Artists' Tools18th-19th century

Pen Box with a Visit to a Sage

1870-1871

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with three cartouches containing figural vignettes. In the center, a white bearded sage is seated with his disciples, one of whom is female. The cartouches at right and left each feature a young woman in European dress with a naked baby, a white bearded man, and a female attendant. The sides are decorated with a continuous landscape with multiple bridges and hunters. The base and compartment are decorated with gold arabesque on a red ground. The inscription, written in gold on the top, was used as a punning signature by several artists from the late seventeenth to late nineteenth century.

Classification

Artists' Tools

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard

Period

Qajar period

Century

18th-19th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art

Dimensions

4.1 × 3.9 × 24 cm (1 5/8 × 1 9/16 × 9 7/16 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.