Portrait of Nasir al-Din Shah (1831-96)
Qajar Persia, circa 1860-80
Gouache with gold on paper
12 4/5 by 8 1/5 in.; 32.5 by 20.8 cm. painting
13 ½ by 8 4/5 in.; 34.4 by 22.6 cm. folio
PROVENANCE
Joseph Naus (1849-1920), Brussels
By descent, private collection, Belgium, to 2025
Joseph Henri Naus was a Belgian national who travelled to Tehran in 1898 as part of a trade delegation. Having helped to increase customs revenues substantially, within a year, he was subsequently appointed by Muzaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar (r.1896-1907), to various government posts, becoming head of the treasury, customs, taxation, postal services and security. He left Iran in 1907.
The portrait appears to be one of several copies of the original by Khanehzadeh Isma’il, also known as Muhammad Isma'il, painted in 1854. Nasir al-Din Shah (r.1848-96) visited Europe three times and became very interested in photography, taking it up as a hobby. He was in fact photographed in the coat he is wearing here in the early 1850s.
Comparative Examples
The original portrait, dated A.H. 1270 / 1853-54 A.D., by Khanehzadeh Isma’il, (also known as Muhammad Isma’il), a celebrated mid-nineteenth century portraitist and lacquer painter, is in the British Museum, London: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1947-0210-0-1
Several court artists are known to have copied it, including
Muhammad Isfahani, whose version in the British Library, London, is dated A.H.1272/1856 A.D.