File:A courting couple, by Shaykh Abbasi, Safavid Iran, dated 1661-2.jpg

BY SHAYKH ABBASI, SAFAVID IRAN, DATED AH 1072/1661-2 AD

Double-sided album page, one side with scene of a courting couple by Shaykh Abbasi, part-coloured drawing heightened with gold, inscribed in tiny nasta'liq in a small cartouche baha gereft cho gardid shaykh 'abbasi sana 1072, the other with study of a pink flower with two lines of nasta'liq in two columns above, signed XXX in red, margins stained, but not affecting miniatures Folio 13 x 7 5/8in. (32.8 x 19.5cm.); Miniature by Shaykh Abbasi 7 x 4¾in. (18 x 12cm.)

Few details are known of the life of the artist Shaykh 'Abbasi, whose dated works show him as being active during the reigns of Shah 'Abbas II and Shah Sulayman. His style is characterised by the use of pointillism for shading and creating volume in figures, but also by his choice of subjects. There is no evidence that he worked in India yet he frequently chose Indian men and women as his subjects. Even here where the subject is clearly an Iranian young man of fashion, he shows him sitting on a carpet on a terrace with a balustrade and smelling a flower, a common setting for the 17th century Mughal masters. Examples of his work are in the Art and History Trust Collection (Soudavar, A.: Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, nos.146, 147, pp.367-8); in the Musée Guimet, Paris, 7166 (Zebrowski, M.: Deccani Painting, London, 1983, p.197); collection of the late Edwin Binney III, (Islamic art from the collection of Edwin Binney III, Washington, 1966, no.5).