English: A Portrait of Muhammad Shah Qajar, signed by Ahmed, with calligraphy by Muhammad Isma'il, Persia, Qajar, dated 1260 AH/1844 AD

222.5 by 127cm.

Oil on canvas, framed, with a border of inscribed cartouches containing verses in nasta'liq script, the painting signed and dated 'raqam kamtarim Ahmad 1260', the calligraphy signed 'Muhammad Ismail'

Inscriptions

Darin pardeh naqsh-e farrokh shahriyar Siah kardeh ruz-o behesht-o bahar Del-e shir darrad ze tasvir-e u Falak tarsad az tarkesh-o tir-e u Jahanash nahadeh ast gardan be-band Sar-e asmanash bovad dar kamand Par-e marg bar basteh bar chub-e tir Ze pestan-e tir ajdaha-o madeh shir Nagardad nahang az dam-e u raha Be-bazi be-girad dum-e ajdaha Sepehr-o setareh hameh khak-e ust Haman kahkashan band-e fatrak-e ust Jahan tazeh kardast shah-e javan Keh shah-e javan tazeh darad jahan Jahan ju Muhammad shah-e namdar Jahan ra yaki pak-del shahriyar Be-razm asman-o be-bazm aftab Godazandeh atash govarandeh ab Boland asman guy-e chogan-e ust Hameh sharq ta gharb meydan-e ust Tak-e bad payash be-navard gah Zadeh mah be-mahi-o mahi be-mah Sar-e mahi az gav-sar kufteh Del-e mah ze neyze bar ashufteh Kaf-e u kalid-e dar-e ruzi ast Darash ruy dar ruy-e behruzi ast Sepehr-o sahabash be-dar bandeh bad Zamin-o zamanash parastandeh bad Sepehr-e kohan chon sepehr-e sokhan Be-rahash nahadast jan-o tan

'In this curtain is the portrait of the fortunate monarch Which has blackened days, Heaven and Spring His picture would rent the heart of lions His quiver and his arrows would frighten the firmament The world has tied the rope of submission around its neck The summit of heaven is in his lasso Feathers of death are tied to his arrows From the breast of his arrows to dragons and lionesses A whale would not escape him He would play with dragon's tail The heavens and stars are all his soil That very milky-way his saddle-straps The young king has refreshed the World The World has a new young king The World-seeker Muhammad, the illustrious king The world has a pure-hearted monarch In combat he is like heavens, in entertainment like the Sun He destroys like fire and is pleasant like water The high heaven is a ball for his polo From East to West is his field of play His horse's pace in battle-field Has caused the Moon to touch the fish and fish the Moon Fish's head vexed with his mace Moon's heart bewildered by his spear His palm is the key to sustenance His door facing good-fortune May Sepehr and Sahab be servants at his door May the universe worship him The old Sepehr like the world of speech Has put his soul and body at his path'

This is a rare and highly important portrait of Muhammad Shah Qajar. Compared to his predecessor Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar, and his successor Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar, Muhammad Shah sat for official portraits more rarely and the great majority of extant examples are smaller works, often in watercolour or gouache on paper. Large, monumental portraits of Muhammad Shah such as the present one are very rare. Indeed the seminal exhibition Royal Persian Paintings-The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, which took place in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and London in 1998-99, presented only one large-scale portrait of Muhammad Shah (and this was considerably smaller than life size), as opposed to eight of Fath 'Ali Shah (see Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, nos.37-42, 67; Raby 1999, nos.110 & 114; for a discussion of the general artistic trends of Muhammad Shah's reign see Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, pp.221-1).

The Persian verses in the border cartouches comprise a eulogy by the poet Mirza Muhammad Taqi Lisan al-Mulk of Kashan (1792-1879). Known by the penname Sepehr, Lisan al-Mulk was the royal eulogist under Muhammad Shah, also serving as the secretary to the Finance Department and later on as a historian. Finely inscribed by the calligrapher Muhammad Ismail, these verses are a hymn in praise of the shah. They evoke his regal splendour and the apotheosised image that he had of himself and that others had of him, as embodied in the painting.

This work is notable for its traditional composition, reminiscent in the pose, the garments, the sword, the sceptre, the girdle, the throne and the rug, of portraits of his forebear Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar. Both its formal arrangement and the grandeur and regal presence which it conveys are executed in the style of royal portraiture which was established by the artists Mirza Baba and Mihr 'Ali under Fath 'Ali Shah's direction in the early 19th century.

The artist in this case was recognised as one of the leading court painters during the reigns of Fath 'Ali Shah and Muhammad Shah Qajar, and was possibly a pupil of the famous Mihr 'Ali (E. Yarshater [Ed.], The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 7, p.879). Known simply as Ahmad, three other signed portraits of Muhammad Shah are attributed to his hand. These include a very similar seated composition now in the Ethnographisches Museum in Berlin, a bust portrait, and an equestrian painting now at the Gulistan Palace in Tehran (see, respectively, J. Kröger, Islamische Kunst in Berliner Sammlungen, Berlin, 2004, pp.200-1; J. Raby, Qajar Portraits, London and New York, 1999, p.55, pl.117; B.W. Robinson, 'Persian Royal Portraiture', in Qajar Iran: Political, Social, and Cultural Change, E. Bosworth and C. Hillenbrand (eds.), Costa Mesa, 1983, p.307, pl.5). It is important to note, however, that in his publication The Lives and Art of the Old Painters of Iran, M.A. Karimzadeh-Tabrizi refers to two distinct artists named Ahmad—one a watercolourist, the other an oil painter—who were active in the first half of the 19th century. It is in fact possible, nonetheless, that these are the same person working different media (M. A. Karimzadeh-Tabrizi, The Lives and Art of the Old Painters of Iran, London, 1990, pp.52-3).

A significant symbol of wealth and power in this portrait is the plethora of diamonds that surrounds Muhammad Shah's attire, particularly the pair of large diamonds incorporated into his bazubands (reminiscent again of the Fath 'Ali Shah portraits, which have also depicted the rectangular diamond Darya-I Nur (Sea of Light) and ovoid Taj-I Mah (Crown of the Sea). These diamonds were a result of Nadir Shah's sacking of Delhi in 1793, and were then worn by successive Qajar rulers including Fath 'Ali Shah, Muhammad Shah and finally Nasr Al-Din Shah (who then had the Darya-I Nur mounted, as it remains today, see V.B. Meen & A.D. Tushingham, The Crown Jewels of Iran, Toronto, 1969, pp.53 & 68). The diamond encrusted sword propped on his lap is also believed to have belonged to Nadir Shah, and later enamelled by order of Fath 'Ali Shah (illustrated in Ibid, p.60-61).