Artists' Tools19th century

Pen Box with European Women and Other Figures in Landscape

c. 1850-1875

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with three vignettes of women in European clothing reclining in landscape; the vignettes are separated by two oval medallions containing bust length portraits of European women. In the central vignette, a haloed woman is attended by a female attendant and a winged angel. On the sides, bust-length portraits of women in medallions alternate with pastoral images of women and children, and images of reclining men in Persian dress. The base and sliding compartment are decorated with a gold arabesque on a red background.

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 × 23.4 cm (1 3/8 × 1 1/2 × 9 3/16 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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