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

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

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