Arthur STREETON

Scheherazade
1895

Medium

oil on cedar panel

Credit Line: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004

Gallery location: Gallery 20
Level 3, NGV Australia

About this work

In about 1895 Streeton painted a number of symbolic and mythical subjects. In this allegory, Scheherazade was the beautiful, and inventive Persian (Iranian) narrator of One Thousand and One Nights, who told stories to hold the attention of the Caliph, who had decreed ‘to marry a new wife every night and have her strangled at dawn’. Each evening, Scheherazade would tell an intruiging tale to her sister, Dinarzade, within earshot of the Caliph, who grew interested in her stories. After 1001 nights, the Caliph revoked his decree and bestowed his affection on Scheherazade, sparing her from execution. Haloed and scantily clad, Streeton’s Scheherazade fuses depictions of women as sinner and saint.

Artwork Details

Medium

oil on cedar panel

Measurements

58.2 × 39.4 cm

Place/s of Execution

Sydney, New South Wales

Inscription

inscribed in grey and black paint A / ST / R / E / E / T / On 1895

Accession Number

2004.222

Department

Australian Painting

Credit Line

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation

Gallery location

Gallery 20
Level 3, NGV Australia

Subjects (general)

Human Figures Literary and Text Religion and Mythology

Subjects (specific)

drapery (representations) nudes (representations) women (female humans)

Frame

Reproduction, 2007

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Arthur STREETON Scheherazade 1895

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Arthur STREETON

Scheherazade
1895