A European gentleman, attributable to Muhammad Sadiq, Persia, late-Zand/early-Qajar, late 18th/early 19th century

oil on canvas, framed

The present painting formed part of a lecture given by Dr Eleanor Sims at the Qajar conference at the Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, September 1999. 

Condition generally good, horizontal crease on middle of painting, re-lined, some patches of over-painting to external edges, some craquelure to paint, mounted in frame and re-mounted in large gold frame, as viewed.
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The present work represents an interesting amalgamation of European and Persian painting techniques. Although a European dandy is depicted, his costume comprises Persianate features such as the pearled-tassels as epaulettes and the waistband tied in the oriental manner. Stylistically, this painting can be attributed to the eighteenth-century artist Muhammad Sadiq, known for his delicate facial features, including cherry lips and languid eyes, a landscape background and a room rendered in the European manner, with mottled walls representing marble. A number of his works were formerly in the Amery collection, now in the Negaristan Museum, Tehran (Falk 1972, nos.4-7).