Portrait of a Princely Youth, Attributable to Muhammad Sadiq or Sayyid Mirza, Qajar, Persia, Early 19th Century

The style of this portrait shows similarities with the work of both Muhammad Sadiq and Sayyid Mirza. Muhammad Sadiq was working at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries while Sayyid Mirza flourished around 1820. Sayyid Mirza was known to have specialised in portraits of Fath 'Ali Shah and his family. The subject of the present portrait may therefore be one of the princes of the royal household. The background is interesting, though not untypical of the period, and shows features which were direct imports from eighteenth century European painting, particularly Italian landscapes and rural scenes.

This portrait was previously sold in these rooms 5 July 1965, lot 28 and again in these rooms 19 October 1994, lot 146. For comparative paintings by Muhammad Sadiq and Sayyid Mirza see S.J. Falk, Qajar Paintings, London 197, nos.4 and 37.