A portrait of a lady, Persia, Qajar, first quarter 19th century

Ex-collection Monsieur R. Guillaume, France, by repute acquired from Dikran G. Kelekian (1868-1951), 1930s

Life-size single-figure portraits by Qajar artists often depicted women as entertainers in the courts, such as acrobats, dancers and musicians, or as harem girls at leisure. They were produced in series which formed an integral part of carefully planned decorative cycles within palace architecture. Principal court artists in the Zand period such as Muhammad Sadiq and Muhammad Baqir, and later Mirza Baba, developed an idealized vocabulary of Persian beauty that was shared by early Qajar artists and remained in popularity until at least the mid-nineteenth century.

The present portrait shows the continuation of the Zand style into the early Qajar period. Our artist depicts the woman with heavily shaded eyes, looking to the viewer from the side, with similar shading around the nose and lips. Her jewellery is comparable to a double-portrait depicting two harem girls, attributed to Mirza Baba (Diba and Ekhtiar 1999, pp.206-7, no.57), and the layered textiles, depicted in typically warm tones, contribute to the alluring and intimate atmosphere of the image.