
Artwork Details
- Title
- King Ibn Saud
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1945
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 35 5⁄8 x 28 5⁄8 in. (90.4 x 72.7 cm.)
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Harmon Foundation
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on paperboard
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Object — other — flag
- Occupation — other — aristocrat
- Arabian
- Figure group
- Architecture — industry — refinery
- Portrait male — Saud, Ibn
- Object Number
- 1967.59.650
Artwork Description
In this painting Johnson refers to a secret meeting in 1945 between King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt onboard the battleship USS Quincy in the Suez Canal. Johnson shows a larger-than-life Ibn Saud receiving salutes from senior naval officers and the homage of his countrymen. A green flag in the upper center locates the meeting in Egypt; the derricks dotting the arid landscape in the background refer to the recent discovery of petroleum on the Arabian Peninsula. Though Saudi Arabia had remained officially neutral during the war, the country favored the Allies. Roosevelt met with Ibn Saud to secure access to his country's massive oil reserves. The charismatic Roosevelt charmed the powerful king, and the two laid the groundwork for an alliance that continues to the present.