A portrait of Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar, Qajar Iran, 19th century

A PORTRAIT OF FATH ‘ALI SHAH QAJAR

QAJAR IRAN, 19TH CENTURY

Oil on canvas, the Shah wearing a tall crown and long beard is depicted seated on a carpeted raised dias with a nargileh to his side and a bejewelled mace before him, set in an interior with red drapes, a cusped cartouche in the upper left hand corner with later identification inscription in gold muhaqqaq, areas of repainting, re-lined

72 1/8 x 61½in. (183 x 156cm.)

More large-scale painting survive of Fath 'Ali Shah (r.1797-1834) than of any other Qajar monarch, the result of an enormous effort to replicate images of the ruler for display throughout his realm. The overall composition here is that which became canonical for the Shah – him kneeling at an angle to the viewer surrounded by lavish accoutrements (Julian Raby, Qajar Portraits, exhibition catalogue, London, 1999, p.46). Earlier paintings of a similar subject include Mirza Baba’s 1798-99 portrait of Fath ‘Ali Shah in the Oriental and India Office Library Collections (Layla S. Diba and Maryam Ekhtiar (eds.), Royal Persian Paintings. The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, exhibition catalogue, Brooklyn, 1998, fig.6, p.30).