Qajar Paintings: Persian Oil-Paintings from the 18th and 19th Centuries by S. J. FalkReview by: B. W. ROBINSONJournal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 121, No. 5204 (JULY 1973), p. 539Published by: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and CommerceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41371114 .

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NOTES ON BOOKS

Qajar Paintings: Persian Oil-Paintings from the i8th and 19TH Centuries By S.J. Falk London , Faber3 in association with Sotheby Parke-Bernet Publications , 1972. £10 The enormously increased interest in nineteenth- century art that has been building up during the last decade or more has been reflected, on the oriental side, by the eagerness of collectors, especially in Iran, to acquire examples of the arts of the Qajar period (1795-1925). Of these the oil-paintings which are the subject of Mr. Falk's attractive book are undoubtedly the most spectacular. At their best they have an admirable dignity and magnificence; Mihr 'Ali's famous portrait of Fath 'Ali Shãh (pl. 15 in the present volume) would more than hold its own in any gallery of royal portraits. On the other hand when they are bad they are lamentable, and it would be hard to justify the reproduction of such pictures as those shown in pls. 59, 61, and 62. In general the large scale of these paintings and the technique of oils are foreign to the Persian genius. In spite of the European veneer of modelling and perspective, the basically Persian character of Qajar paintings is unmistakable, and the best of them are, virtually, enlarged miniatures.

The text consists of an Introduction, in which the character and subjects of Qajar painting are described, followed by an Historical Back- ground, and a section on a handful of selected artists - those, in fact, whose work figures in the Amery Collection, the catalogue of which forms the raison ďétre of the book. This remarkable collection was formed by the late father and uncle of the Rt. Hon. Julian Amery, MP, and has recently been acquired en bloc by Her Imperial Majesty Queen Farah of Iran.

All sixty-three paintings of the Amery Collec- tion are here illustrated in colour; the repro- ductions are good for the most part, though some of them are unduly dominated by a sort of foxy red. The introductory sections are illustra- ted in black-and-white with paintings in private collections in Iran, in the Tiflis Museum, and in the Victoria and Albert Museum. These are well selected, and it is valuable to have the hitherto unpublished examples in Persian possession.

Mr. Falk's text provides a good short intro- duction to the subject, though a few small points require correction. Thus, Timür did not conquer Egypt (p. 17): there is ample literary evidence for mural painting before the time of Shãh 'Abbãs (p. 1 8), for example in the palaces of Timür and Uzün Hasan; in fact the tradition seems to have been continuous from the Umayyad period onwards: the Russian scholar

A. Ivanov has made a convincing case for the Muhammad Zamän of Manucci (p. 19) being a different man from the painter whose work is reproduced in fig. 6: 'there is no evidence that paintings of any consequence were produced during his [i.e. Nãdir Shäh's] reign' (p. 21) is surely refuted by the two excellent and un- doubtedly contemporary portraits of the great conqueror in the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Victoria and Albert Museum; it was Nãdir Shãh, not Karïm Khãn, who drove the Afghans from Iran (pp. 21-2): and Mirzã Bãbã sometimes did use his title of naqqãsh- bãshi , or Painter Laureate, in his signatures (p. 25), for example in the splendid manuscript in the Royal Library at Windsor referred to by Mr. Falk on p. 34.

The Bibliography omits the pioneer work of Mirza Yahuda Dawud on the Amery Collection embodied in articles in Indian Art and Letters , XVI (1942), and the war-time Persian language periodical Ruzgar-i-naw (1941-2). Though often unreliable in his dating and attributions, and apt to let his imagination run away with him, Dawud was the first to note the importance of the collection and to publish anything on it, and he deserves a place in any bibliography of the subject. Possibly my own introduction and catalogue of the collection in Studia Iranica , I (June 1972), appeared too late for inclusion, though it was written and accepted for publica- tion in 1969.

This is, in effect, the only book on Qajar painting to have appeared so far, with the exception of Amiranashvili's virtually unobtain- able monograph of 1940, in Russian, on the Tiflis Museum collection, and Mr. Falk has performed a most useful service in writing it. It is an attractively produced book, the text well written and readable, and the illustrations lavish. We may perhaps hope for a companion volume on Qajar miniature painting, including lacquer and enamel, to complete the picture.

B. W. ROBINSON

Art and Life in Polynesia By T. Barrow London , Pall Mall , 1972. £ 6.5 • net The title of this book indicates its aim: it sets out to relate the arts to everyday use and purpose, and the author is concerned therefore not only with architecture and figure carving but also with clothing and utensils, the possible origin or source of designs and the materials available.

That he has succeeded in his object, and more, there can be no doubt, for he has written and compiled a book which is enjoyable and stimu- lating, full of information and convincing with-

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