Notes on Stuart Cary
Welch
I came to know Cary Welch in a round about way. It was in a wide ranging debate over the age and provenance of the so-called Red Ground Grotesque Fragments. They were a unusual and very rare group of closely related fragments that many attributed to Mughal India.
I am still troubled by the conventional wisdom of the rugs and finally
the debate narrowed down to email correspondence with a fellow
named Cary. Well into the conversation over many emails Cary wrote, "I
don't know how you figured out one of those fragments is mine." I was
floored, I had no idea he owned one and I also had no idea
that scwelchjr@aol.com was the great Stuart Cary Welch. Over
time I found Cary very forgiving of his friends and students and very
tough on most other people. One area that we spent a good bit of time
on was the attributions of certain artists and the creative influences
of the time. I tend to see Abdullah of Shiraz as a major influence at the Khorasan court of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza and Cary thought I was giving him too much credit. But he was always gracious when we disagreed.. 
Detail The Wonderful
Mule. c. 1540
This picture has been
attributed to an artist close to Mir Sayid-Ali by
Ivan Stchoukine and to Mirza Ali by Cary
Welch. I attributed it to Shaykh Muhammad.It is from Simpson's book
Haft Awrang Page 101
One
area we had fun discussing was my theory that trees were used as a
metaphor for gay sex during the evil years. I had no idea of his own
proclivities until after his death.
Cary
died in 2008 and most of this site was done before his death. Please
forgive the mix of referring to him in the present tense.
Cary Welch is a marvel. His work at
Harvard, the Met, his books and students and still he is
amazingly down to earth. I have had the privilege of
corresponding with him and his notes are a delight. One
part I find very touching is that he speaks of his
students in the same manner he speaks of his
grandchildren. Unlike the new crop of experts even among
his own students Cary is not just a scholar but he is
also a connoisseur. We certainly do not always agree on
our attributions but he has a depth of knowledge about
the individual artists and their techniques that is
unrivaled today.
Of all of his books The
Houghton Shahnameh that he wrote with Professor
Martin B. Dickson of Princeton stands out as his
great work. It is the most amazingly researched book I
have ever seen. It sets a standard for research and connoisseurship that I do not expect to see matched in my
lifetime.
- Education:
- A.B. from Harvard in 1950
- graduate study in ancient art at Harvard
in 1952–54
- Position:
- Honorary assistant keeper of Islamic art
for the Fogg Art Museum in 1956–70
- Honorary keeper of Islamic art in
1970–76.
- Curator of Islamic and later Indian art
1976 to 1995.
- Senior lecturer in fine arts, Department
of Fine Arts, Harvard University,
mid-1970s to 1995.
- Curator emeritus, Islamic and Later
Indian art, Sackler Museum. 1995 to
present
- Head of the department of Islamic art at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1979–87.
- Books including various editions:
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Dickson M.B. The
Houghton Shahnameh. Cambridge ,
Harvard University Press , 1981.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, The Art of
Mughal India New York:1964
- New York. Asia House Gallery. Text by
Stuart Cary Welch and Milo Cleveland
Beach Gods, Thrones, and Peacocks
Northern Indian Painting from Two
Traditions: Fifteenth to Nineteenth
Centuries The Asia Society 1965
- Welch, Stuart Cary, A
King's Book of Kings. The Shah-Nameh of
Shah Tahmasp. Greenwich New York
Graphic Society, Metropolitan Museum of
Art.. 1972.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, A
Flower From every Meadow, Indian
Paintings from American Collections.
New York: The Asia Society, Inc. 1973.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Persian
Painting Five Royal Manuscripts of the
Sixteenth Century. New York: George
Braziller. 1976.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Das Buch der Könige
. Das Schahname des Schah Tahmasp .
Miniaturen im Besitz des Metropolitan
Museum in New York Munich ,
Prestel-Verlag , 1976.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Indian drawings and
painted sketches, 16th through 19th
centuries : [catalogue] New York, Asia
Society in association with John
Weatherhill, Inc. 1976.
- Welch , S.C. Persische Buchmalerei aus
fünf königlichen Handschriften des
sechzehnten Jahrhundert München ,
Prestel, 1978.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Imperial Mughal
Painting, New York:1978.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Peinture Impériale
Moghole. New York, 1978.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Indische Buchmalerei
unter den Gro moguln 16. - 19.
Jahrhundert. München, 1978.
- Welch, Stuart Cary. Room for wonder:
Indian painting during the British period
1760-1880 NY: Amer. Federatn of Arts,
1978
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Wonders
of the Age. Cambridge: Fogg Art
Museum, Harvard University. 1979.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Gods Thrones and
Peacocks Ayer Co Pub 1979
- Welch, Stuart Cary, 1980 Magic Kingdom
Engagement Calender, Metropolitan Museum
of Art 1980.
- Welch,
Stuart Cary. and Welch, Anthony Arts of
the Islamic Book. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press. 1982.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Schimmel, Annemarie,
Anvari's Divan: A Pocket Book for Akbar.
New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art
1983.
- Welch, Stuart Carey, et al. Tressors De
L'Islam. Geneva, Musee d'Art et
d'Histoire, 1985.
- Patnaik, Naveen A Second Paradise: Indian
Courtly Life 1590-1947. Introduction by
Stuart Cary Welch. New York
Doubleday/Museum of Mod. Art 1985.
(edit.Note: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis)
- Welch, Stuart Cary, The Emperors'
Album : Images of Mughal India New York:
Harry N Abrams.1987
- Welch, Stuart Cary, The Islamic
World New York: Metropolitan Museum of
Art 1987
- Welch , Stuart Cary, Das Buch der Könige
. Das Schahname des Schah Tahmasp .
Miniaturen im Besitz des Metropolitan
Museum in New York Munich ,
Prestel-Verlag , 1976 ,
- Welch, Stuart Cary, Rossi, Barbara,
Craven, Roy C., From the Ocean of
Painting : India's Popular Paintings 1589
to the Present. Ames: University of Iowa
1997.
- Welch, Stuart Cary, India: art and
culture 1300-1900.
Munich:Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997
- Welch, Stuart Cary. "BOOKS".
Hali 97, 1998. page 98. "Stuart Cary
Welch looks at Flowers Underfoot, Daniel
Walker's catalogue for the Metropolitan
Museum's much acclaimed exhibition of
Indian carpets of the Mughal era."
- Harvard University Art Museums Show Fall
97 "KOTAH: Its Gods, Kings, and
Tigers" curated by Stuart Cary
Welch.
- Gods, Kings, and Tigers: The Art of Kotah
edited by Stuart Cary Welch. New York and
Cambridge: Asia Society Galleries and
Harvard University Museums, 1997.
- Barbara Rossi, Roy C. Craven, Stuart Cary
Welch, From the Ocean of Painting :
India's Popular Paintings 1589 to the
Present . Davenport : University of Iowa
and Oxford Univ.
- Ehsan Yar-Shater, Dick Davis
(Translator), Afterward by Welch, Stuart
Cary, The Lion and the Throne
Washington DC: Mage
- Miscellaneous
- Lectured at Bayly Art Museum University
of Virginia, Rugby Road Charlottesville,
Virginia 22903
- Jan. 96 Harvard's Sackler Museum,
'`Indian Harvest: Rajasthani Paintings
from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection'
- The Cary Welch
Rustam and White Div
To judge Welch by his work would be to miss half of
his genius. One must also consider his students.
Prominent Scholars (not all by any means but a
few of the many that Cary speaks kindly of):- Julia
Bailey, assistant curator of Islamic
art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
- Milo
Beach, director, Freer Gallery of Art
and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Washington, DC,
- Sheila Canby, keeper of Islamic art,
British Museum, London,
- Thomas Lentz, deputy director, Freer
Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler
Gallery, Washington, DC,
- Glenn Lowery,
director, The Museum of Modern Art,
- Marianna
Shreve Simpson, curator of Islamic
art, The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore,
- Walter
Denny. University of Massachusetts,
Amherst.
- Daniel
Walker, curator of Islamic art, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Massumeh
Farhad, associate curator of Islamic
art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M.
Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC.
Cary and Howard HodgkinFrom Financial Times: Lunch with the FT: Howard Hodgkin
By Jackie
Wullschlager
January 20, 2012 9:13 pm
“India, when he began visiting in 1964, must have
been a stunning contrast after grey England. “It was a relief and an
escape, from being at home, from marriage and family. I was gay and I was very
worried about it – because of the children. I have wonderful children [Hodgkin
married in 1955 and his sons Louis and Sam were born in 1958 and 1960] – and
actually I stayed married until about two years ago.” He met Peattie at a party
in 1983 and they have been together since. “I knew at once. So did he. He’s a
wonderful support. But the 1960s and 1970s were very difficult. I fell in love
with an American collector of Indian paintings.” This was Stuart Cary Welch,
known as Cary, one-time curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art at Harvard Art
Museums.”
“Welch, who died in 2008, was a key influence but he was
also a rival. When Welch’s
collection was auctioned last year, “There was”, says Hodgkin, “no
sentiment involved in trying to acquire something from his collection. I loved Cary but I had no
illusions about his ruthless pursuit of his own interests. He went to
inordinate lengths to stop me buying things he wanted, which he could afford
much more easily than I could. He once sat next to me at a Sotheby’s sale and
held my hand down, to stop me bidding against him. I was so shocked I didn’t
use my other hand.””
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/9d18a3d4-412b-11e1-936b-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1kFGVsSJ6
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