Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus

Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus

Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This magnificent compositional study, which came to light in the late 1980s, stands out in Claude's graphic oeuvre for its high degree of finish and detail. The biblical subject is set in an invented landscape animated by a diffuse naturalistic light. It was presumably made as a presentation drawing for François Bosquet, bishop of Montpellier, who had commissioned from the artist a pendant to his Sermon on the Mount (Frick Collection, New York). The resulting painting, considered by Claude to be his most beautiful, was later largely destroyed by fire (a fragment survives at Holkham Hall, England). Claude here depicts the Old Testament story of Queen Esther, who went to the king's palace to implore mercy for her condemned people. As uninvited appearances before the king were forbidden under penalty of death, Esther collapsed in fear as she neared his throne, a scene commonly depicted by Baroque artists. By choosing instead the moment of Esther's approach to the palace, which is not described in the biblical text, Claude has shifted the focus from the clemency of the king to Esther's act of bravery when its outcome was still unclear.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of AhasuerusQueen Esther Approaching the Palace of AhasuerusQueen Esther Approaching the Palace of AhasuerusQueen Esther Approaching the Palace of AhasuerusQueen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.