The work portrays a scene from the biblical Book of Esther, in which Esther goes before Persia's King Ahasuerus to beg him to spare her people. Szyk incorporated motifs drawn from archaeological discoveries of the Near East in his art, as here where the looks of the men and the ornaments show clear Assyrian influences.

Arthur Szyk (1894-1951), a Polish Jewish artist, produced works characterised in their material content by social and political commitment, and in their formal aspect by the rejection of modernism and drawing on the traditions of medieval and renaissance painting, especially illuminated manuscripts from those periods. Szyk worked primarily as a book illustrator and political artist throughout his career and always showed great attention to the colour effects and details in his works.

Minature in watercolour and ink. Signed and dated lower left. (8 x 18 cm). Framed.