A LACQUERED SAFAVID-REVIVAL TINTED DRAWING
Qajar Iran, 19th century

Opaque pigments, pencil and ink heightened with gold and lacquered on paper, the vertical composition depicting a man climbing up a tree to escape a lion growling at him from the bottom of the tree, the man wearing a loose overcoat decorated with Chinese clouds, birds flying around and one perched on a tree branch, stylised Chinese ru clouds in the sky, the shading of the tree trunk together with the draughtsmanship of the clouds and the man's physiognomic features reminiscent of Reza 'Abbasi and 17th-century Isfahani paintings, pasted onto a later gold-speckled pink album page, mounted onto dark green cardboard, framed, 24.5cm x 16.5cm excluding the frame.