Riza Abbasi - Hunters at a Stream (c.1625)

Title: Hunters at a Stream
Artist: Riza Abbasi (1585-1635)
Date: c.1625
Made in: Isfahan, Iran
Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on polished rag paper
Dimensions: 34 x 23 cm
Location: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Credit line: Frank L. Babbott Fund
Photo credit: Brooklyn Museum

Riza ‘Abbasi’s "Hunters at a Stream" is a Safavid work on paper made in Isfahan, Iran. The composition stages mounted hunters and attendants gathered at a narrow stream, turning a moment of sport into a study of pause, etiquette, and watchful energy.

Abbasi’s supple outline crisply defines horses, faces, and drapery, while washes and gilding heighten turbans, belts, and foliage, creating sparkle against an airy ground. Decorative borders and patterned surfaces echo manuscript illumination.

The work includes a signature and inscription in Persian: “Riza ‘Abbasi for his son Mohammad Bakir”, which indicates the work was also a gift.

At Brooklyn Museum: Riza Abbasi - Hunters at a Stream