English: An oval miniature head-and-shoulders portrait of Manuchihr Khan Mu'tamid al-Dawleh, wearing a green tunic with a sash wrapped diagonally around his torso and displaying an array of Persian and European medals and sporting a long astrakhan cap upon his head

Qajar Persia, probably Isfahan, style of Muhammad Isma'il, circa 1840

Gouache on board, laid down on an album page with inner and outer borders decorated with intertwining floral motifs in gold and some colour, slight flaking otherwise in good condition, framed

Miniature 80 x 50 mm., album page 330 x 215 mm.

Manuchihr Khan was brought back to Persia as a slave by Aga Muhammad Khan after the sack of Tiflis in 1794-95 and castrated. According to Layla Diba, 'Owing to his remarkable administrative abilities and shrewdness, he rose through the ranks of court administration, reaching the highest post by gaining Fath 'Ali Shah's favour and confidence. He was given the title Mu'tamid al-Dawleh by the Shah in 1824. He became Governor of Isfahan in 1839-40 and was known for his cruelty and his talent for inventing new and ingenious forms of punishment and torture.' Diba recounts the story of the occasion when Manuchihr Khan was summoned to Tehran by Muhammad Shah, who remarked: 'I have heard that you are like a king in Isfahan', to which Khan replied: 'Yes, your Majesty, that is true, and you must have such kings as your governors in order to enjoy the title of King of Kings.'

Compare this portrait of Manuchihr Khan with one on the cover of a lacquer penbox, signed by Muhammad Isma'il, Isfahan, dated AH 1264/AD 1847, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (763-1876), and another portrait on the inside cover of a lacquer mirror case, attributed to Muhammad Isma'il, Isfahan, circa 1847, in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, 71.49.2. Layla Diba observes that 'He possesses the physical traits commonly associated with a eunuch: he is beardless and has a smooth, pale face with hanging cheeks. Sir Henry Layard, who met Manuchihr in the 1830s, noted: "His features have a wearied and listless appearance devoid of expression and animation". Mu'tamid al-Dawleh patronised the artist Najaf and Muhammad 'Ismail whose works characterised the marked decline of life-size royal personages and statesmen in the mid-nineteenth century in favour of painting on small-scale lacquer objects.'

See Diba and Ekhtiar, Royal Persian Paintings: the Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, New York 1998, pp. 229-30, nos. 70-71.