49.95.112.
8. See Rachel Pollock’s entry on PL-100 in this catalogue.
9. This was first noticed by Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 6 vols.
(Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94), 4: 2406, 2418, no. 1605. Indeed, the characteristically highthrone appears throughout Bramer’s oeuvre, from his earliest dated painting, The Fall ofSimon Magus, ca. 1623, oil on copper, 29 x 39 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, to The
Judgment of Solomon, 1640s, oil on panel, St. Annen-Museum, Lubeck.
10. In the Biblia Pauperum, one of the most common medieval typological sources, the Adorationof the Magi is juxtaposed with two Old Testament scenes, Abner Visiting King David and theQueen of Sheba Visiting King Solomon. See Biblia Pauperum: Faksimileausgabe derVierzigblättrigen Armenbibel-Blockbuches in der Bibliothek der Erzdiözese Esztergom, withan introduction and commentary by Elisabeth Soltész (Hanau, 1967), xxix, no. 3.
11. See Jane ten Brink Goldsmith et al., “Leonaert Bramer’s The Queen of Sheba Before
Solomon,” in Leonaert Bramer 1596–1674: Ingenious Painter and Draughtsman in Rome andDelft (Exh. cat. Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof) (Zwolle, 1994), 164–65, no. 44; seealso the appendix, 279, nos. 24–S27.2: Bramer appears to have executed six depictions ofSolomon and the Queen of Sheba, one of which had a pendant depicting the Adoration of theMagi. Two of them were possibly paired with other scenes from the life of Solomon.
12. Although no paintings of the Adoration of the Magi by De Poorter survive, a copy after hiscomposition of this subject was auctioned at Butterfields, 31 May 1990, no. 5151 (oil oncanvas, 63.5 x 76 cm).

ProvenancePossibly Nicolaes van Suchtelen (his sale, Hoorn, 17 April 1715, no. 60, “De Koningin vanSeba door de Poorter” (for 14.10 florins).
General Andrew Bissett, 1723; by descent to his niece, Marjory Winram, wife of Sir RobertInnes of Orton and Balvenie; by descent to their daughter, Catherine, wife of James, 16thLord Forbes (1725–1804); by descent to Lord Forbes, Castle Forbes in Balforbes,
Aberdeenshire (sale, Christie’s, London, 6 July 2007, no. 187 [Johnny van Haeften, Ltd.,London, 2007]).
From whom acquired by the present owner.
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Exhibition History
Ithaca, Cornell University, Johnson Museum of Art, “An Eye for Detail: Dutch Painting fromthe Leiden Collection,” September 2014–May 2015 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from TheLeiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden
Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by thepresent owner].

References
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. 6 vols. Landau and Pfalz, 1983–94,4:2406, 2418, no. 1605.
Tátrai, Júlia. “Allegory on the Colonial Power: A Recently Discovered Work by Willem dePoorter.” Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts 114–15 (2011): 99.
McCarthy, Alexa. “Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.” In Rembrandt and His Time:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 66; 177, no. 23.
Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 80–81.
McCarthy, Alexa. “Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.” In The Age of Rembrandt andVermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 158– 59; 241,no. 46. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State
Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.

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Technical Summary
The support, an octagonal composite panel comprised of two horizontally grained oak planks withthe horizontal panel join above Solomon’s knee, has been thinned.[1] Triangular oak additions
have been added to the four corners to create a rectangular format, and the painted composition
has been extended onto the additions. A rectangular marouflage backing board, composed of two
horizontally grained Baltic oak planks dating from 1512, has been applied to the composite
panel.[2] The horizontal panel join of the marouflage panel is in almost exactly the same location
as the horizontal panel join of the original planks. One paper label and a number of handwritten
inscriptions are located along the backing board, but there are no wax seals, import stamps,
stencils or panel maker’s mark.
A light-colored, radio-opaque ground has been thinly applied to the original, octagonal composite
panel, and a non-radio-opaque ground has been applied to the four triangular additions. The painthas been thinly and smoothly applied along the background and flesh tones, with low visible
brushwork along the figure’s contours and drapery folds.
Infrared images captured at 780–1700 nanometers reveal an extensive graphite (est.)
underdrawing through the folds of the Queen of Sheba’s yellow cloak and along the folds of red
drapery on the figure to her left. The images and pentimenti suggest the shape and position of thelower edge of the Queen of Sheeba’s white gown and her profile were shifted slightly during thepaint stage.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2007 and remains in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on Ian Tyers’s dendrochronology report.
2. According to Ian Tyers’s dendrochronology report. Unfortunately, the two original planks andfour triangular additions are too short and provide too few rings along the end-grain to date.

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