Lot 30: LARGE SHEET OF DECORATED CALLIGRAPHY, SIGNED BY ISMA'IL JALAYIR, QAJAR, PERSIA, CIRCA 1860-1870

65 by 48.2cm.

Treasures of Islam, Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, 1985
Islamic Calligraphy, Sacred and Secular Writings: Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, 1988; The Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, 1988-89; the Zamana Gallery, London, 1989; The Rietberg Museum, Zurich, 1989; The Jordan National Gallery, Amman, 1989
Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1999

Geneva 1985, no.178, pp.190-191
Geneva 1988, no.34, pp.126-127
Raby 1999, no.138, pp.98-99

This is one of the supreme examples of the distinctive work of the well-known Qajar artist Isma'il Jalayir. It includes every aspect of his idiosyncratic style and epitomises the imaginative world that he created in his works.

Works by Jalayir are extremely rare and sought-after. Only a handful of works by the artist are recorded in private collections, while among museums only the Sadabad Museum of Fine Arts and the Gulistan Palace Library in Tehran, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Leipzig Museum posses examples of his work. Only two of his works have appeared at auction: a portrait of Mirza 'Ali Asghar Khan in gouache on paper was sold in these rooms 18th October 2001, lot 74, and a lacquer pen-box with scenes by Jalayir was sold in these rooms 9th October 1978, lot 187, and again on 12th October 2000, lot 89.

The calligraphy on this sheet is a quatrain in praise of the Prophet Muhammad, which is found in the introduction to Sa'di's Gulistan. Around it Jalayir has filled the page with a panoply of details, with songbirds, waterfowl, cockerels, flowers, trees, fruit (a prominent melon at upper right), cats, sheep, goats, rabbits, hunting dogs, elephants, giraffes, leopards, deer, cattle, a lion and snake in combat, huntsmen on horseback and on foot, hunting dogs, men with donkeys, a man on a camel, wrestlers, ladies taking tea with a samovar, butterflies and a townscape. Some scenes are charming and sedate, some lyrical, some energetic, some violent and some are more nearly genre in type. The sheer plethora of painted detail is phenomenal and mesmerising. There are hidden worlds within hidden worlds, and the more and closer one looks at the scenes the more detail reveals itself. This type of background detail appears in several of his known works and is the most distinctive aspect of his unique style.

A number of these details are worth examining more closely. The scene of the ladies taking tea in the upper left corner relates to a large painting by Jalayir of the same subject in oil on canvas (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, P.56-1941, see Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, no.86, p.261), while a detail of a young boy holding a ram at the upper right may be a reference to the sacrifice of Isma'il, a favourite subject of Jalayir's and one which he is said to have painted as many as four times on a monumental scale, including a version in this sale, lot 32. This habit of including visual references to other aspects of his artistic oeuvre is disntinctive and is also in evidence in the other Jalayir calligraphic work in this sale, lot 31, where a small vignette of Hazrat 'Ali with Hassan and Husayn sits within the loop of the word 'Ali. This subject was also one of his favourites and he is said to have painted this as many as three times (see also GEI, p.662-5).

Isma'il Jalayir was the son of Haji Muhammad Zaman Khan Jalayir of Khurasan. He was one of the most gifted artists and teachers at the School of Arts of the Dar al-Funun in Tehran and his individualistic manner caught the eye of Nasir al-Din Shah and other senior figures in the Qajar court. By 1862-3 he had produced a portrait of the ruler and he continued his royal association throughout his career. Only fourteen other signed or confidently attributed works by Jalayir are previously recorded, as follows:
1. Portrait of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar, dated 1279/1862-3: (location unknown).
2. Ladies around a samovar: Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, no.86).
3. Portrait of Nur 'Ali Shah (I): private collection (Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, no.85).
4. Portrait of Nur 'Ali Shah (II): private collection (Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, fig.XXXII; Robinson 1991, pl.37).
5. Portrait of Nur 'Ali Shah (III): Sadabad Museum of Fine Arts, Tehran (Keikavusi 1992, no.19).
6. Portrait of Nur 'Ali Shah (IV): Leipzig Museum (Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, p.267, footnote no.37).
7. An album of portraits of the Seven Sufis, dated 1286/1869-70: Gulistan Palace Library, Tehran (Atabey 1353, cat.171, p.386).
8. The Sacrifice of Isma'il; formerly in the collection of P.W.Schulz (Schulz 1914, vol.I, pl.F).
9. A sheet of decorated calligraphic work with interlinear painting: the present item in this sale, (see also Geneva 1985, no.178; Geneva 1988, no.34; Raby 1999., no.138).
10. A sheet of decorated calligraphy: see lot 31 in this sale (see also Geneva 1985, no.177).
11. A qalamdan, begun probably by the artist Muhammad Hassan Afshar, completed by Isma'il Jalayir: private collection (Sotheby's, London, 12th October 2000, lot 89 and 9th October 1978, lot 187; Wiet 1935, P.87; Robinson 1989, figs.16a-c,pp.141-2; Karimzadeh Tabrizi 2000, p.370).
12. A portrait of Imam 'Ali with Hassan and Husayn, private collection (unpublished).
13. Watercolour portrait of Nur 'Ali Shah kneeling, private collection (unpublished).
14. Portrait of Prime Minister Mirza 'Ali Asghar Khan, private collection (sold in these rooms 18th October 2001, lot 74).