Artists' Tools19th century

Pen Box with a Visit to a Sage

c. 1850-1900

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with vignettes of figures and animals set in a continuous landscape. The scenes include white-bearded sages meeting with princely youths; a mare and foal with a sleeping attendant; elegantly dressed young men and women and a white-bearded figure. The sides and ends are composed in a similar manner, with vignettes that include a group of young women in European dress; two horsemen and hunters; and a group of young women in European dress reading letters with a putto and a white-bearded figure. On the base, a landscape scene with tiny figures is painted in gold on a red ground.

Classification

Artists' Tools

Medium

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

Period

Qajar period

Century

19th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art

Dimensions

3.5 × 3.8 × 22.4 cm (1 3/8 × 1 1/2 × 8 13/16 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.

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