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Lot Essay
This depiction of a white-eared bulbul bears the name Reza ‘Abbasi (ca.1565-1635) who is considered the most innovative and influential later Safavid artist. A contemporary of Shah ‘Abbas, he joined the Shah’s atelier soon after his accession in 1587 and continued to work into the 1630s. It is likely that our painting was actually done by a close follower of Reza's adopting his name in the signature. Certainly the artist must have been very close to Reza, demonstrating an aptitude for the master’s naturalistic precision and his ability to express tactile qualities such as the feathers on our bulbul.
The inscription here notes that it was copied from a work by the artist Bihzad. Another painting of a ‘Jay Perched in Flowers’, signed by Reza and dated 1628, has a similar inscription, stating that it was copied from a painting executed by the famous Bihzad (Sheila Canby, The Rebellious Reformer. The Drawings and Paintings of Riza-yi’ ‘Abbasi of Isfahan, London, 1996, pl.97, p.196).
Paintings of birds are less common in the corpus of works by Reza ‘Abbasi than handsome youths or lovers. In her seminal work on the artist, Sheila Canby writes that Reza had a penchant for including birds ‘in conversation’ with one another in his paintings, and writes that it is therefore not surprising that he also then took single birds as subjects (Canby, op.cit, 1996, p.132). She mentions only three that are known – one, the Jay Perched in Flowers mentioned above (cat.97, present whereabouts unknown); another bulbul or nightingale mounted with Lovers in a Landscape which she dates to the 1620s (cat.53, now in the Seattle Art Museum, inv.no.IS36.13); and a Study of a Bird which is dated Sha’ban AH 1043/February 1634 AD, a year before his death (cat.98, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc.no.1985.2, acquired in these Rooms, 28 November 1983, lot 125). A previously undiscovered version of the same work sold recently in these Rooms, 27 October 2022, lot 53.
In our bird’s stance, colouring and detail it is remarkably similar to the painting sold in these Rooms in 2022. However whilst the bird itself is very fully worked, the details around it have the feeling of having been completed in a different hand. The signature at the bottom of the painting gives a second date, and mentions that the completion was done by someone who was a student of Reza’s – could this be Shafi ‘Abbasi, perhaps, Reza ‘Abbasi’s son? Shafi ‘Abbasi was an artist who specialised in paintings of birds with flowers and branches, many of which bear dedicatory inscriptions to the Shah. His paintings were probably derived from his father’s ‘bird and branch’ model, of which the current painting is one, and also served as patterns for similarly designed Safavid textiles. For a painting by him of a nightingale on a branch see Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, no.127, p.298.
The inscription here notes that it was copied from a work by the artist Bihzad. Another painting of a ‘Jay Perched in Flowers’, signed by Reza and dated 1628, has a similar inscription, stating that it was copied from a painting executed by the famous Bihzad (Sheila Canby, The Rebellious Reformer. The Drawings and Paintings of Riza-yi’ ‘Abbasi of Isfahan, London, 1996, pl.97, p.196).
Paintings of birds are less common in the corpus of works by Reza ‘Abbasi than handsome youths or lovers. In her seminal work on the artist, Sheila Canby writes that Reza had a penchant for including birds ‘in conversation’ with one another in his paintings, and writes that it is therefore not surprising that he also then took single birds as subjects (Canby, op.cit, 1996, p.132). She mentions only three that are known – one, the Jay Perched in Flowers mentioned above (cat.97, present whereabouts unknown); another bulbul or nightingale mounted with Lovers in a Landscape which she dates to the 1620s (cat.53, now in the Seattle Art Museum, inv.no.IS36.13); and a Study of a Bird which is dated Sha’ban AH 1043/February 1634 AD, a year before his death (cat.98, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc.no.1985.2, acquired in these Rooms, 28 November 1983, lot 125). A previously undiscovered version of the same work sold recently in these Rooms, 27 October 2022, lot 53.
In our bird’s stance, colouring and detail it is remarkably similar to the painting sold in these Rooms in 2022. However whilst the bird itself is very fully worked, the details around it have the feeling of having been completed in a different hand. The signature at the bottom of the painting gives a second date, and mentions that the completion was done by someone who was a student of Reza’s – could this be Shafi ‘Abbasi, perhaps, Reza ‘Abbasi’s son? Shafi ‘Abbasi was an artist who specialised in paintings of birds with flowers and branches, many of which bear dedicatory inscriptions to the Shah. His paintings were probably derived from his father’s ‘bird and branch’ model, of which the current painting is one, and also served as patterns for similarly designed Safavid textiles. For a painting by him of a nightingale on a branch see Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, no.127, p.298.