2014.318: Pen Box with Indian Woman in a Landscape

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2014.318

People

Najaf `Ali

Title

Pen Box with Indian Woman in a Landscape

Classification

Artists' Tools

Work Type

pen box

Date

1847-1848

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran

Period

Qajar period

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/351855

Physical Descriptions

Medium

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

Dimensions

3.7 × 3.7 × 22.8 cm (1 7/16 × 1 7/16 × 9 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription:
  يا شاه نجف۱۲۶۴
  O Lord of Najaf! 1847-48

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

2014.318

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 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.

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), p. 124, cat. 75
• Salima Hellal, ed., Les Arts de L'Islam: Au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, exh. cat., Éditions Snoeck (Lyon, 2023), p. 511, fig. 122

Verification Level