Stuart Cary Welch
Stuart Cary Welch (1928–2008) was a distinguished scholar of Indian and Islamic art. From 1979–1987 he was a curator at the Harvard University Art Museums and was also special consultant in charge of the department of Islamic art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Welch, Stuart Cary
Welch, Stuart Cary
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Description: From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from the Stuart...
DRAWING, looking at drawings, and gathering drawings have preoccupied me since childhood. When barely old enough to hold a pencil, I filled school notebooks with portraits of family, teachers, and classmates. Later, when bored in classes or study hall, I sketched everything seen or imagined. Always attracted to people of pronounced character, I focused...
PublisherHarvard Art Museums
Related print edition pages: pp.1-13
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00053.006
Description: From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from the Stuart...
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00053
Stuart Cary Welch’s collection of Persian, Turkish, and Indian art is renowned throughout the world for its quality and depth. In 1999, Welch made a generous gift of drawings to the Harvard University Art Museums, which form the basis of the present catalogue. Spanning five centuries and extending from Istanbul to Calcutta, these drawings represent the great empires of the Ottomans in Turkey, the Safavids in Iran, and the Mughals in India as well as numerous regional Hindu kingdoms. This important book presents more than seventy exquisite drawings—some of which are counted among the greatest Indian, Persian, or Turkish drawings ever made—and explores the connections between the arts and artists of the three cultures.

As with drawings from European traditions, the works display an immediacy that is often absent in paintings. The drawings deal with fascinating and diverse subjects ranging from court portraits, stories from fable and myth, and hunting scenes to animals, flowers, and people sketched from life. The contributors to the book shed light on various aspects of the drawings and the artists, and Welch offers an engaging account of his trials and triumphs while acquiring the works in his unparalleled collection.

*This eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal*
Print publication date September 2004 (in print)
Print ISBN 9780300104738
EISBN 9780300243895
Illustrations 133
Print Status in print