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M Robert Delpeuch, Rubaiyat Poeme D'Omar Khayyam, Paris: Studio Edition: Librairie P Ollendorff, 1910

Complete set of 12 colour plates by Abanindranath Tagore tipped in on thick cardboard sheets with tissue guards as issued, each print set within grey borders printed on the board with tissue guards carrying the quatrain on which each painting is based printed in red, top edges gilt, with 16-page string-tied booklet printed in London (carrying the 75 quatrains in the first edition of Edward Fitzgerald's version published in 1859), translated into French by M Robert Delpeuch; drop-over portfolio with paper-covered boards along with ribbons and a cloth spine, and with the title-ticket pasted on the cover.
Size of prints: 7.5 x 5.25 in (19 x 13.3 cm)
Size of cardboard mounts: 12 x 9.6 in (30 x 24 cm)
Size of the book: 12.4 x 8.8 x 1 in (31.2 x 22 x 2.5 cm)

Limited edition of 250 copies of which this is copy number 36.

The earliest version of the great Persian classic interpreted by an Indian artist - the great Bengal painter Abanindranath Tagore. The paintings of Abanindranath Tagore were being printed in England since 1903 in the journal Studio and in 1910 they decided to bring out a portfolio of 12 prints by him based on the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" translated by Edward Fitzgerald. A product of the fin de siecle era of leisure and plenty, the portfolio - the first full-dress work of an Indian artist published in the West - was brought out as a collection of 12 colour plates pasted on thick boards.

This French version, much rarer than the English one, does not carry Tagore's name but the English version issued by the Studio from London in the same year in the same format carried his name. As one can make out, the paintings are by the great Bengal School master.

This large portfolio reformatted as a book is not to be confused with the later smaller versions issued by Leopold Hill in book form in the 1920s.

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