Description

Cleopatra painting

The Queen Cleopatra

 

IMG_5695

IMG_5695

The Queen Cleopatra – Power, Mystery and Transformation

Cleopatra has remained one of history’s most fascinating women — ruler, strategist, icon, seductress and symbol of power. Yet behind the legend was a woman whose image has been rewritten for centuries.

In The Cleopatra painting , Katharina Rubin explores that tension between history and myth, strength and vulnerability, presence and memory.

The Cleopatra painting changes dramatically under UV light, revealing fluorescent details invisible in ordinary daylight.

The portrait does not attempt to recreate Cleopatra as an archaeological reconstruction. Instead, it presents her as an enduring symbol — a woman who continues to fascinate because she cannot be reduced to a single story.

Her face emerges from a composition filled with gold, metallic accents and deep contrasting tones. Egyptian-inspired elements frame the work, while the surface itself becomes part of the narrative.

The painting was created on natural linen canvas, a material whose visible structure has deliberately been preserved. Linen is less forgiving than a smooth, heavily primed surface: every gesture remains present, every correction changes the character of the fabric. Rather than covering that natural texture, the work allows it to remain visible, giving the painting a tactile, almost archaeological quality.

This physical surface is combined with layers of acrylic, metallic pigments, gold accents and UV-reactive elements. Under ordinary light, the painting presents one visual identity. Under ultraviolet light, hidden details and fluorescent passages emerge, creating a second experience of the work.

This transformation is central to the painting.

Cleopatra herself has always existed between what is visible and what is imagined — between historical fact and projection. The UV layer echoes this duality. What appears complete in daylight reveals another dimension when the light changes.

Gold plays an equally important role. It is not used merely as ornament, but as a reference to royalty, ritual, immortality and the visual language associated with ancient Egypt. Against darker areas of the composition, the metallic elements create a sense of depth and luminosity that changes depending on the viewer’s position and the surrounding light.

The  Cleopatra painting is therefore more than a portrait. As an ordinal Cleopatra painting, the work combines historical symbolism with Katharina Rubin’s contemporary mixed-media and UV technique

It is a work about image, memory and power.

It asks how history transforms a human being into an icon, and how much of that icon is truth — and how much is desire, projection and myth.

The  Cleopatra painting is an original one-of-a-kind artwork, created by hand and intended as a singular collector’s piece. Its material richness, linen surface and changing UV appearance make it a work that cannot be fully experienced through reproduction alone.

Artwork details

Title: The Queen Cleopatra
Artist: Katharina Rubin
Size: 100 × 75 cm
Technique: Mixed media
Support: Natural linen canvas
Materials: Acrylic paint, metallic pigments, gold accents and UV-reactive elements
Edition: Unique original artwork

In daylight, she is queen.

Under UV light, another Cleopatra appears.

And between those two images lives the mystery that has kept her alive in our imagination for more than two thousand years.