Portrait of Prince Nasir al-Din Mirza
1840's
Medium
Watercolor on paper
Dimensions
H. 13 1/2 in. (34.3 cm) W. 9 in. (22.9 cm)
Classification
Codices
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Stephen and Thomas Ettinghausen, in memory of Dr. Richard Ettinghausen and Dr. Elisabeth S. Ettinghausen, 2017
Accession Number
2017.692.5
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite *Portrait of Prince Nasir al-Din Mirza* by Aqa Buzurg Shirazi, created in the 1840s, captures the young Qajar prince—who would later ascend as Nasir al-Din Shah (r. 1848–1896)—in a moment of poised elegance. Rendered in watercolor on paper (13½ × 9 in.), it exemplifies the refined Persian miniature tradition adapted during Iran's Qajar dynasty (1789–1925), housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Islamic Art department as part of a codex or album folio. Aqa Buzurg Shirazi, a skilled court painter from Shiraz, employs the era's hallmark realism: intricate facial details, lumin...