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Muhammad Ghaffari: The Persian Painter of Modern Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Layla S. Diba
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Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, Qajar Iran, like its neighbor the Ottoman Empire, faced the dual challenges of colonialism and modernity. This paper considers the role of art education and art production in its response to these forces, focusing on the leading court painter of the late Qajar period, Mirza Muhammad Ghaffari, Kamal al-Mulk (1848–1941), whose career bridged the late Qajar period and the early twentieth century. Early in his career, Ghaffari was recognized as the leading exponent of academic painting, yet by the constitutional period his art had evolved into a style representing contemporary Persian life, a style which was informed by nationalistic discourses current in intellectual and political circles. This paper's consideration of the evolution of his style from a European modernism to an authentic Iranian modernism includes Ghaffari's training as a painter, the role of photography in the development of his style, his travel to Europe, and parallels with the art and career of the Ottoman painter Osman Hamdi.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 5 , September 2012 , pp. 645 - 659
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2012

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References

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5 For a study of the relationship of Iranian photography and painting in the nineteenth century, see Layla S. Diba, “The Power of Images: Qajar Photography and its Relationship to Iranian Art,” History of Photography Journal Special Issue on Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Photography in Iran, ed. Reza Sheikh and Carmen Pérez González (2012) (forthcoming).

6 See Diba, Layla S. and Ekhtiar, Maryam, eds., Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Period 1785–1925 (New York, 1998), 262–63Google Scholar, Figure 87 and 88, for a watercolor of Nasir al-Din Shah and its photographic model.

7 The following biographical account focuses on aspects of Mirza Muhammad's life and career related to the question of modernity. It is largely based on the comprehensive biography and review of his career in: A. Ashraf with Layla Diba, “Kamal al-Molk, Muhammad Ghaffari,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, online edition, 15 September 2010, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kamal-al-molk-mohammad-gaffari.

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