Moʿin Moṣavver | Individual Drawings and Paintings
Painting 1676.5
Old Shepherd Leaning on a Staff in a Landscape
Location: Current whereabouts unknown.
Painting: (H x W) 20.1 x 12 cm., page 32.5 x 22.2cm.
Signature: Signed and dated 1087/1676.
Inscription
At the left edge, reads: betāriḵ-e nuzdahom-e rabiʿ˙al-avval sana 1087 bejehat-e moraqqā ba etmåm rasid. raqam-e kamina moʿin-e moṣavver. Translation: “Completed for an album on nineteenth of rabiʿ 1 in the year 1087/1 June 1676. Drawn by humble Moʿin Moṣavver”. The inscription is in Moʿin’s handwriting.
Description:
An elderly, bearded shepherd, leaning on a staff, stands on the left of the composition gazing off to the right. He wears a maroon jacket, turquise pants, tan boots and a turban. Before him is a brown long-haired ram and a white short-haired ewe. Both face to the left. The setting consists of a rocky foreground with a small stream, rizing ground with a tree on the right, and some stylized clouds in the upper left.
Bibliography:
Sothebys London, 12 Oct 2000, Lot 66.
Commentary: Sotheby's, in its sale catoalog of 2000, cites the provenence for this painting only as a previously unrecorded work, the property of an American lady, who acquired it circa 1940-50. That such a work escaped notice for all the years prior and during her ownership is rather curious. Nevertheless, the painting appears in every way to be a very valid attribution to Moʿin. However, Sotheby's also points out that the composition is really a variant of two earlier Reżā ʿAbbāsi paintings of the same subject: one in the Russian State Library dated 1033/1624 (ill. Kühnel, MiO_1922, plate 83), and the second formerly in the Sutherland Collection dated 1041/1632 (ill. BWG_1933, no.317, plate CXI-B). The composition is a virtual mirror image of the Sutherland miniature, possibly even traced from the earlier work and flopped, with changes only in some details. It is also possible that Moʿin was not familar with the earlier Leningrad version, and that might be the reason why the little dog was omitted, and other details are at greater variance.
Photo courtesy of Sothebys
Robert Eng
Last Updated: April 19, 2019 | Originally published: April 19, 2019
Painting 1676.5
Old Shepherd Leaning on a Staff in a Landscape
Location: Current whereabouts unknown.
Painting: (H x W) 20.1 x 12 cm., page 32.5 x 22.2cm.
Signature: Signed and dated 1087/1676.
Inscription
At the left edge, reads: betāriḵ-e nuzdahom-e rabiʿ˙al-avval sana 1087 bejehat-e moraqqā ba etmåm rasid. raqam-e kamina moʿin-e moṣavver. Translation: “Completed for an album on nineteenth of rabiʿ 1 in the year 1087/1 June 1676. Drawn by humble Moʿin Moṣavver”. The inscription is in Moʿin’s handwriting.
Description:
An elderly, bearded shepherd, leaning on a staff, stands on the left of the composition gazing off to the right. He wears a maroon jacket, turquise pants, tan boots and a turban. Before him is a brown long-haired ram and a white short-haired ewe. Both face to the left. The setting consists of a rocky foreground with a small stream, rizing ground with a tree on the right, and some stylized clouds in the upper left.
Bibliography:
Sothebys London, 12 Oct 2000, Lot 66.
Commentary: Sotheby's, in its sale catoalog of 2000, cites the provenence for this painting only as a previously unrecorded work, the property of an American lady, who acquired it circa 1940-50. That such a work escaped notice for all the years prior and during her ownership is rather curious. Nevertheless, the painting appears in every way to be a very valid attribution to Moʿin. However, Sotheby's also points out that the composition is really a variant of two earlier Reżā ʿAbbāsi paintings of the same subject: one in the Russian State Library dated 1033/1624 (ill. Kühnel, MiO_1922, plate 83), and the second formerly in the Sutherland Collection dated 1041/1632 (ill. BWG_1933, no.317, plate CXI-B). The composition is a virtual mirror image of the Sutherland miniature, possibly even traced from the earlier work and flopped, with changes only in some details. It is also possible that Moʿin was not familar with the earlier Leningrad version, and that might be the reason why the little dog was omitted, and other details are at greater variance.
Photo courtesy of Sothebys
Robert Eng
Last Updated: April 19, 2019 | Originally published: April 19, 2019
