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Mihr `Ali [Mihr `Ali]
( fl c. 1795–1830). Persian painter. He produced at least ten full-size oil paintings of the Qajar monarch Fath `Ali Shah (reg 1797–1834). One of the earliest (1797–8; Calcutta, Victoria Mem. Hall), a portrait of him kneeling on a carpet, was probably sent as a present to the amirs of Sind in 1800. Two fine portraits (1803–4 and 1804–5) were painted for the Hall of the Marble Throne in the Gulistan Palace, Tehran, and a third, of the King enthroned (undated; Versailles, Château), was sent to Napoleon. These early portraits show Fath `Ali Shah with a squat neck and round face, but Mihr `Ali’s drawings improved in the first decade of the 19th century and later portraits show the King with more flattering proportions. These later paintings include portraits of the King standing (1809–10; St Petersburg, Hermitage), kneeling and holding a mace (1813–14; St Petersburg, Hermitage), and a third with the date obliterated (London, B. W. Robinson priv. col.). Mihr `Ali’s finest portrait, and perhaps the finest Persian oil painting in existence (1812–13; Tehran, Nigaristan Mus., ex-Amery col.; see ISLAMIC ART, fig. 243), is an impressive full-length portrait of the King wearing a magnificent robe of gold brocade and a huge crown and holding a jewelled staff of majesty surrounded by Solomon’s hoopoes.
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