* A QAJAR STILL-LIFE DEPICTING DIFFERENT FRUITS
PROPERTY OF AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
Iran, early 19th century

Oil on canvas, the horizontal still-life composition depicting a central clear-glass vase filled with a bouquet of roses, peonies, lilies and tulips, flanked by two Guangdong famille rose porcelain vessels including a large bowl holding plump peaches and a dish with a tower of apricots, on each side a stepped ledge with a pear and an orange respectively, all against a pale blue ground, mounted, stretched and framed, 60.8cm x 77cm.

Still-life compositions entered the pictorial vocabulary of Persian masters only towards the end of the 18th century and were heavily indebted to their Western counterparts. They were often conceived as "filler" images, rather than the main subject of a painting. Thus, they proved suitable architectural decorations, appearing as backgrounds for niches, reception rooms and panels in garden pavillions (Layla S. Diba, Royal Persian Paintings, the Qajar Epoch, New York, 1999, p. 214).

Differently from Western still-lives, the overall arrangement of our painting appears to be quite schematic and the little use of chiaro-scuro causes a mattifying and flattening effect, failing to truly highlight the volumes of the fruits and vessels. Nevertheless, the composition is pervaded by a sense of lushness and exotic flare, and the palette is very much in tune with Qajar oil paintings.