Artists' Tools20th century

Pen Box with the Virgin and Child, and Parrots in Medallions

1905-1906

Artists

Muhammad Baqir SamirumiArtist

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in vertical format with three cartouches surrounded by dense gold arabesque. The central cartouche contains a Virgin and Child; above and below are parrots. The sides are composed in a similar manner with an oblong cartouche in the center that features animals in a mountainous landscape; to the right and left are small riverine landscapes. On the base, an arabesque is painted in gold on a red background. The artist Samirumi occasionally adds the number 303 to his signature. It has been suggested that this stands for the name “Baqir,” the letters of which have this numerical value.

Classification

Artists' Tools

Medium

Oil paint, gold-colored pigments, platy hematite particles, and lacquer on pasteboard

Period

Qajar period

Century

20th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art

Dimensions

3.7 × 3.7 × 22.2 cm (1 7/16 × 1 7/16 × 8 3/4 in.)

Provenance

Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014. Note: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.