Anis al-Daula

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Anis al-Daula

Series: Underground
Edition: 1/5
2014
Photographs
Inkjet print
59 1/16 × 39 3/8 × 1 1/4 in. (150.02 × 100.01 × 3.18 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by Kitzia and Richard Goodman through the 2016 Collectors Committee (M.2016.138.2)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

This intriguing composition was inspired by two photographs Nasir al-Din Shah made of his wife, Anis al-Dawla: in one, she reclines on a settee, and in the other, she holds a European doll....
This intriguing composition was inspired by two photographs Nasir al-Din Shah made of his wife, Anis al-Dawla: in one, she reclines on a settee, and in the other, she holds a European doll. In Siamak Filizadeh’s version, the royal spouse is surrounded by chickens (perhaps a reference to her humble origins) in a room evocative of the French-inspired interiors preserved in Nasir al-Din–era photographs and in paintings of the Golestan Palace, in Tehran. The floor, however, is depicted from above, shifting the perspective of the photograph in a reference to the manner of Persian miniature painting, which Filizadeh drew from in order to juxtapose past and present. Anis al-Dawla rests luxuriously on a velvet couch, a pose reflecting an innocent, childlike nature while dressed in typical courtly female attire, including short, flounced skirt, white socks, and black slippers. She was one of Nasir al-Din Shah’s favorite wives alongside Jayran, (depicted in M.2016.138.3), who was in many ways her opposite.
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Bibliography

  • Komaroff, Linda. In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2018.
  • Komaroff, Linda. In the Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2018.
  • Balaghi, Shiva. "Mining the Past." Canvas 14, no.4 (2018): 114-117.
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