A STANDING PORTRAIT OF THE IRANIAN PRIME MINISTER, MIRZA AGHASI (IN OFFICE 1835 - 1848)
Late Qajar Iran, dated 1325 AH (1907), signed by Abu’l Hasan Shirazi

Opaque pigments and black ink on paper, the vertical composition a revival of an older miniature depicting Mirza Aghasi, the last prime minister of Mohammad Shah Qajar and a controversial political figure of his time due to his connections with Russian and English delegations, portrayed in full-length monumental style in robes of office and green shagreen shoes with red heels, holding a staff, wearing an Astrakhan black fur Qajar hat, with an extremely low vanishing point, in a paved courtyard, two men at a smoking forge to the background through an archway, canon chase to the middle ground and a wheel to the foreground alluding to his patronage of the defence industry, inscribed in Persian in the plumes of smoke 'the work of Abu'l Hasan Shirazi Court Painter 1325’ (1907), Hasan Shirazi being a painter and calligrapher known for his zoomorphic calligraphy and for his royal portraits, and ‘the likeness of the Prime Minister of Iran, His Excellency Haji Mirza Aghasi 1261’ (1844), mounted, framed and glazed, 30cm x 19.5cm, 55cm x 43cm including the frame.