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Lot Essay
The Persian artist Hossein Behzad (1894-1968) was one of the chief artists of the Tehran school of painting which evoked the classical sensibilities of Persian painting and of its great masters such as Kamal al-Din Behzad and Reza Abbasi within a contemporary Iranian context. Interest in Persian arts reached an early peak during the inter-war period with the hugely successful 1931 exhibition of Persian Art held at the Royal Academy in London. Hossein Behzad’s style of painting reflected this new craze for the arts of the high periods of Persian painting under the Timurid and later Safavid rulers. Behzad left Tehran for Paris in 1934 where he received commissions to paint classical scenes by the leading gallerist in the field at the time Ayub Rabenou. He stayed for 13 months, during which time he studied various Eastern and Western painting styles in French museums. He developed there a completely new style of miniature painting, which fused aspects of traditional Persian painting with contemporary trends from the West. Through this new style he hoped to save miniature painting from oblivion.
To celebrate the millennium of Avicenna, in 1954 he held an exhibition at the Iran Bastan Museum. In 1955 and to much critical acclaim, he held an exhibition at the Musée d’art moderne, Paris and several exhibitions in the Library of Congress in the United States.
The full extent of the manuscript from which this illustration originates is not known. Other illustrations from this same manuscript were published in 1997 in a special edition of Dossier de l’Art dedicated to Persian painting, (Dossier de l’Art, La Peinture Persane, No. 36, March 1997, pp. 7, 70, 72, 73). See also two paintings of standing figures executed in a similar highly finished style in Mohammad Nasseripour, The Life and Works of Iranian Miniature Painter Hossein Behzad, Tehran, 2005, pp.76-77. Before travelling to Paris, Behzad had three important Persian patrons including Sadr-ol-Mamalek, a minister of Ahmad Shah Qajar, for whom it is recorded that he ‘brilliantly’ illustrated manuscripts (Nasseripour, op.cit., p.56). It is tempting to suggest that this folio was originally painted for the Qajar aristocrat.
Other works by Behzad sold at Christie's, London, 11 October 2005, lot 139 and Christie's, 31 October 2007, lot 73 and lot 74.
To celebrate the millennium of Avicenna, in 1954 he held an exhibition at the Iran Bastan Museum. In 1955 and to much critical acclaim, he held an exhibition at the Musée d’art moderne, Paris and several exhibitions in the Library of Congress in the United States.
The full extent of the manuscript from which this illustration originates is not known. Other illustrations from this same manuscript were published in 1997 in a special edition of Dossier de l’Art dedicated to Persian painting, (Dossier de l’Art, La Peinture Persane, No. 36, March 1997, pp. 7, 70, 72, 73). See also two paintings of standing figures executed in a similar highly finished style in Mohammad Nasseripour, The Life and Works of Iranian Miniature Painter Hossein Behzad, Tehran, 2005, pp.76-77. Before travelling to Paris, Behzad had three important Persian patrons including Sadr-ol-Mamalek, a minister of Ahmad Shah Qajar, for whom it is recorded that he ‘brilliantly’ illustrated manuscripts (Nasseripour, op.cit., p.56). It is tempting to suggest that this folio was originally painted for the Qajar aristocrat.
Other works by Behzad sold at Christie's, London, 11 October 2005, lot 139 and Christie's, 31 October 2007, lot 73 and lot 74.