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Lot Essay
This Persian depiction of a camel and groom is part of the long tradition of preserving and collecting such images in India. The Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r.1605-27), commissioned the artist Nanha to copy the iconic work by the famous artist Behzad which depicts a camel fight, and mounted both versions into his prestigious album now known as the Gulshan Album (Ali Reza Sami-Azar (ed.), Iranian Masterpieces of Persian Painting, exhibition catalogue, Tehran, 2005, pp.428-431). While the camel fight is Behzad's best-known work depicting camels, there are two paintings ascribed to him that show a camel and groom. One is in the Topkapi Palace Library, Istanbul, which "is worthy of the work of Wali or Behzad" (Ebadollah Bahari, Bihzad, Master of Persian Painting, London, 1997, pl.19, op.57). A further painting, formerly in the Sakisian Collection, is now in the Freer Gallery, Washington (Armenag Bey Sakisian, La Miniature Persane du XII au XVII Siècle, Paris and Brussels, 1929, fig.84; https://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/object.php?q=fsg_F1937.22). The same collection contains a similar depiction signed by Shaykh Muhammad and dated AH 964/1557 AD (Sakisian, op.cit., fig.85; https://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/object.php?q=fsg_F1937.21). A depiction formerly in the collection of Stuart Cary Welch and attributed to the artist Mir Sayyid 'Ali, shows the animal with a very similar stance, (Stuart Cary Welch and Kimberly Masteller, From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawing from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Boston, 2004, no.2, p.42). Slightly later Safavid works also depicting camels after Behzadian originals were sold at Christie's London, 8 October 2015, lot 36 and at Sotheby's London, 7 October 2015, lot 260.
The present work is so close to the first Sakisian example that is is very difficult not to think that it was painted with the other in sight, or at least from a cartoon that was made from the other. The composition is reversed, but the posture of the camel and its tethering is identical. The groom himself however is not reversed, which explains why he is looking away from the camel here, while in the original he is very carefully looking at his charge. This would indicate that our artist is working from a pounced cartoon. Only the groom's headdress and hanging accountrements are different, bringing them up to date with the style of the time. The colouring of our example, especially the use of dark blue to paint the floral meander on the light blue band of the saddle, indicate a Khurasan origin. It makes one wonder whether the Behzad painting was in Mashhad in the later 16th century.
The present work is so close to the first Sakisian example that is is very difficult not to think that it was painted with the other in sight, or at least from a cartoon that was made from the other. The composition is reversed, but the posture of the camel and its tethering is identical. The groom himself however is not reversed, which explains why he is looking away from the camel here, while in the original he is very carefully looking at his charge. This would indicate that our artist is working from a pounced cartoon. Only the groom's headdress and hanging accountrements are different, bringing them up to date with the style of the time. The colouring of our example, especially the use of dark blue to paint the floral meander on the light blue band of the saddle, indicate a Khurasan origin. It makes one wonder whether the Behzad painting was in Mashhad in the later 16th century.