A Safavid Isfahan Carpet Fragment, Central Persia, First Half 17th Century

B.C. Holland Gallery, Chicago, Illinois;

Sotheby's, New York, 24 April 2013, lot 220;

Sir Howard Hodgkin CH CBE (1932-2017), London;

Howard Hodgkin, Portrait of the Artist, Sotheby's, London, 24 October 2017, lot 380;

Where acquired by the present collector.

The intensity and richness of the crimson ground of this fragment is beguiling and the beautiful drawing of the ‘C’ scrolls, palmettes and cloudbands, remarkable. An Isfahan carpet formerly in the collection of William A. Clark, bequeathed to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, incorporates very similar drawing of the large saffron palmette present here, see Sotheby’s New York, 5 June 2013, lot 4. Another fragment, possibly from the same carpet, was sold at Sotheby's London, 28 April 2004, lot 5.