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.
