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Lot Essay
INSCRIBED:
On the right: surat-i janab-i jalalat-ma’ab zahir al-dawla ‘alikhan qajar ishik aghasi bashi-yi darbar dar sinn-i bist u yak saligi
‘Portrait of His Excellence, the glorious Zahir al-Dawla ‘Alikhan Qajar, Master of Ceremonies of the Court, at the age of twenty-one’
On the left: huwa raqam-i banda-yi dargah abu’l-hasan ibn sani al-mulk ghaffari dar tahran fi shahr rabi ‘ al-thani sana 1301
‘He (i.e. God). Drawing of the servant of the court, Abu’l-Hasan ibn Sani ‘ al-Mulk Ghaffari in Tehran in the month of Rabi‘ II, year 1301 (January-February 1884)’
This realistic and lavishly detailed courtly portrait by Abu'l-Hasan 'the Third', represents 'Alikhan Davallu Qajar, titled Zahir al-Dawla, who was a son-in-law of Nasir al-Din Shah. As with many portraits of the period, his robe is embroidered with pearls and jewels, and around his neck he wears a diamond-studded medallion bearing the portrait of the ruling king, Nasir al-Din Shah, along with other jewelled brooches and royal orders. Zahir al-Dawla was appointed the Master of Ceremonies at the court in AH 1304/1886-7 AD. In AH 1326/1908-9 AD his house and khanqah were bombed and ransacked on the orders of Muhammad 'Ali Shah because they were known as a centre of Freemasonry. (Bamdad, M. Dictionary of National Biography of Iran, Vol. II, Tehran, 1966, pp. 367-70).
Abu'l-Hasan 'the Third', also known as Yahya Ghaffari and Sani al-Mulk II, came from a family of celebrated artists. He was the son of Abu'l-Hasan Ghaffari Sani al-Mulk (d.1866), one of the most renowned Qajar court painters and was a scribe during a time when the court extensively supported painting and book arts. This was especially true under Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar, who had a keen interest in photography and painting. Yahya Ghaffari thrived between the 1860s and 1880s and is believed to have passed away between 1895 and 1906. According to Robert Hillenbrand, Yahya's art showed similarities to his father's, whom he likely trained under as a youth (R. Hillenbrand, Persian Painting from the Mongols to the Qajars, London, 2000, p.86). This is evident in a portrait of Abu'l-Hasan painted by Yahya in 1876, which was signed with the title 'Abu'l-Hasan the Third' bestowed on him by Nasir al-Din Shah. (Hillenbrand, op. cit. p.86 and p.92, no.10). He has left behind a number of watercolor portraits in the style of his father, an illustrated manuscript of Rumi and a number of views of the Gulistan Palace buildings. (Layla S. Diba, Royal Persian Paintings, the Qajar Epoch, New York, 1999, pp.83-97). Our painting combines the skills of a miniature painter with that of a Europeanising easel painter. Layla Diba describes Yahya’s style as very distinctive, where one can see the influence of photography in its realism yet also of opium addiction in the distortions when it comes to his later architectural drawings (Diba, op.cit, p.87).
A Qajar oil painting by Yahya depicting Nasir al-Din Shah at a royal banquet in the Gulistan palace gardens was sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2020, lot 51. A further portrait of a Qajar official by Yahya was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 19 October 2016, and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc.no.2016.730).
On the right: surat-i janab-i jalalat-ma’ab zahir al-dawla ‘alikhan qajar ishik aghasi bashi-yi darbar dar sinn-i bist u yak saligi
‘Portrait of His Excellence, the glorious Zahir al-Dawla ‘Alikhan Qajar, Master of Ceremonies of the Court, at the age of twenty-one’
On the left: huwa raqam-i banda-yi dargah abu’l-hasan ibn sani al-mulk ghaffari dar tahran fi shahr rabi ‘ al-thani sana 1301
‘He (i.e. God). Drawing of the servant of the court, Abu’l-Hasan ibn Sani ‘ al-Mulk Ghaffari in Tehran in the month of Rabi‘ II, year 1301 (January-February 1884)’
This realistic and lavishly detailed courtly portrait by Abu'l-Hasan 'the Third', represents 'Alikhan Davallu Qajar, titled Zahir al-Dawla, who was a son-in-law of Nasir al-Din Shah. As with many portraits of the period, his robe is embroidered with pearls and jewels, and around his neck he wears a diamond-studded medallion bearing the portrait of the ruling king, Nasir al-Din Shah, along with other jewelled brooches and royal orders. Zahir al-Dawla was appointed the Master of Ceremonies at the court in AH 1304/1886-7 AD. In AH 1326/1908-9 AD his house and khanqah were bombed and ransacked on the orders of Muhammad 'Ali Shah because they were known as a centre of Freemasonry. (Bamdad, M. Dictionary of National Biography of Iran, Vol. II, Tehran, 1966, pp. 367-70).
Abu'l-Hasan 'the Third', also known as Yahya Ghaffari and Sani al-Mulk II, came from a family of celebrated artists. He was the son of Abu'l-Hasan Ghaffari Sani al-Mulk (d.1866), one of the most renowned Qajar court painters and was a scribe during a time when the court extensively supported painting and book arts. This was especially true under Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar, who had a keen interest in photography and painting. Yahya Ghaffari thrived between the 1860s and 1880s and is believed to have passed away between 1895 and 1906. According to Robert Hillenbrand, Yahya's art showed similarities to his father's, whom he likely trained under as a youth (R. Hillenbrand, Persian Painting from the Mongols to the Qajars, London, 2000, p.86). This is evident in a portrait of Abu'l-Hasan painted by Yahya in 1876, which was signed with the title 'Abu'l-Hasan the Third' bestowed on him by Nasir al-Din Shah. (Hillenbrand, op. cit. p.86 and p.92, no.10). He has left behind a number of watercolor portraits in the style of his father, an illustrated manuscript of Rumi and a number of views of the Gulistan Palace buildings. (Layla S. Diba, Royal Persian Paintings, the Qajar Epoch, New York, 1999, pp.83-97). Our painting combines the skills of a miniature painter with that of a Europeanising easel painter. Layla Diba describes Yahya’s style as very distinctive, where one can see the influence of photography in its realism yet also of opium addiction in the distortions when it comes to his later architectural drawings (Diba, op.cit, p.87).
A Qajar oil painting by Yahya depicting Nasir al-Din Shah at a royal banquet in the Gulistan palace gardens was sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2020, lot 51. A further portrait of a Qajar official by Yahya was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 19 October 2016, and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc.no.2016.730).