Edwin Lord Weeks

Collection of the Artist (and sold, his sale, American Art Association, New York, March 17, 1905, lot 237)
Private Collection, New Jersey (possibly acquired at the above sale)
Thence by descent to the present owner

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is clean. The canvas is unlined and still on its original stretcher. Under ultraviolet light, retouching can be seen in a few tiny spots in the brown garment of the plate seller in the lower left, a few small dots of retouching in the darker clothes in the center, and a spot or two in the sky. The condition is very good, and the work should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This animated painting is an uncommon work from Weeks’ Persian period and was most likely completed in situ while Weeks was traveling across Persia in the Fall of 1892 on his way to India.

It depicts an open, crowded café full of men seated in wide benches adjacent to the outside wall of a bazaar with a blue-tiled mosque dome and minaret in the background. The long ochre wall of the bazaar creates a dramatic diagonal line that draws the eye into the composition, a technique that Weeks frequently uses. There are men in and around the café dressed in tunics and characteristic Persian caps and stovepipe hats of the period. The man on the brown horse near the center and the figure on the right walking towards the viewer both reinforce the feeling that the painting was executed on the spot.

Most obvious is the array of white plates and crockery strewn one by one outside the café on the ground. The “pottery seller” himself crouches in the midst of this display, wearing a brown coat and blue cap, smoking an elaborate Persian pipe while awaiting buyers. The most important visual draw in the composition are the glazed dishes arrayed for sale. Weeks loved to paint pottery in many of his works, especially in India. The assemblage of figures, ceramics and outer bazaar wall make this a very characteristic Persian painting in Weeks’ oeuvre.