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Lot Essay
Two artists with the name of Muhammad Afshar were active at the Qajar court. The artist responsible for the painting on the lid of this enamel box is the first and more celebrated Muhammad Afshar Urumi, who in addition to being well-known as a painter of large formal court portraits, was also a gifted calligrapher, illuminator, caricaturist and lacquer painter (Layla S. Diba, Royal Persian Paintings, the Qajar Epoch, New York, 1999, pp.225-227). Muhammad Afshar is described by I‘itimad ul-Saltaneh as a mute (lal), presumably meaning that he had not learned to speak due to his deafness. The French traveller Xavier Hommaire de Hell also discusses meeting the artist in Tabriz in November 1847, ‘Today we received a visit from the most famous Persian painter, a deaf mute about 40-year-old, who brought us a pen box covered with paintings of heaven and hell’. The pen box referred to by Xavier was sold Sotheby’s, London, 9 October 1978, lot 187. Muhammad Afshar commonly used the title naqqash-bashi (painter laureate) on works he produced from AH 1261 (AD 1845-6), although he has not used this title on our box.
The scene depicted on the box demonstrates the artist's sense of the art of caricature. The painting is extremely accomplished, vividly representing the variety of emotions excited by the discovery, heightening the psychological content of the painting. The scene of interrupted lovers appears to have been a popular subject during the Qajar period, and was repeated by several artists. Another painting of the same scene by Muhammad Afshar painted seven years later is housed in the Khalili collection, see Khalili, Robinson and Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, The Nasser D. Khalili of Islamic Art, Part One, London and New York, 1996, pp.149-50, fig.362. A further painting, a large-scale oil on canvas, attributable to Abu'l Hasan Khan Ghaffari, sold in these Rooms, 17 April 2007, lot 284.
The gold enamelled box upon which the painting is mounted is of superior quality. An enamelled box with similar designs was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 22 April 2015, lot 203.
The scene depicted on the box demonstrates the artist's sense of the art of caricature. The painting is extremely accomplished, vividly representing the variety of emotions excited by the discovery, heightening the psychological content of the painting. The scene of interrupted lovers appears to have been a popular subject during the Qajar period, and was repeated by several artists. Another painting of the same scene by Muhammad Afshar painted seven years later is housed in the Khalili collection, see Khalili, Robinson and Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, The Nasser D. Khalili of Islamic Art, Part One, London and New York, 1996, pp.149-50, fig.362. A further painting, a large-scale oil on canvas, attributable to Abu'l Hasan Khan Ghaffari, sold in these Rooms, 17 April 2007, lot 284.
The gold enamelled box upon which the painting is mounted is of superior quality. An enamelled box with similar designs was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 22 April 2015, lot 203.