oil on canvas, with gilt-wood frame set in a larger, openwork gilt frame

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This group portrait is a rare work by the artist Mirza Baba Isfahani, who was active in the 1840s and 1850s (Karimzadeh Tabrizi, vol.3, p.1286-87). The subject of the scene is not identified, but the main figure bears a close facial resemblance to Dust 'Ali Khan as depicted in another portrait by Mirza Baba Isfahani, dated 1846, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (MAO 774, see Diba and Ekhtiar 1998, no.68, pp.226-7). Dust 'Ali was Assayer of the Realm (Mu’ayyir al-Mamalik), as was his father before him. His family was a prominent one and had provided influential courtiers and statesmen since the eighteenth century. We know that Mirza Baba was working for Dust 'Ali in 1846 and that Dust 'Ali was a prominent patron of the arts and collector. It is thus quite likely that Mirza Baba painted for him on other occasions, perhaps producing the present work.

An interesting feature of the painting is the coꦆntrast in styles within the composition. The front row of the two adults and one child (perhaps Dust 'Ali, his son to the right and a relative to the left) are depicted relatively formally, arranged neatly and in a traditional manner. The central figure and the child look directly out at the viewer in a formal portrait pose. The second row of figures could not be more contrasting. One leans nonchalantly against the balustrade, looking bored and sleepy, while the other has turned his back completely and is looking out beyond the terrace. This realism and move away from the traditional compositional styles was a feature of the 1830s and 1840s, during which artists such as Mirza Baba, Abu’l Hassan Ghaffari and Muhammad Hassan Afshar were influenced by European painting and techniques.