Black-bearded, with a gold earring, he looks up at the sky.
Bible in art · Psalms
David: "Oh, that I had wings like a Dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest." Psalm 55:6
Frederic Leighton · 1865
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Frederic Leighton painted this canvas in London in 1865 and gave it a verse from the psalms as its title. It is about 122 centimetres wide and now hangs in Cleveland.
A bearded king sits alone on a carved chair by a stone parapet and gazes up at the evening sky, where a white dove flies away. Below him lie dark mountains and the red walls of a town; a golden crown lies forgotten on the floor. The museum thinks Leighton meant the room above the city gate where David mourned his son Absalom.
From the text
- “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest” (Psalm 55:6)
- The psalm’s heading names David (Psalm 55:1)
- “In the wilderness I would remain” (Psalm 55:7)
The artist’s own
- David as a king alone on a terrace — the psalm gives no setting
- A gold earring, a dark robe and an oriental carpet
- The crown thrown down on the floor
- Linking the psalm with David’s grief for Absalom (2 Samuel 18:33) — the museum’s reading, not the psalm’s
Details
David
The dove
A white dove flies away across the clouds; a dark bird follows.
The crown
A golden crown lies cast aside on the floor.
A distant town
Red walls and towers beyond the parapet.
Mountains
Dark mountains under drifting mist.
Frederic Leighton, British, 1830–1896. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1986.74) · Oil on fabric · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).