1 / 5
Photo 1/5 du lotPhoto 2/5 du lotPhoto 3/5 du lotPhoto 4/5 du lotPhoto 5/5 du lot
Featured lot selected by the auctions House.
Premium MILLON

77 - Mohammed RACIM (Algiers 1896 - El Biar 1975) Persian Hunt or…
See original version (French)

Estimate €15,000 - €20,000
Sale commission
Description
Mohammed RACIM (Algiers 1896 - El Biar 1975) Persian Hunt or Khusrow and Shirin Gouache and gold on paper 18.5 x 13.5 cm on view Signed, dated and located in Arabic in the painting, signed and located lower left in Latin letters Racim Mohamed Alger, 1337H. (1918-1919) *** Gouache and gold on paper, signed and dated in Arabic within the composition and signed lower left (sight: 7¼ × 5¼ in.). Painted in 1918 or 1919 (1337 AH). Provenance Anonymous sale, Oger-Dumont, Paris, 2004 Exhibition Very probably Salon de la Société des Artistes Algériens et Orientalistes, Algiers, 1919 Bibliography Mustapha Orif, "De l'art indigène" à l'art algérien", Actes de la Recherche en sciences sociales, vol. 75, Paris, November 1988, pp. 35-49, reproduced on p. 37 Mohamed Racim, miniaturiste algérien, exhibition catalogue, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 3-29 March 1992, p. 26 Comparable work Illustration of a poem by Emir Abdel Kader, Moncef Msakni collection, reproduced p. 57 in Présences arabes, Art moderne et décolonisation - Paris 1908-1987, Musée d'Art moderne de Paris, 2024 This miniature evokes one of the most famous episodes in Persian epic poetry, that of Khusraw discovering Shirin in the bath, as immortalised by the 12th-century poet Nizami. Mustapha Orif, who reproduces and comments on this work, gives the most precise description: "Chasse persane is perfectly suited to this type of work. He depicts Prince Khusrau, who discovers a beautiful young woman bathing at a bend in the road [...] While Persian miniaturists proceeded by superimposing planes, he introduces depth and the play of light and shadow, particularly in the body of water in front of the building" (Mustapha Orif, op. cit.). (Mustapha Orif, op. cit.) Although Orif identifies this work as the Persian Hunt presented at the Salon d'Alger in 1919, it is not impossible that this title refers to the work now in the Moncef Msakni collection (Présences arabes, Musée d'Art moderne de Paris, 2024, p. 57), whose composition - animated hunting scene, figures on horseback, calligraphic bands - is part of the same repertoire and is dated AH 1338. In any case, both works testify to the same founding moment: the artist's discovery and appropriation of Persian miniatures, notably through Henri d'Allemagne's book Du Khorassan au pays des Backhtiaris, trois mois de voyage en Perse (1911). "I leafed through it and admired the magnificent reproductions of Persian miniatures [...]. I wondered whether what was a flaw in painting was not a quality in the art of illumination" (interview with Mohamed Racim in Robert Randau, L'Afrique du Nord illustrée, No. 817, 10 January 1937). The Persian influence is asserted in many elements of the composition: the golden background, the cloudy treatment in the Safavid style, the upper band calligraphed in nastaliq which - although it is not a quotation from Nizami - evokes the dazzling beauty of Shirin who dazzles Khusraw at the bend in the road. Racim nevertheless asserts his singularity, introducing perspective and the interplay of light and shadow where Persian miniaturists proceeded by superimposed planes - thus breaking with the flatness of Safavid models to open up Arab-Muslim painting to a new spatial depth. He himself accurately describes his position on influences: "I have in no way been influenced by European miniature painting. I try to produce effects of transparency, whose fluidity must not be that of watercolour; when I give the impression of opaqueness, I avoid making it degenerate to the chalky tones of gouache" (L'Afrique du Nord illustrée, no. 817, 10 January 1937).
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale Arab, African & Indian Modernities
Auction location
Auction time 06/18/2026 at 2:30 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like