Dia al-Azzawi (Iraqi, b. 1939)Figures in RedSigned in Arabic lower left, inscribed ".../.../Dhia Al-Azzawi 1968/IRAK" (partially in Arabic) on the reverse.
Oil on canvas, 38 x 31 1/2 in. (96.5 x 80.0 cm), framed.
Condition: Craquelure with tenting, flaking upper center, scattered areas of drying cracks, varnish inconsistencies, surface grime.
Provenance: Collection of Muhsin Sayyid Mahdi and Sarah Roche-Mahdi, Cambridge.
N.B. Muhsin Sayyid Mahdi (1926-2007), the James Richard Jewett Professor Emeritus of Arabic at Harvard University, was a renowned scholar of medieval Arabic and Islamic philosophy. He held visiting professorships at universities throughout the world, offering him and his wife, Sarah Roche-Mahdi, a scholar of medieval and Romantic European literature and thought, the opportunity to build a thoughtful and personally significant collection of art focused on works created in the region of his homeland, Iraq. In later years, the couple spent a great deal of time in Paris, where Mahdi lectured at the Institut du Monde Arabe, participated in seminars, and was a familiar and beloved figure in the cafes and bookshops frequented by intellectuals from all over the Muslim world, many of them former students.
Condition
Condition: Framed dimensions: 41 x 34 1/4 x 2 in.
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