Pen Box with Reclining European Women and Female Portraits | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2014.321
People: Attributed to the Circle of Najaf `Ali
Title: Pen Box with Reclining European Women and Female Portraits
Classification: Artists' Tools
Work Type: pen box
Date: c. 1850-1875
Places: Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan
Period: Qajar period
Culture: Persian
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/351816

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, platy hematite particles, and lacquer on pasteboard
Dimensions: 3.7 × 3.7 × 23.3 cm (1 7/16 × 1 7/16 × 9 3/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: 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.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of A. Soudavar in memory of his mother Ezzat-Malek Soudavar
Accession Year: 2014
Object Number: 2014.321
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions: The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description: Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with three vignettes featuring a semi nude woman draped in a red cloth. The background is a sparkling dark brown. In the different scenes, the companions include winged angels, a white bearded man, female attendants, and a brown bearded man who grasps a bottle. These scenes are separated by two oval medallions with female portrait busts. The sides are similarly composed and decorated, with male portrait medallions appearing on the back. The base is decorated with a gold arabesque on a black background.

Publication History

Massumeh Farhad and Mary McWilliams, ed., A Collector’s Passion: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar and Persian Lacquer, Harvard Art Museums and Freer/Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution (Cambridge, MA/Washington, D.C., 2017), pp. 46-47, figs. 15a-b; p. 137, cat. 113
Katherine Eremin and Claire Grech, Materials and Techniques of Persian Laquerwork, 2017, Figure 15a/15b, Page 46-47
David Roxburgh and Mary McWilliams, ed., Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), pp. 31-32, fig. 9; pp. 35-37, fig. 23; pp. 156-157, cat. 70

Exhibition History

Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/26/2017 - 01/07/2018

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu