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Lot Essay
This elegant, richly attired figure of a youth by the Safavid master Reza Abbasi was described by Anthony Welch as a “paradigm of luxury” (Welch and Welch 1982, p.82). Along with the previous lot, it is among the finest single-page portraits by Shah Abbas’s favourite artist to appear at auction for many decades.
The graceful figure stands in an open pose holding in his left hand a tray bearing two cups. In his right hand he holds a third cup which he is offering to an unseen person outside the picture, towards whom he gazes with a studied look. He wears a long, two-tone gold robe sumptuously decorated with a landscape scene containing green birds, pink and gold rocks, blue and purple flowers and blue cloudbands. Beneath his robe is a lavender shirt with a delicately-pricked gold trim. Over his shoulder and tucked under his arm is a long green shawl, and round his waist is a blue and gold sash with a second orange sash beneath. On his head he wears a blue hat with a thick fur lining (the delineation of the individual strands of fur is superb), with an orange scarf tied round it and a feather protruding from the top. At the lower left is the signature of Reza Abbasi, in white ink.
As well as the overall refinement of the image and the elegant calligraphic lines of the robe and the shawl, there are several other elements worth exploring. The colour balance is exceptional: the green of the shawl is picked up again in the birds within the textiles; the pale blue of the hat is picked up again in the cloudbands and some of the rocks and flowers in the textile; the orange of the collar is picked up again in the knotted scarf tied round his hat and the second sash round his waist; the darker blue/lavender is used in the waistband, the undershirt, the lower flowers in the textile and the lining of the robe (which is visible at the lower corner where it is turned back); the red of the shoes is picked out in the tiny crests of the birds; and the paler gold is used in the majority of rocks in the textile, in the tray holding the cups and in the background landscape. Reza skilfully conveys a subtle sense of movement and spontaneity through the fact that the shawl is slipping off the youth’s right shoulder. A second such element comes in the lower corners of the robe, which have fluttered back revealing the lining, as if a gentle breeze is blowing from the left, a sense reinforced by the scudding cloudbands in the sky. Finally, the birds in the textile, two flying and two perched on the ground, are actively engaged with each other across the folds of garment and animatedly conversing.
It is noticeable that the birds consist of two pairs. The inclusion of pairs of birds was a visual trope in Persian and Indian painting (and other traditions) often symbolising romance and fidelity. Canby stated that Reza’s works such as this may have been intended as visual analogies for Persian poems of yearning for the absent beloved, both earthly and divine (Canby 1998, p.76), and it is tempting here to see the pairs of birds as well as the absent person to whom the youth is offering the cup as being subtle symbols of this romantic ideal – the painful absence of union in the human contrasted with the natural union of the pairs of birds.
Reza painted other similar portraits in this period. One, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (MS. Suppl. Pers.1572, fol.8, see Richard 1997, p.205, no.150; Canby 1996, cat.117, p.198) is particularly close to the present example in pose, hat and garments, although the Paris figure is holding a bottle and cup across his body rather than a tray and cups, lacks the long shawl, and his robe is less ornate. Comparison of the present portrait with the Paris example shows how important the use of the lavish “inhabited” textile and the half-slipping shawl are in enlivening the present figure, which has a much greater sense of luxury and animation than the Paris version.
The graceful figure stands in an open pose holding in his left hand a tray bearing two cups. In his right hand he holds a third cup which he is offering to an unseen person outside the picture, towards whom he gazes with a studied look. He wears a long, two-tone gold robe sumptuously decorated with a landscape scene containing green birds, pink and gold rocks, blue and purple flowers and blue cloudbands. Beneath his robe is a lavender shirt with a delicately-pricked gold trim. Over his shoulder and tucked under his arm is a long green shawl, and round his waist is a blue and gold sash with a second orange sash beneath. On his head he wears a blue hat with a thick fur lining (the delineation of the individual strands of fur is superb), with an orange scarf tied round it and a feather protruding from the top. At the lower left is the signature of Reza Abbasi, in white ink.
As well as the overall refinement of the image and the elegant calligraphic lines of the robe and the shawl, there are several other elements worth exploring. The colour balance is exceptional: the green of the shawl is picked up again in the birds within the textiles; the pale blue of the hat is picked up again in the cloudbands and some of the rocks and flowers in the textile; the orange of the collar is picked up again in the knotted scarf tied round his hat and the second sash round his waist; the darker blue/lavender is used in the waistband, the undershirt, the lower flowers in the textile and the lining of the robe (which is visible at the lower corner where it is turned back); the red of the shoes is picked out in the tiny crests of the birds; and the paler gold is used in the majority of rocks in the textile, in the tray holding the cups and in the background landscape. Reza skilfully conveys a subtle sense of movement and spontaneity through the fact that the shawl is slipping off the youth’s right shoulder. A second such element comes in the lower corners of the robe, which have fluttered back revealing the lining, as if a gentle breeze is blowing from the left, a sense reinforced by the scudding cloudbands in the sky. Finally, the birds in the textile, two flying and two perched on the ground, are actively engaged with each other across the folds of garment and animatedly conversing.
It is noticeable that the birds consist of two pairs. The inclusion of pairs of birds was a visual trope in Persian and Indian painting (and other traditions) often symbolising romance and fidelity. Canby stated that Reza’s works such as this may have been intended as visual analogies for Persian poems of yearning for the absent beloved, both earthly and divine (Canby 1998, p.76), and it is tempting here to see the pairs of birds as well as the absent person to whom the youth is offering the cup as being subtle symbols of this romantic ideal – the painful absence of union in the human contrasted with the natural union of the pairs of birds.
Reza painted other similar portraits in this period. One, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (MS. Suppl. Pers.1572, fol.8, see Richard 1997, p.205, no.150; Canby 1996, cat.117, p.198) is particularly close to the present example in pose, hat and garments, although the Paris figure is holding a bottle and cup across his body rather than a tray and cups, lacks the long shawl, and his robe is less ornate. Comparison of the present portrait with the Paris example shows how important the use of the lavish “inhabited” textile and the half-slipping shawl are in enlivening the present figure, which has a much greater sense of luxury and animation than the Paris version.