A Nowruz still life, Persia, Qajar, 19th century

A Nourouz still life, Persia, Qajar, 19th century
Oil on canvas, framed

Very little is known of the development of the still-life genre in Iran. Layla Diba suggests that like eighteenth and nineteenth century portraiture, the Qajar still-life evolved from a Safavid prototype (L. Diba and M. Ekhtiar, Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, New York, 1998, p.214). The greatest still-life artist, Mirza Baba, flourished during the late eighteenth century and produced some of his finest works in the genre towards the end of the century. He was one of the most talented and influential of the early Qajar artists, and was already working for the Qajar family at Astarabad before they came to power, continuing in the service of Fath 'Ali Shah as emperor. Active until 1810 he was a versatile artist who produced small-scale illustrations for manuscripts, lacquer and the larger oil paintings for which he is best known. His works in oil depict a variety of subjects, but it was his innovation in the field of the still life that established him as the foremost exponent of the genre, fixing the format of the typical arrangement from then onwards, with the still life itself in the foreground and landscapes in the middle ground and far distance. The subject was often used to decorate reception rooms and garden pavilions, such as the Fin garden pavilion at Kashan (ibid, p.214).