40 Nights and 40 Days
- Artist: Partou Zia
- Date: 2008
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 1530 × 1830 × 52 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “40 Nights and 40 Days” by Partou Zia. Painted in 2008, it’s a large oil on canvas that feels almost cinematic. The focal point is a grey figure, awkwardly reclined in a simple dress, gazing off to her left. Her elbow rests on a small stack of books with a pen and ink pot beside it, grounding the scene in a quiet domesticity. She lies on a rough brown‑and‑grey ground beneath a vivid blue sky that dominates the upper half of the composition. A loose red sleeve, a hand and arm reaching down from the top edge seem to pull the viewer into the narrative. The artist is believed to be looking at herself – a self‑portrait that was a crucial way for Zia to explore her identity as a woman and a painter, and her fascination with spirituality and self‑knowledge. The title flips the familiar phrase “40 Days and 40 Nights,” alluding to biblical stories of rain, Moses on Sinai, and Jesus’ desert fast. These images of isolation and endurance mirror the artist’s own late‑life battle with cancer. The painting’s even, opaque brushwork marks a shift from her earlier, more transparent style, showing how her technique evolved until the very end of her life.
See it in person
40 Nights and 40 Days is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
