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Scheherazade
1895
Medium
oil on cedar panel
Measurements
58.2 × 39.4 cm
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
Place/s of Execution
Sydney, New South Wales
Inscription
inscribed in grey and black paint l.r.: A / ST / R / E / E / T / On 1895
Accession Number
2004.222
Department
Australian Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Literary and Text Religion and Mythology
Subjects (specific)
drapery (representations) nudes (representations) women (female humans)
Frame
Reproduction, 2007