TWO PORTRAITS OF QAJAR MAIDENS
Iran, 20th century

Oil on canvas, comprising a seated portrait of a red-clad, bejewelled Qajar beauty, holding a rose blossom in her left hand, set in a typical Qajar interior; and another similar, with a Qajar lady dressed in an eau de nil blue dress with white lace sleeves, holding a famille rose Chinese porcelain teacup, the subject and composition of each portrait echoing 19th-century official Qajar courtly portraits, the reduced scale and naive pictorial quality aligned with the 20th-century Iranian production of 'Coffee House Paintings', each mounted and set in a gilt wooden frame, each 50.5cm x 40.5cm including the frame.