Lot 31: From Omar Khayyam Series: Before You and I

Hossein Behzad (Iranian, 1894-1964)
From Omar Khayyam Series: Before You and I
signed and dated in Farsi (lower left)
gold ink and gouache on card
23 1/8 x 15 7/8in. (58.8 x 40.2cm)
Painted on 16 September 1950

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SWITZERLAND

In the 1950s Hossein Behzad created a the famous Omar Khayyam series of paintings to celebrate the centenary of Edward Fitzgerald's translation of Khayyam's poems. A number of these paintings were exhibited at the Wildenstein Galleries in New York in 1957. The present painting Before You and I.. was inspired by the following poem.
The following quatrain inspired this painting:
"Before you and I there are many nights and days
The rotation of the celestial sphere has its purpose
Take care where you tread on the dust
Because perhaps it was once the pupil from the eye of a beauty"