Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2014.314
Title
Pen Box with Dervish Seated in a Woodland
Classification
Artists' Tools
Work Type
pen box
Date
c. 1800-1850
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
Period
Qajar period
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/351861

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Opaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard
Dimensions
3.8 × 4.1 × 23.4 cm (1 1/2 × 1 5/8 × 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
2014.314
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 youthful dervish seated on the ground. He wears a roughly textured brown cloak and holds a staff in one hand; his begging bowl hangs from a nearby tree branch. A small deer and a broken tree trunk occupy the foreground, while large trees and small buildings fill the background. The sides are painted with a continuous wooded landscape with miscellaneous buildings and small figures engaged in hunting and agricultural activities. On the base, a flowering vine with grapes is painted in gold on a red 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. 74

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