The Empress

A crowned figure reclines among ripening wheat, a heart-shaped shield beside her marked with the sign of Venus, a river falling through the wood behind. Pamela Colman Smith painted her in 1909 as ripeness made visible — the garden at its fullest, the card of growing things. Smith, an illustrator and folklorist with a theatrical eye, gave the whole deck this sense of scene and season, and did it in a few months for a flat fee. The credit went elsewhere for a hundred years. Look for the twelve stars in her crown and the 'PCS' monogram low in the frame.

Maker

Pamela Colman Smith, for A. E. Waite

Date

1909

Medium of the original

Plate

Original held by

Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Credit

Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00430