Collection Online as of December 4, 2023

Youth Seated by a Willow; Single Page Illustration

c. 1600–1650

style of Muhammad Yusuf

(Iranian)

Iran, Isfahan, Safavid period

(1501-1722)

Ink, gold, and colors on paper

Sheet: 33.5 x 21.9 cm (13 3/16 x 8 5/8 in.); Image: 15 x 9.6 cm (5 7/8 x 3 3/4 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1947.499

Location

not on view

Description

A new aesthetic developed under the socially and economically conscious Shah ’Abbas I (reigned 1587–1629). Single polychrome paintings of elegantly clad youth were produced in considerable number during the 1600s, primarily for people with means who collected them and had them mounted in albums. Instead of functioning as portraits, the images of these courtly figures express ideals of youth and beauty. This young man’s lavish sash and turban enriched with costly gold thread proclaim his high status.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Script: none

Provenance

?–1947

(Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1947–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Hollis, Howard C. “Two Seventeenth-Century Persian Miniatures.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 35, no. 4 (1948): 63–64. Mentioned: pp. 63–64; Reproduced: p. 62 www.jstor.org

Exhibition history

Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 16, 2015-December 19, 2016).

Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 3, 2012-December 9, 2013).

Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 2015-December 19, 2016).