A MINIATURE OVAL PORTRAIT OF PRINCE KHOSROW MIRZA QAJAR (1813 - 1875)
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Qajar Iran, 19th century

Opaque pigments on paper, the horizontal composition presenting in the centre the oval portrait of the seventh son of Crown Prince 'Abbas Mirza Qajar, Khosrow Mirza, dressed in his official diplomatic attire with a high-collar red jacket, a white shirt underneath, a double-crossed light-blue ceremonial belt on his chest, and a tall black Astrakhan fur kaj kolah (headdress), the oval portrait flanked by a lion and a tiger, natural landscape in the background, set within black and gold rules, pasted onto light pink and blue album borders with a faded red ink nasta'liq inscription reading Mohammad Hassan known as Bilal, mounted, glazed, and framed, the portrait 6.3cm x 9.2cm, 19.2cm x 24cm including the frame.

In 1829, Alexander Griboedov, the Russian envoy and minister plenipotentiary in Tehran (wazir-e moḵtār) was murdered and the entire Russian legation was massacred. The Qajar government started fearing that Griboedov’s death could provoke a new war with Russia and thus, decided to dispatch a mission with precious gifts and an official letter of apology from Fath Ali Shah to Tsar Nicholas I. The mission was headed by Khosrow Mirza (the prince in our portrait), who was already present at the peace negotiations in Dehkharqan the year before, when the Treaty of Turkmenchay was signed (21 February 1828). On that occasion, he had met General Ivan Paskevich, the Russian commander of the Caucasus, and had tied a good relationship with him. For further information on Khosrow Mirza Qajar and his diplomatic career, please see his entry on the Encyclopaedia Iranica (https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/khosrow-mirza).