AN ARCHAISTIC SAFAVID-REVIVAL DRAWING OF A GROUP OF SUFI DERVISHES
Iran, 20th century

Pencil and black ink heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition a 20th-century homage to Safavid portraiture in the style introduced by the master painter Reza Abbasi and the Isfahani school, depicting a group of five Sufi itinerant dervishes, each one looking in a different direction, dressed in a similar attire with long loose robes and thick shawls, the man in the back row with thick mustaches wearing a golden earring and a conical felt hat, possibly indicating the sheykh (spiritual leader) of the group, on the lower right corner the impression of an ownership seal with the name Muhammad Hossein (?), mounted on a later dark red cardboard album border, 35.4cm x 24cm.