A maiden wearing a luxurious fur mantle, attributed to Muhammad Qasim
Persia, Isfahan, dated AH 1004/AD 1596-1597gouache and gold on paper, inscribed and dated lower centre, laid down between gold speckled pink borders on wide margins with gold floral lattice design
painting 160 x 86 mm.; page 337 x 218 mm.注脚The inscription reads: 'Painted by Muhammad Qasim in 1004'.

Stylistically this portrait bears a resemblance to single figure paintings by Muhammad Qasim, an artist believed to be a slightly younger contemporary of Reza 'Abbasi. A similar single figure portrait by him in the Art and History Trust Collection depicts a drunken youth who shares the same rounded face and delicate features (Soudavar, 1992, fig. 121, p. 293). Our painting is however dated AH 1004/AD 1595-1596, ten years earlier than a painting of the 'Chastisement of a Pupil' which has thus far been considered Muhammad Qasim's earliest dated work (dated AH 1014/AD 1605-06), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Ekhtiar, Soucek, Candy and Haidar (edd.), 2011, no. 153, pp. 226-227). It is generally accepted that Muhammad Qasim died in 1659. Adel Adamova, discussing two works by the artist attributed to circa 1601-1602, suggests that he must therefore have been born no later than 1575 and had a long life (Adel Adamova, 'On the Attribution of Persian Paintings and Drawings of the Time of Shah 'Abbas I', Hillenbrand (ed.), 2000, p. 23). The date and attribution of the present painting whilst early is thus by no means impossible.