Portrait of Jalal al-Din Mirza, attributable to Abu’l Hassan Ghaffari Sani’ Al-Mulk, Qajar, Iran, 1859, oil on canvas, 49 x 35in. (124.5 x 88.9cm.), photo: Christie’s London, 21 Apr 2016. #arthistory #persianart
From the Christie’s lot essay: “Jalal al-Din Mirza (1827-72) was a son of Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797-1834). He was a Qajar historian and freethinker and the author of the Nameh-i Khusravan, one of the earliest examples of modern Iranian historiography in the Qajar period…
The work of Abu’l Hassan demonstrates a change in the aesthetic of Qajar painting in the mid-19th century (Julian Raby, Qajar Portraits, exhibition catalogue, London, 1999, p.53). The artist began his career as a pupil of Mehr 'Ali, but none of his early works survive and it is therefore unclear as to whether his painting began in a style more typical of Fath 'Ali Shah's reign. He was appointed the naqqashbashi (chief painter) of the court of Muhammad Shah in 1842 (Yahya Zoka, op.cit., Iran, 2003, p. 21) and was sent to study in Italy and Paris, a factor which began to manifest itself in a European-influenced realism in his work that was new to Persian painting. The expressive power of his portraits - as demonstrated here - led Abu’l Hassan to the art of caricature and he became the illustrator to the court newspaper, Ruznama-i vugayi-i ittifaqiya. Alongside the more traditional depictions of Qajar nobles, he showed a capacity for the merciless caricature of their attendants and the religious classes (Julian Raby, op. cit., p.53).”