A Languid Youth, signed by Muhammad Yusuf, Persia, Safavid, Isfahan, 17th century

Ink and pencil heightened with gold on paper, with sparse use of colour, depicting a reclining youth in loose robes holding a bottle and cup, leaning on a pillow with his foot resting upon a rock, signed at lower right, laid down on an album page with blue border and outer margins flecked with gold, composite calligraphic page to reverse with text in Arabic and Persian verse form in thuluth, naskh and nasta’liq scripts

Following in the style of Reza-i Abbasi (d.1635), alongside contemporaries such as Muhammad Qasim, Muhammad Yusuf al-Husayni (d.1666) was one of the foremost artists of seventeenth-century Persia. The early part of his career was spent in Herat under the patronage of Hassan Shamlu, but after his death he moved to Isfahan, where he produced drawings and paintings of outstanding draughtmanship. Typical of his style is a bright palette, and the depiction of graceful, tall figures with well-proportioned faces.

In addition to the present drawing, the following are known signed and attributed works of Muhammad Yusuf:

1. A Youth with a Jacket, Smithsonian (586.0302), published in Lowry & Beach, 1988, no.375
2. A Lute Player, ex-Minassian Collection, loan exhibition, Hartford, Conn., 1925, no.16
3. A Youth Seated Under a Tree, signed and dated 1637, Private Coll., London, published in Robinson 1976, p.86, pl.56
4. A Sheikh and Courtesan, signed and dated 1068 AH/1658 AD  in a muraqqa' folio, kept at the Oriental Studies Institute of Saint Petersburg (D-181, f.6r)  
5. An Old Man Leaning on a Staff, signed and dated 1646, MFA Boston (14.642), MFA Bulletin, Vol.XIII (Feb 1915), No.74.1-16 and again in Coomaraswamy 1929, pl.LI, no.926 and Soudavar 1992, p.263, fig.44 
6. A Standing Young Man, signed, MFA Boston (14.637), MFA Bulletin, Vol.XIII (Feb 1915), no.74.1-16, and again in Coomaraswamy 1929, pl.LI, no.93 
7. A Persian Lady, Dawud Coll., published in Binyon et al 1933, p.177, no.368
8. A Young Man Standing, signed, MAH, Geneva (1971.107/81), published in Robinson 1992, p.153, no.277
9. A Seated Young Man, signed, ex-Gonse Coll., The Louvre (MAO 836), published in Melikian-Chirvani 2007, pp.388-9, no.145
10. An Old Man, signed and dated 1645, published in Martin 1912, pl.166
11. Head of a Dervish, published in Martin 1912, pl.166
12. Khamsa of Nizami, Bibliotèque Nationale de France (Sup.Persan 1908, f.53)
13. An Embracing Couple, Bibliotèque Nationale de France (Arabe 6074, f.5r), published in Blochet 1921, pl.LI
14. Diwan of Hafiz, signed and dated 1640 (TKS H.1010), two miniatures including f.79a
15. Shahnameh, diverse artists, signed on folio 320v, Windsor Castle Royal Library (MS Holmes 151 (A/6), published in B. W. Robinson, The Burlington Magazine, Vol.110, no.780 (March 1968), pp.131-140
16. A Bearded Man Seated, signed, Iran Bastan Museum (No.4036), published in Melikian-Chirvani 2007, p.410, no.155
17. A Dervish with a Rosary, signed, The State Hermitage Museum (Inv.no.VP 740/XXV), published in London 2004, p.127, no.77
18. A Youth with a Wine Cup, signed, The State Hermitage Museum (Inv.no.VP 739), published in Adamova 1996, p.218-9, no.19  
19. Lovers, Pierpont Morgan LIbrary (M.385.15), published in Gray 1977, p.169
20. Khosrow-Sultan Holding a Falcon, Art & History Trust Coll., published in Soudavar 1992, p.294-5, no.122
21. A Lady Holding a Carafe, signed, sold in these rooms, 25 April 2012, lot 468
22. Deux Mystiques S'enivrant, signed, Private Coll., sold at Kapandji Morhange, 30 November 2012, lot 114