A nobleman, Nawwab Prince Muhammad Mirza, seated on a balcony terrace, by the artist Mirza Jani

Qajar Persia, circa 1850-70

Footnotes

Provenance
George Kidston CMG, Head of the Eastern Department of the British Foreign Office, 1919-20.
Thence by descent to the estate of the late Hon. Mrs Patricia A. Kidston (1927-2021).

One of the inscriptions reads: Nawwab Prince Muhammad Mirza. The signature reads: rassamah bandeh-ye dargah Mirza Jani, 'drawn by the servant of the court Mirza Jani'.

The prince is pictured in front of two white marble columns and a red curtain, seated on a balcony terrace and on a floral carpet. The painter has opted for restrained and sombre colours in the background in contrast with the sitter's opulent garb. The young prince is dressed in formal attire: a green silk tunic with an elaborate courtly Sardari coat, jewelled belt, grey trousers, and a velvet cape. His haughty yet wistful character has been well captured. The portrait also demonstrates Mirza Jani's skill in reproducing minutiae, as seen for instance in the small details of golden compass and jewelled medal, and a very fine painted brooch with a portrait of women in the European style.

The portrait was probably executed in Tehran at the time when Mirza Jani was a court painter in the royal atelier at the Golestan Palace, where he worked for three decades. He trained at the Dar al-Funun, a school of portraiture nurtured through royal benefaction. This fine painting shows the clear influence of the style of Sani' al-Mulk.

Mirza Jani' is recorded as a son of Ahmad Shirazi, and the designer and painter of the covers of the fifth volume of the One Thousand and One Nights. His three recorded works are all in lacquer and are dated between AH 1269/AD 1852-53 and AH 1287/AD 1870-71. See Karimzadeh Tabrizi, The Lives & Art of Old Painters of Iran, vol. 2, 1991, pp. 1288-89; Atabay, Fehrest Divan-haye Khati-ye Kitabkhaneh Saltanati va Ketab-e Hezaro Yek Shab, vol. 2, 1977, p. 1389.

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