A European gentleman, attributable to Muhammad Sadiq, Persia, late-Zand - early-Qajar, late 18th - early 19th century

A European gentleman, attributable to Muhammad Sadiq, Persia, late-Zand/early-Qajar, late 18th/early 19th century
Oil on canvas
Painting: 125 by 72.5cm.
Framed: 140 by 87.7cm.

The present work represents an interesting amalgamation of European and Persian painting techniques. Although a European dandy is depicted, his costume comprises Persianate features such as the pearled-tassels as epaulettes and the waistband tied in the oriental manner. Stylistically, this painting can be attributed to the eighteenth-century artist Muhammad Sadiq, known for his delicate facial features, including cherry lips and languid eyes, a landscape background and a room rendered in the European manner, with mottled walls representing marble. A number of his works were formerly in the Amery collection, now in the Negaristan Museum, Tehran (Falk 1972, nos.4-7).