FOUR ARCHAISTIC-STYLE PORTRAITS OF PERSIAN YOUTHS IN GARDENS
Iran, 20th century

Opaque pigments, pencil, and ink on paper, each vertical-format portrait depicting a typical topos of Persian paintings, a courtly youth seated (and often drinking) in a garden setting, surrounded by floral blossoms, green grass, and foliate trees, the smallest painting departing from this standard canon to depict a Persian youth dancing with his lover, the largest honouring the pictorial style of the Safavid painter Riza 'Abbasi and his school of followers in Isfahan, mounted on a white cardboard frame, the smallest 22.2cm x 14.2cm and the largest 29cm x 20.5cm.