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Mirza Zayn al-`Abidin
View through Harvard Museums
In this unfinished painting, the sitter kneels within a shallow space and faces the viewer with a penetrating gaze. Although European fashions had entered Persian clothing and furniture by the middle of the nineteenth century (painting dated 1274 H. (1857-1858)), this figure’s garments and posture are staunchly traditional. He wears the tall Astrakhan hat favored by the Qajar court and two long robes. The outer cloak is broadly sketched in, but the blue inner robe is carefully rendered in a moiré pattern. The details of the striped sash and the complicated piping on the robes suggest the fine woolen fabrics woven in Kirman, which Qajar government policy aimed to promote over Kashmir imports at the time this painting was created. The sitter’s two hands—with henna-stained nails—are tucked into his sash, along with two rolled documents.
Department of Islamic & Later Indian Art
Kazem R. Kooros Houston Texas (by 1969) gift; to his son Vahid Kooros Houston Texas (by 1979) gift; to the Harvard Art Museums 2015.
Note:
Kazem R. Kooros (1906-2010) was a major collector of Qajar art. He purchased works of art on the international art market from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum Gift of Vahid Kooros in honor of Thomas W. Lentz
Title: Mirza Zayn al-`Abidin
Description:
In this unfinished painting, the sitter kneels within a shallow space and faces the viewer with a penetrating gaze.
Although European fashions had entered Persian clothing and furniture by the middle of the nineteenth century (painting dated 1274 H.
(1857-1858)), this figure’s garments and posture are staunchly traditional.
He wears the tall Astrakhan hat favored by the Qajar court and two long robes.
The outer cloak is broadly sketched in, but the blue inner robe is carefully rendered in a moiré pattern.
The details of the striped sash and the complicated piping on the robes suggest the fine woolen fabrics woven in Kirman, which Qajar government policy aimed to promote over Kashmir imports at the time this painting was created.
The sitter’s two hands—with henna-stained nails—are tucked into his sash, along with two rolled documents.
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