English: Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar (reg. 1797-1834) seated against a jewelled bolster on a palace balcony

Qajar Persia, from a Court Workshop, dated AH 1251/AD 1835-36 oil on canvas, inscription at upper left in nasta'liq script, framed 167 x 93 cm.

Inscriptions: 'al-Sultan Fath'ali Shah Qajar 1251/AD 1835-36'.

Resplendent, grandiose and monumental, the present work is a rare and superlative example from the inimitable canon of life-size portraits of Fath 'Ali Shah commissioned by the Qajar court. Conspicuous and instantly recognisable, these lavish portraits were an important and imposing projection of the King's imperial might, virility and wealth, both at home and abroad.

Commissioned almost exclusively either as gifts for foreign monarchs or to adorn palace walls, portraits of Fath 'Ali Shah rank as some of the rarest, most iconic and valued objects in the Islamic art world. The present work, coupled with an equally magnificent still life scene (Lot 63), produced by the Court workshop, most likely in Isfahan, would have occupied pride of place within a prominent royal pavilion.

Inserted within specially constructed architectural niches (Figure 1), paintings of this kind were used to excite visiting dignitaries with the grandeur of the imperial effigy in the absence of the Shah's physical presence, and according to numerous travel accounts from the period, both the portraits and the Shah's own personage had a lasting effect on their audience.

Stylistically, the present painting bears all the 'canonical' hallmarks of Court commissioned portraits of the Shah, a formulaic configuration pointing to how tightly managed and stylized the reproduction of the imperial image was during his kingship.

In keeping with extant examples, the composition includes a pearl-edged rug and jewelled bolster against which the king is seated, a jewelled sword, mace, dagger and bottle make up the rest of the imperial accoutrements. In pose, colour scheme, and perhaps most importantly head-dress, the present work is exemplary of portraits from the later reign of the Shah, where he is depicted in a bejewelled Astrakan (in contrast to the Kianid crown), a feature of the Negaristan Museum Portrait illustrated in B.W Robinson, G. Guadalupi, Qajar: Court Painting in Persia, 1990, p.35 and S.J Falk, Qajar Paintings, 1972 Plate 12 (Figure 2), and the standing portrait in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Museum no. 707-1876).

In terms of wider composition, the King sits before a drawn crimson curtain against a backdrop of architectural follies and a tree lined landscape, closely following a visual schema favored by the most accomplished court artist of the era, Mihr Ali, seen in his Portrait of Fath Ali Shah Seated at the State Hermitage Museum (Figure 3, Museum No. VR-1108, Illustrated Diba and Ekhtiar,Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925, 1998, P.184) and his portrait of the ruler which still lies in situ at Golestan Palace. Interestingly, the present portrait and its still life counterpart are flanked by fantastical spandrels attached to the main composition by a seam, depicting hunting scenes and beasts in combat, an intriguing ornamental feature.

Held in a distinguished private collection since the 1960s, the present work comes to market for the first time, and, testament to its extreme rarity, is the first work of its kind offered at auction in half a decade, and only one of eighteen documented portraits of the king (listed below), seven of which are in major museum collections. The attribution of these portraits consisted of works accredited to named artists such as Mirza Baba, Mihr Ali, Muhammad Sadiq as well as works that came from the Court atelier, with output spread between cities which had an established court presence such as the capital Tehran, as well as Isfahan and Shiraz.

Most noteworthy is the material composition of the present work; a detailed analysis carried out by Art Analysis and Research reveals a high degree of similarity with pigments used in a 1798 portrait of Fath Ali Shah Seated attributed to Mira Baba, Tehran, whose analysis is presented in Diba, Ekhtiar, op. cit., Appendix (illustrated, Plate No 37), both works include a set of typical 18th Century pigments consisting of calcite grains, lead white, calcium carbonate, orpiment yellow, red lead, vermillion, copper green, Prussian blue and red earth. This similarity points to the shared methodology of portrait output from the Court workshop and perhaps supports a centrally coordinated process of commissioning.