the library of the shrine at Ardabil, strongly suggest that Riza had visited the city, probably as part of the Shah's party and perhaps on his visits in 1618 or 1625. About the time of his return to court service, there is a considerable change in his style. "The primary colours and virtuoso technique of his early portraits give way in the 1620s to darker, earthier colours and a coarser, heavier line. New subjects only partly compensate for this disappointing stylistic development". He painted many older men, perhaps scholars, Sufi divines, or shepherds, as well as birds and Europeans, and in his last years sometimes satirized his subjects. Sheila Canby's 1996 monograph accepts 128 miniatures and drawings as by Riza, or probably so, and lists as "Rejected" or "Uncertain Attributions" a further 109 that have been ascribed to him at some point Today, his works can be found in Tehran in the Reza Abbasi Museum and in the library at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. They can also be found in several western museums, such as the Smithsonian, where the Freer Gallery of Art has an album of works by him and pupils, the British Museum, Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gallery Notes References Brend, Barbara. Islamic art, Harvard University Press, 1991, , 9780674468665 "Canby (2009)",Canby, Sheila R. (ed). Shah Abbas; The Remaking of Iran, 2009, British Museum Press, "Canby (1996)", Canby, Sheila R, Rebellious Reformer: The Drawings and Paintings of Riza Yi-Abbasi of Isfahan, 1996, Tauris IB. Gray, Basil, Persian Painting, Ernest Benn, London, 1930 "Grove" - Canby, Sheila R., Riza [Riżā; Reza; Āqā Riżā; Āqā Riżā Kāshānī; Riżā-yi ‛Abbāsī], in Oxford Art Online (subscription required), accessed 5 March 2011 Titley, Norah M., Persian Miniature Painting, and its Influence on the Art of Turkey and India, 1983, University of Texas Press, 0292764847 External links Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Persian drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Abbasi 1560s births 1635 deaths Persian miniature painters 16th-century Iranian painters 17th-century Iranian painters