Edwin Lord Weeks

Florence Weeks Stone (received as a wedding gift from the artist)
Thence by descent through the family
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Edwin Lord Weeks, From the Black Sea Through Persia and India, New York, 1895, pp. 324-5

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting has a thin lining. It has been varnished and retouched on top of what seems to be a dirt layer. As a result, one can assume that the painting posed challenges to the restorer who perhaps tried to clean the painting and found that it cleaned unevenly and therefore found that retouching to even out the patina was the most appropriate way to proceed. With that in mind, although it seems that the painting is dirty, one should be aware that cleaning this picture may not be as predictable as one would think. There is a small loss in the upper sky which is unrestored. Under ultraviolet light, it can be seen that there is an “L” shaped line of retouches in the center of the right side that seem to address a tear. There appears to be some retouching in the upper right sky and some retouching to the right of the lead figure in the lower center. If desired, cleaning the work could certainly be attempted, but if it is found to be threatening to the paint layer which looks wonderful at present, then it would be recommended that the work remain in its current condition.
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The architectural backdrop of The Pearl Mosque, Agra was executed in situ during Weeks’ 1886–1887 expedition to India. The painting was fully finished-out, circa 1893, following Weeks’ return to Paris, adding the figures, embellishing the details, adjusting the subtle tonalities of the mosque interior, tank and forecourt, and completing the sky and final glazes.

In his travel narrative, From the Black Sea Through Persia and India, Weeks published his emotional response to the Pearl Mosque, built during the reign of Shah Jahan, who also built the Taj Mahal:

“The broad court, when one enters it on a bright day, has the blinding dazzle of a snow-field, for nothing meets the eye but marble and the deep blue sky. Nothing could exceed the delicacy of color and subtle gradations of tint when the eye penetrates from the outer glare into the depths of shadow behind the arches. But, as in the Taj, there is no darkness in this shadow, and the details of the innermost wall are clearly visible from across the court (Weeks, pp. 324-325)."

Weeks has captured these qualities of purity and elegance with the greatest facility; the four figures around the tank are strategically positioned to offset the center of the expansive composition, and their pointed contrast with what Weeks termed the “snow field” of marble surrounding them magnify the serenity of the architecture, producing a deeply poetic interpretation. Weeks’ rendering of the intense sunlight on the white marble walls contrasts with the tinted shadow of the broad eave above and the shaded–yet translucent–recesses of the portico below. It is the luminosity of his handling of the sunlit architecture with a refined and subtle palette behind that helps endow this painting with a palpable presence and a classical quality.

The painting is presented in Weeks’ original frame—the ebonized wood heightening the effect of the brightly sunlit scene.

The Pearl Mosque, Agra is highly significant in Weeks’ oeuvre as it served as the inspiration and model for the monumental The Hour of Prayer at the Pearl Mosque, Agra (1889, Private Collection). Although some details were modified for the later work, the angle of vision and the play of sunlight and shadow remained intact. The Hour of Prayer won Weeks a Gold Medal at the 1889 Paris Salon, and the highest award, the Grand Diploma of Honor, at the Berlin Exposition of 1891.