- 49
'Portrait of a noblewoman with a Rose', Iran, Isfahan, Safavid, circa 1680-1720
Description
Provenance
The late Sir George Booth Bt. (died 1797) by descent to Mr. and Mrs. Nigel Arnold-Foster of Basset Down, Wiltshire.
Christie's, London, 11 July 1974, lot 43 (one of a pair).
According to the family history and documents of the Booth family, this and its pendant portrait of a male figure (see Christie's, London, 11 July 1974, lot 42) were at Cotterstock Hall, the home of Sir George Booth Bt, after the death of his widow Laetitia in 1823. Sir George (died 1797) inherited the baronetcy and chattels from his cousin Nathaniel, Lord Delamere (died 1770); Nathaniel having inherited from his cousin George Booth, second Earl of Warrington in 1758. This Earl Warrington was grandson of George Booth, first Lord Delamere (1622-1684), one of whose younger brothers is thought to have been the 'Ambassador Booth' at Isfahan, to whom Shah 'Abbas II gave the two paintings and 'a dress of honour'. After Lady Booth's death in 1823, the pictures were left to Margaret Maskelyne, grandmother of Mary Arnold-Forster of Basset Down, Wiltshire, who devoted a chapter to them in her book 'Basset Down', thence to Mr. and Mrs. Nigel Arnold-Foster, who consigned them to Christie's in 1974.
Exhibited
International Exhibition of Persian Art, Royal Academy, Burlington House, London, 1931, no. 768, described as "Portrait, full length....of the Queen of Shah Abbas II. Oil on canvas. Presented by Shah Abbas II (reigned 1642-1667) to Mr. Booth, a gentleman visiting the Court of Persia......"
"Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925", Brooklyn Museum of Art, Hammer Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, Brunei Gallery, University of London, 1998-99, no.18.
published
London 1931, no.768, p.279.
Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, no.18, pp.132-3.
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
This portrait of a Safavid noblewoman is an exceptional example of rare, large-scale Safavid oil painting. Only thirteen other paintings of this type are known to exist, and none are present in western public museum collections.
The list of published paintings from the group is as follows:
1. A lady in Persian dress standing in an interior (formerly in the Negaristan Museum, Tehran, now transferred to the Sadabad Museum of Fine Arts, Tehran; Colnaghi, 1976, no. 137; Bier 1987; fig. 3; Grube and Sims 1989, no. 39, p.222; Keikavusi, fig.2).
2. A gentleman in Persian dress standing in an interior (formerly in the Negaristan Museum, Tehran, now transferred to the Sadabad Museum of Fine Arts, Tehran; Colnaghi, 1976; no. 138, Bier, 1987; fig. 4; Keikavusi, fig.3).
3. A gentleman standing in an interior holding a bow and arrow (private collection, London; Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, no. 17; Adle 1996, fig. 15, described as 'Le gardien de I'arc royal georgien').
4. Portrait of a European dignitary (Museum of Islamic Arts, Doha; Sotheby's, London, 15th October 1997; lot 35).
5. Portrait of lady (probably Armenian) standing in a richly ornamented interior (Museum of Islamic Arts, Doha; Sotheby's 15th October 1998, lot 69).
6. A lady in Persian dress standing in a landscape holding a wine flask (formerly in the Negaristan Museum, Tehran, now transferred to the Sadabad Museum of Fine Arts. Tehran; Colnaghi 1976, no. 139).
7. A lady in Persian dress standing in a landscape holding a rhyton (formerly in the Negaristan Museum, Tehran, now transferred to the Sadabad Museum of Fine Arts, Tehran; Colnaghi, 1976, no.140; Adle, 1996, fig.13).
8. A man in the costume of a footman standing in a landscape (formerly in the Negaristan Museum, Tehran, now transferred to the Sadabad Museum of Fine Arts, Tehran; Colnaghi, 1976, no. 141).
9. Portrait of a nobleman (private collection; Sotheby's, London, Wednesday 13th October, 1999, lot 13).
10. Portrait of a lady (private collection; Sotheby's, London, Wednesday 13th October, 1999, lot 14).
11. A gentleman in Persian dress standing on a terrace against a landscape background (private collection; exhibited Burlington House, London, 1931; Christie's, London, 11th July 1974, lot 42, the pendant to the present portait).
12. A portrait of a nobleman holding a bow and arrow (private collection; Sotheby's, London, 12 October 2004, lot 11).
13. A portrait of a noblewoman with a white shawl (private collection; Sotheby's, London, 12 October 2004, lot 12).
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
In 1597 the Persian Emperor Shah Abbas moved his capital from Qazwin, in the north-west of Iran, to Isfahan, in the centre. He did this essentially for reasons of security, but having done so, set about creating at Isfahan a cosmopolitan capital to rival any other, a centre of political and military power, of monumental architecture, of culture and the arts, of fashion and eclectic internationalism. His efforts to glorify both himself and his nation coincided with other political and commercial developments that helped establish Isfahan as a major world city. The activities of the English and Dutch East India Companies were expanding in the east, the European distrust of the Ottoman Empire was increasing in the west and the Persian Gulf ports were open and free from Portuguese control. Culturally too, there were diverse influences. Not only was there a strong exchange of ideas between Safavid Persia and Mughal India, there was an ever increasing interest in the culture and art of Europe, which was aided by the constant stream of European envoys and delegations arriving at Isfahan. Moreover, there was a growing Armenian community across the river from Isfahan at New Julfa, which had its own artistic identity. Thus Isfahan in the seventeenth century was a melting pot of political, commercial and cultural influences which created a dynamic environment for the diverse development of the arts.
EUROPEAN ARTISTIC INFLUENCE AT ISFAHAN IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
The introduction in the seventeenth century of the European aesthetic came about in two ways. First, European paintings were much sought after at the Safavid court, second, European artists came to work in Isfahan for Persian patrons, and thirdly, European prints were finding their way to Persia (and India) by this time in large numbers. While the initial impetus for this was due to the intellectual curiosity and patronage of Shah Abbas I, a key factor was the re-settlement of a large colony of Armenian merchants from Old Julfa on the River Araxes to Isfahan in 1604. Under the patronage of Shah Abbas they were housed in a suburb south of the town, across the River Zanderood, christened New Julfa. The shah granted the Armenians a monopoly of the silk trade to Europe, and the Armenian merchants were primarily responsible for the transmission of European artefacts to Persia. They swiftly became prosperous and built a number of churches decorated with European-style paintings and magnificent private houses similarly embellished. As few Persians were proficient in European languages, it fell to the Armenians to act as interpreters for foreign missions to the Persian Court.
As non-Muslims, the foreign visitors were invariably housed with the Armenians in New Julfa, and many of them settled permanently and intermarried with the Armenians. John Fryer in 1698 recounts that ten years previously there were European craftsmen living in New Julfa who included 'mechanik French, jewelers, gunsmiths and watchmakers.' There were also painters, of whom several were noted by contemporary European travellers: Pierre delle Valle travelled from Venice with a Flemish painter, 'Giovanni', who left his service in Isfahan to find employ with Shah Abbas I. Later the shah sent him back to Europe, to Flanders and France to seek out other painters.
Sir Thomas Herbert mentions 'John, a Dutchman' who might well be 'the same painter 'Giovanni', and Tavernier tells us that during the time of Shah Abbas II there were two more Dutchmen, probably sent by the Dutch East India Company, who were teaching the monarch to draw. The contact with Holland can be explained partly by the fact that the Armenians had a large and important community in Amsterdam. The first printed Armenian Bible was produced in Amsterdam in 1666, and the Armenians introduced the art of printing with moveable type to Julfa as early as 1641. This contact with Europe and the post-Renaissance artistic vocabulary inevitably influenced local artists, and nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the Armenian Cathedral in New Julfa, which is decorated with wall paintings from top to bottom in a diverse assortment of both European and local styles.
While this European influence is a noticeable and significant aspect of the group as a whole, research by C.Adle has indicated a possible link to Georgia (see Adle 1996, where he describes certain of these pictures as being of the Georgio-Persian school). This link is more iconographic than painterly, and in some pictures aspects such as costume, accoutrements and symbols appear to have Georgian as well as Safavid relevance. However, the social and artistic links between Safavid Iran and Georgia (indeed, between Iran and Georgia in general since ancient times) is well established. Iranian rulers frequently married Georgian wives, there was certainly a Georgian community in Isfahan, and Georgian artists often worked at the Safavid court, one such being Siyavush the Georgian, who had worked on the great Shahnama for Shah Isma'il II in 1576-7. Thus, though Adle's research points to a possible Georgian connection of some sort in some of these paintings, it remains more likely that they would have been painted at the greatest artistic, cultural and commercial centre at this time – Isfahan, and this is the opinion of the majority of art historians who have written on the subject. More recently Amy Landau has submitted a PhD thesis to Oxford University on the artistic developments of this period, and its publication is eagerly awaited.
WHY WERE THEY PAINTED?
The most obvious reason for their existence was to decorate the houses of the Persian aristocracy and the wealthy Armenian merchants in Isfahan and New Julfa. The existence of stylistically similar wall-paintings in New Julfa supports this theory, but the existence of so few extant free-hanging portraits of this style indicates that perhaps these were considered the most prestigious works of art with which to decorate one's house and with which to show off one's wealth and, importantly, one's fashionable appreciation of international cultural influences.
However, the fact that the present picture is clearly one of a male and female pair (the other having been sold at the same Christie's auction in 1974, see provenance above) gives rise to the idea that they could have had an additional function. Others of this small group are effectively pairs and it is possible that they were painted as marriage portraits in much the same way as had occurred in Europe for centuries.
THE PRESENT PORTRAIT
Dr Layla Diba's discussion of this painting in the catalogue of the seminal exhibition "Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925" is worth reproducing verbatim.
"The young woman in this painting, dressed ... richly, holds a delicate pink rose in one hand and a goblet in the other - attributes that allude to her feminine charms and her intoxicating beauty. At her feet are displayed blue and white drinking bowls and a gold jeweled long-necked ewer, characteristic of the rich vessels and regalia recorded by visitors to the Isfahan courts and frequently depicted in the visual sources. The woman wears a peaked scarlet cap (tied under her chin) embellished with a feather and necklet, indicating her high social rank and married status. Her stature is also conveyed by the lavishness of the silk brocade patterned dress and trousers that she so charmingly wears.
The painting's subject projects a sense of modesty and dignity, in contrast to many of the female depictions of the period, which show scantily clad or seminude Persian courtesans in inviting attitudes with their veils slipping off their heads or bare-headed European women in classical or early seventeenth-century low-cut European gowns.
A feature that invites comment is the background's red lacquered wood balustrade. A representation of the Armenian merchant Khwajeh Petros (Isfahan Cathedral Museum), executed in Madras by a painter trained in European techniques in 1737, exhibits a similar balustrade. Owing to the extensive commercial network, paintings from western India may have been commissioned by the Armenian merchants of Isfahan in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and may have provided the prototypes for the Chinese balustrade in this painting." (Diba and Ekhtiar, p.133)
A further very interesting feature of the present portrait is that the design of the silk brocade textile of which the woman's dress is made (see detail on previous page) is identical to that of three other of this small group of early portraits: The Portrait of a Lady sold at Colnaghi's in 1976, no.137 (now Sadabad Museum of Fine Arts, Tehran); the Portrait of a Lady sold in these rooms 15 October 1998, lot 69 (now Museum of Islamic Art, Doha) and the Portrait of a Lady sold in these rooms 13 October 1999, lot 14 (private collection). Of the thirteen known paintings in this general group, only six are of female subjects, thus four out of the six extant female robes are of the same design. These textiles are not just similar in design, but identical, and this leads to some interesting questions. Did these particular portraits have closer links than simply the generic ones of this small group? Can the specific textiles design used on this dress have had associations with a particular social group within Safavid society, perhaps Armenian noblewomen? Or could it have been associated with a particular event or occasion, such as betrothal or marriage, within aristocratic society. The four female portraits which share this textile design must all have been painted close together chronologically, since we know that Safavid society took changes in fashion and couture very seriously (see Scarce, 2002), leading perhaps to a re-evaluation and compressing of the dates of this group, which have so far been as wide as 1640-1722. Another possibility is that these four women belonged to a specific group within court circles where textiles of specific design sourced from the royal workshop were de rigeur. The headdress of the figure in the present portrait is close in style to that of the female portrait sold at Colnaghi's in 1976, no.139, which is an outdoor scene. Another shared feature of several of these portraits, including the present one, is a chequered marble floor.
THE ISFAHAN SCHOOL
The second half of the seventeenth century at Isfahan saw a remarkable development in painting, from the quasi-calligraphic style of the Reza Abbasi era to a new style showing more attention to naturalism, which was manifestly influenced by European art, with Mughal influence evident too, The chief proponents of this new style were Shaykh Abbasi and his sons Muhammed Taqi and Ali Naqi, Muhammed Zaman, Ali Quli Jubbadar (who was himself of European origin) and Shafi' Abbasi, but there must have been many more whose names are not recorded. These artists are known to have produced watercolours and gouache paintings along traditional lines and to have produced occasional works on lacquer, but the concept of large-scale oil paintings on canvas was more or less alien to them. However there are marked similarities between the figures in several of the portraits mentioned above, the small scale water-colours of Shaykh Abassi and Ali Quli Jubbadar, and certain anonymous works such as those in an album sold at Sotheby's, London, 7th July 1975, lot 222, and later at Colnaghi in 1976 (Colnaghi, no. 142 liii,v). In addition, in the churches and houses of New Julfa and in the Chehil Sutun Palace in Isfahan a great variety of large-scale murals had been painted during the middle decades of the seventeenth century, showing figures dressed in both Persian and European costumes. Thus, though free-standing oil portraits were not common, the idea of large-scale portraits, even life-size ones, was not a revolutionary concept to anyone living in Isfahan from about 1640 onwards, and the stylistic links between the large and small scale works of Persian artists of the mid seventeenth century are closer than they at first appear.
It has been suggested on occasions that the artists of this small group of life-size oil portraits could be Europeans themselves, and not their European-influenced Persian contemporaries. Given the variations of painterly hands evident within this small group of pictures, it seems most likely that they are the work of both European and Persian artists, working side by side in one or more studios in Isfahan and New Julfa.
Literature:
Amy Landau, "Farangi-Sazi at Isfahan, The court painter Muhammad Zaman, the Armenians at New Julfa and Shah Sulayman (1666-1694)", doctoral thesis submitted to the Oriental Institute, Oxford University, 2006, publication forthcoming.
Eleanor Sim's article in the catalogue Persian and Mughal Art, published by Colnaghi, 1976, pp.223-232.
Jennifer Scarce, "Style from top to toe: how to dress in Isfahan", in S.Canby (ed.), Safavid Art and Architecture, London, 2002.
Adle 1996.
T.S.R. Boase, "A seventeenth-century typographical series of paintings in the Armenian Cathedral in Julfa", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol.XIII, nos.3-4, 1950.
John Carswell, New Julfa, Oxford, 1968.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition, Leiden, 1965 onwards, article "Djulfa".
East and West: A Study in Aesthetic Contrasts, Art and Archaeology Research Papers, Vol.2, 1972.
L.S. Diba, "Persian painting in the eighteenth century: tradition and transmission", in Muqarnas, vol.VI, 1989.
A.A.Ivanov, "The Life of Muhammad Zaman", in Iran, vol.XVII, 1979.
E. Sims, "Late Safavid Painting: Chehil Sutun, The Armenian Houses, the oil Paintings", in Atken des VII. Internationalen Kongress fur Iranische Kunst und Archaeologie, Munchen, 7-9 September 1976, Berlin, 1979, pp.408-18.
Mary Arnold-Foster, Basset Down, pp. 147-9 and plates 28-9
Anthony Welch, Shah 'Abbas & the Arts of Isfahan, New York, 1973
C.Adle, "Archaeologie et arts du monde Iranien, de L'Inde Musulmane et du Caucase d'après quelques recherches récente de terrain 1984-95", Academie des Inscriptions & Belles-lettres; comptes rendus des séances de l'année 1996, Paris, 1996.