Three Wartime Drawings by Cecil Keeling c.1941 – Reproduced in the book ‘Pictures from Persia’

Cecil Keeling – 84th by the Road – Bridge over the Qara-Su – and Market at Taq-I-Bustan

Pencil, pen and ink, and black and coloured chalks on white paper. All three works date from 1941 and are signed by the artist Cecil Keeling. Various labels are attached. The drawings were reproduced as illustrations in ‘Pictures from Persia’, published by Robert Hale Ltd in 1947. The book was printed by Cowell’s of Ipswich and contains memoirs from his wartime service there alongside 30 colour plates. A copy of the book without its dust jacket, is included in the sale of the drawings.

Drawings:

1. “84th by the Road” (Reproduced as the sixth plate in ‘Pictures from Persia’, p.36, as ‘Halt by the Roadside’.) 8 3/8 x 10 5/8 in. Thin white paper with various tears and loses on the edges of the sheet ‘top and bottom’. laid onto board. A typed label reads: Late Summer 1941. Probably between Shahabad and the Pa-i-Taq (Paytak) Pass, on the road towards Kermanshah from the Iraq/Persia frontier at Khanaqin.

2. “Bridge over the Qara-Su” (Reproduced as the sixth plate in ‘Pictures from Persia’, p.157, as the twenty-seventh plate, entitled ‘Route to the Hills’.) 8 7/16 x 10 1/2 in. Thin white paper with two small tears close to the bottom edge of the sheet, laid onto grey paper. A typed label reads: Possibly late Summer 1941, at the bridge on the Kermanshah-Hamadan Road between Kermanshah and Taq-i-Bustan, but more probably in late Autumn 1941, at the bridge on the same road, West of Hamadan, between Kangavar and Aradabad (Vide ‘Pictures from Persia, pp.91-93).

3. “Market at Taq-I-Bustan” (Reproduced as the ninth plate in ‘Pictures from Persia’, p.49, as ‘Market at Taq-i-Bustan’.) 8 7/16 x 10 1/2 in. Thin white paper with three tears and lose to top edge of the sheet, laid onto grey paper. A typed label reads: Late Summer 1941. Immediately across the Qareh-su River to the East of Kermanshah on the road towards Hamadan.