SIGNED REZA 'ABBASI, SAFAVID ISFAHAN, SECOND QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

The slightly curved body and elegant gold highlighted turban of our youth are closely related to a painting of a pageboy in the Louvre which Sheila Canby attributes to Reza ‘Abbasi and dates to circa 1620-23 (Inv. 35507; Sheila R. Canby, The Rebellious Reformer: The drawings and paintings of Riza-yi ‘Abbasi of Isfahan, London, 1996, p.162, cat.110). The portrait in the Louvre and our painting have nearly identical undated signatures. A portrait of a woman with a golden purse painted by Reza ‘Abbasi in the Worcester Art Museum must have originally been part of the same album as our painting as the borders and margins match our page precisely (Inv.no.1935.25; Canby, op.cit., p.67, cat.33). The Worcester painting is dated by Sheila Canby to circa 1600. The rendering of the textiles in our painting with the addition of gold details indicates that it is later than the Worcester Art work and closer in date to the painting of a page in the Louvre.