Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar (reg. 1798-1834), Persia, second half of the 19th Century

Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar (reg. 1798-1834)
Persia, second half of the 19th Century
Oil on canvas
69 x 49.5 cm.

The painting appears to be one of the numerous copies, in various media, of the original life-size wall paintings of Fath 'Ali Shah and his court in the Negarestan palace near Tehran (1812-13), for one of which (and for general discussion) see L. Diba (ed.), Royal Persian Paintings: the Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, Brooklyn 1998, pp. 174-175, no. 34. Our work was either painted as a stand-alone portrait of the Shah, or it was cut down from a larger work incorporating several, even dozens of figures. (See, for example, a similar composition depicting one of the Shah's sons, Christie's, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 8th April 2008, lot 232).