Study of poppies, Iran, 18th century, attributable to Mohamm - Lot 133

Study of poppies, Iran, 18th century, attributable to Mohammad Bâqir Drawing in polychrome inks on paper depicting two flower stems similar to poppies and a small butterfly in flight. Lower right, signature in Arabic "Mohammad Bâqir". The drawing is framed by two calligraphic cartouches inscribed with two verses in Persian nasta'liq in black ink in a green reserve powdered with gold on a gilded background furnished with plant scrolls. Mounted on an album page with a salmon-colored margin decorated with gold-painted floral stems on card. Drawing size: 11.5 x 8 cm; total: 40.8 x 25.6 cm Wear, dampening, small stains, minor repairs, wormhole in margin. As several Persian artists worked under the name of Mohammad Bâqir, we must be cautious in identifying the designer of these poppies. It would be tempting to see the hand of the artist active around 1740-1800, who was a student of 'Ali Ashraf. His participation in the margins of the famous St. Petersburg Album (1730-1758/59) alongside his master and many other artists, contributed to his fame, particularly as a painter of flowers at a time when the theme of flowers and birds, notably the gol-o-bolbol, was beginning to develop before the great fashion hit in the following century. His gift for depicting nature is expressed, for example, in a small lacquered toiletry set with floral decoration kept at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (2015.252), but also in several drawings kept in the Golestan 1644 album from the eponymous Palace in Teheran, which also shows his other sources of inspiration.