THREE ALBUM PAGES WITH PORTRAITS OF QAJAR BEAUTIES
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Qajar Iran, 19th century

Opaque pigments, ink and white wash heightened with gold on paper, comprising two full-length standing portraits of Qajar maidens, one wearing a gold-embroidered pink skirt with a light blue jacket, encrusted bazubands, belt and cuffs, playing with a young boy, the other with a bright red skirt, ochre yellow jacket and a gem-encrusted feather-shaped aigrette, holding a parrot on her right hand, both portraits set on small album page borders with concentric decorative frames, the larger portrait 16.5cm x 10cm excluding the borders; and another similar, painted in an archaistic, early Qajar style, portraying a Qajar courtly lady in négligé, her diaphanous gown revealing her breasts covered with roses, holding a pocket mirror in her hand and perfecting the look of her bejewelled adornments, set within concentric polychrome borders and mounted on a white cardboard frame, the portrait 28cm x 17cm.