A LARGE ALBUM PAGE WITH FIGURAL STUDIES
Iran, late 18th - 19th century

Opaque pigments, pencil, black ink, white wash, and gold on European watermarked lined paper, the tinted horizontal composition on the recto depicting a noble lady on horseback, wearing a pearl headband with a floral aigrette and golden belt, behind her a green-dressed duenna, the scene most probably a study of the Armenian princess Shirin, the heroine of Nizami Ganjavi's romance Khosrow o Shirin, two annotations in pencil free-flowing nasta'liq script on the left-hand-side including two dates 1177 AH (1763) and 1295 AH (1878); and the vertical composition on the recto showcasing several unfinished figural studies of a young Qajar prince and riders on horseback, set in a later paper frame and cardboard mount, the folio 27cm x 19cm excluding the frame and mount.

The pencil note on the album page border reads: "One of the best works of Aqa Sadiq, Master Painter at the court of Karim Khan Zand (r. 1751 - 1779). This note was written by Mirza Hussain Shirazi at the end of Ramadan 1295 AH (September 1878)".

The pencil note on the left of the horse reads: "This painting was produced in the city of Shiraz...made by Sadiq the Pure Ali 1177 AH (1763)".

Both annotations seem to attribute this work to Muhammad Sadiq, one of the leading artists of the Zand period in Iran, active from the 1740s until the 1790s. That said, Sadiq’s works are usually signed in a compact naskh script, unlike the free-flowing nasta'liq script of our lot, and his signature traditionally features either his proper name, Muhammad Sadiq, or his takhallos (nom de plume) Ya Sadiq al Wa’d ('O thou who art true', referring to Ja’far al-Sadiq the Sixth Imam), leaving the attribution of this specific painting unclear.