A garden pool with swans, probably in the grounds of the Gulistan Palace, Tehran, signed by Asadullah al-Husayni , Persia, circa 1885

This wonderfully atmospheric scene is an extremely rare example of the work of the artist Asadullah al-Husayni, son of Abu'l Hasan Ghaffari (Sani` al-Mulk), brother of Yahya Ghaffari and cousin of Muhammad Ghaffari (Kamal al-Mulk). Only one work signed by Asadullah is recorded - a page in the Churchill Album dated 1866-67 (British Museum, London, Or.4938, see Robinson 1967, p.82, no.102/13) - and the style and subject matter of that work (a page of figural sketches) does not lend us any useful stylistic comparisons for the present work. However, the style of the painting in the present landscape is reminiscent of the style of both his brother Yahya and his cousin Muhammad Ghaffari Kamal al-Mulk as displayed in three closely related paintings of garden courtyards with swans and tall trees. One, now in the Gulistan Palace Museum, Tehran (see Diba 2000, p.93, no.12), is signed by Yahya Ghaffari and dated 1303/1885-86, and shows the courtyard in front of the `Ali Qapu  Portal, with a large octagonal pool surrounded by tall trees and distant hills; on the pool are ducks and a swan. The other two, one in the Gulistan Palace Museum, the other in the Sadabad Museum of Fine Arts, Tehran, are signed Muhammad Ghaffari and dated 1886-87 and 1885 respectively. They show garden courtyards with pools in the Gulistan Palace grounds. One pool is again octagonal, the other appears square, and both are surrounded by tall trees, with two swans feeding near the edge of one (see Diba 2000, p.93, no.13; Keikavusi, no.29). It is not surprising, indeed is to be expected that Asadullah, Yahya and Muhammad Ghaffari (two brothers and a cousin), all of the same generation, should paint in a similar manner.

The pool in the present work is square not octagonal, and the scene as a whole has a more private, almost secret feel to it. Several features are worth noting. The browny yellow colour of the leaves on the trees would indicate that it was painted in the late autumn; this is corroborated by the snow on the top of the distant hills in the background. The architectural elements behind the screen of trees consists of a two-storey gabled building at left and a long, single-story building stretching across to the right, with a distinctive red and white striped awning. It has the feel of an orangery or pavilion, and there is a path leading directly from a doorway to the edge of the pool, lined with red posts - presumably for torches to light it at night. The trees themselves are carefully and naturalistically painted, allowing us to identify them as white-barked Himalayan birches (Betula Jacquemontii), which have probably been nursed and pollarded to enhance their tall, slender forms. Around the pool are three attendants - two small red-coated figures sweeping the pathways and a taller figure wearing a brown wool coat who is standing in the water at the edge of the pool on the right holding a long pole, perhaps in the process of cleaning a sluice. The artist has managed convincingly to convey a feeling of quiet wintry solitude - almost melancholy, and there is a stillness and serenity which is enhanced to by the graceful presence of the swan gliding across the water.