Iran / Persia: Portrait of a girl smoking, Muhammad Qasim Musavvir, Isfahan, 17th century

Muhammad Qasim Musavvir, one of the famous artists of the Isfahan School, was born in Tabriz circa 1575, and died in 1659. Although his style is quite individual, it has something of the manner of Riza Abbasi, head of the painters' workshop of Shah Abbas I between 1603 and 1605, and from 1615 until his death in 1635.

Muhammad Qasim was responsible for a number of paintings for albums, portraits of dervishes, young women, cup bearers and princes. He also illustrated a copy of Firdawsi's Book of Kings dated 1648, now at Windsor Castle, and also a copy of Navai's Suz va Gudaz at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.

The artist has a particular way of depicting knotty trees that borrows from both Chinese and European models. He also painted a number of female nudes. A skilled portraitist, he attached much importance to expression, sometimes to the point of caricature.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History