Ali Khan

Description

Abutorab was a member of the famous “Ghaffari-Family”, better known as: “the family of great painters”, from the city of Kashan. During the Zand and Qajar period, some distinguished painters, amongst them: Abdolhasan-Mostowfi, Sani AlMolk, Yahya-Khan and kamal-Al-Molk were the most popular. Abutorab was the older brother of Kamal-Al-Molk-Ghaffari.
Abutorab, like his brother, was a master in painting, especially in drawing the portraits of important figures, in order to be printed in the government’s news-paper. A large number of portraits, executed by Abutorab and printed in “Sharaf va Sherafat” news-paper, describe his talents and his engagement as a hardworking artist. He commited suicide when he was 25 years old.
This is the portrait of Ali-Khan-Hajeb-Al-Dowleh. Who was an influential figure in the Naser-Aldin-Shah of Qajar’s retinue. The signature in Persian reads: Abutorab-Ghaffari.