File:Muhammad Hasan Afshar, signed Allahverdi Afshar, second half 18th century.jpg

English: MUHAMMAD HASSAN AFSHAR

SIGNED ALLAHVERDI AFSHAR, SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY

Gouache heightened with gold on paper, Muhammad Hassan Afshar wears a long grey tunic embellished with gold quatrefoil details, a red cummerbund, red undergarments, green shoes and pair of thick gold necklaces, a gold hilted sword at his side, and a high dome-shaped black hat with a central red stripe on his head, a European-style oak tree behind him, dense foliage and rolling hills in the background, a small building just beneath the dedication on the right-hand side, set within blue and gold borders on salmon margin Miniature 7¼ x 9 1/16in. (8.4 x 22.9cm.)

Though Allahverdi Afshar was one of the most celebrated painters of the late Zand and early Qajar period little is known about his life and very few signed works appear to have survived. A rare exception is a portrait of 'Abbas Mirza, dated 1238, in the Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow. He came from the famous Afshar family of painters of Orumiyeh and was the father of the painter Abu'l-Hassan Afshar (Muhammad 'Ali Karimzadeh Tabrizi, The Lives and Art of Old Painters of Iran, Vol. 1, London, 1985, p.84).