English: Qajar silk and metal thread brocade panel with painted details, depicting a Qajar official dressed partly in religious robes and carrying prayer beads

Persia, late 19th Century

Rectangular, woven and embroidered with gold metal thread and polychrome silks, the beard, face and hat in polychrome paint, framed 108 x 53 cm.

The collection of Bryan Wilkins (1950-2021), son of Fraser Wilkins (1908-89), Inspector-General of the US Foreign Service 1964-71, US Ambassador to Cyprus 1960-64. Purchased in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1942 (where Bryan Wilkins was born).

The identification of the official depicted here is uncertain. It is also peculiar that he wears on the one hand a plain robe associated with religious devotions, but retains the tall black hat so familiar from Qajar full-dress uniforms. The nature of the painting itself is also unusual, combining painted elements with brocade details. It is also possible that the painting is a fragment of a larger, multi-figure work.

A possible candidate for its subject is Hajji Mirza Suleyman Khan, Rukn al-Mulk (1838-1912), Chief Secretary to Mas'ud Mirza, Zil al-Sultan, who later appointed him deputy governor of Isfahan. When Hajji Mirza died he was buried in a mosque in Isfahan which he himself had endowed, and portrait tiles were incorporated into its exterior decoration, based on a watercolour portrait by Abu Turab Ghaffari (executed circa 1880-89). For Hajji Mirza and the portrait, see L. Diba, Royal Persian Paintings: the Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, New York 1998, p. 254-55; also G. Fellinger et al, L'Empire des Roses: chefs d'oeuvre de l'art persan du XIXe siecle, Lens 2018, pp. 388-389, no. 389. The portrait combines the full beard, long robe (rather than tunic etc.), and tall hat.