ABU'L HASAN GHAFFARI SANI AL-MULK AND STUDIO, IRAN, CIRCA 1855

This is a second version of a portrait of Husayn 'Ali Khan Mu'ayyir al-Mamalik signed by Abu'l Hassan Ghaffari that is now in the Khalili Collection (Stephen Vernoit, Occidentalism, the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, London, 1997, no.67, p.119). Another portrait by the same artist and of the same subject, depicted seated, was also done in two versions with minimal differences between the two (Yahya Zoka, Life and Works of Sani' ol-Molk, Tehran, 2003, p.32). The present portrait depicts Husayn 'Ali Khan Mu'ayyir al-Mamalik holding the first volume of the famous Thousand and one Nights whose production for the crown he had overseen. Abu'l Hasan Ghaffari was the chief royal painter under Nasir al-Din Shah. He was sent to Italy to study painting from 1845-50 and was responsible for the introduction of Western realism of portraiture styles into later Qajar painting.