Artists' Tools19th century

Pen Box with Indian Woman in a Landscape

1847-1848

Artists

Najaf `AliArtist

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in vertical format with a full-length figure of a woman in Indian dress standing in a landscape. She holds a circular fan behind her head. A duck and a tiny deer occupy the foreground, while trees, mountains, and a building occupy the background. The sides are divided into three vignettes of figures in landscape, separated by oval medallions containing portrait busts of young men and women in European, Indian, and Persian dress. The central vignettes feature hunters on horseback. The base and sliding compartment are decorated with gold arabesque on a black 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

3.7 × 3.7 × 22.8 cm (1 7/16 × 1 7/16 × 9 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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