{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O81784"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O81784/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AG6718/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AG6718/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AG6718","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019LL3622","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O81784/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O81784","accessionNumber":"P.56-1941","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"Women Around a Samovar","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"From the 1850s, Iranian painters began to be trained along European lines at art schools, and many produced strikingly realistic official portraits based on photographs. Isma’il Jalayir taught at the main art school in Tehran, but he stands apart from his contemporaries. He developed a distinctive personal style, and he often depicted people excluded from direct political power, such as the Sufi saint Nur ‘Ali Shah, and this group of women from the harem of a member of the ruling dynasty. It may be that his aristocratic background allowed him greater freedom as an artist. \r\n\r\nThe emotionless, posed quality of the faces suggests that the women did not sit for him as a group but were photographed individually, and Isma’il then used the images to create a large composition. The women have gathered for a tea party in a pavilion in a wooded garden. The princess standing at the centre offers a glass goblet to another princess, also standing, while the veiled woman seated between them smokes a water pipe. The other women drink tea from a samovar and listen to the music of the tar – the instrument played by the woman on the right. Isma’il’s paintings are suffused with a dreamlike, melancholy air, which has transformed the tea party into an event filled with mystery.","physicalDescription":"Women Round a Samovar, Iran (probably Tehran), 1860-75.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Isma'il Jalayir","id":"A11569"},"association":{"text":"painter (artist)","id":"AAT25136"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"canvas","id":"AAT14078"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oil on canvas","categories":[{"text":"Islam","id":"THES48932"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"Qajar","id":"AAT21708"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"MES","id":"THES48607"},"images":["2006AG6718","2019LL3622"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"42","id":"THES49806"},"free":"","case":"WW8","shelf":"EXP","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Painting","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Iran","id":"x30220"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Tehran","id":"x35420"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1860-75","earliest":"1860-01-01","latest":"1875-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Lady Janet Clerk","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"156.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"213","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"غرض نقشیست کز ما باز ماند\r\nاسمعیل ","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"The purpose of the painting is that it shall remain [as a memorial] to us.\r\nIsma‘il ","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"The <i>lām</i> has a smaller final <i>lām</i> nesting in it and an initial <i><i>‘ayn </i></i>or <i>gh</i><i><i>ayn</i></i>above that, connected to a word now lost. The most likely explanation is that these are the remains of an earlier signature that the artist then chose to re-paint in a different arrangement."}],"objectHistory":"The painting was given to the museum in 1941 by Lady Janet Clerk, whose husband, Sir George Clerk, was British ambassador in Istanbul from 1926-1933. Prior to the painting entering the museum's collection, Lady Clerk had lent it to the 1931 Exhibition of Persian Art held at the Royal Academy of Arts, where it was hung in the vestibule, along with other Qajar-era paintings.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"<i>Women Round a Samovar</i>, Iran (probably Tehran), 1860-75.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Diba, Layla S. (Ed.) <i>Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925 </i> London, 1998","id":"AUTH353276"},"details":"pp.261-2, Cat.86","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Persian Royal Portraiture and the Qajars</i>, Robinson, B.W., Qajar Iran, Mazda, California, 1983,1992"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Persian Oil Paintings</i>, Robinson, B.W., V & A Small Colour Book 20, 1977"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Persian Art</i>, no.875."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Linda Komaroff, editor, <i>Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting</i>, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2023, p.278, cat. no. 93."},{"reference":{"text":"J. Curtis, I. Sarikhani Sandmann and T. Stanley, Epic Iran: 5000 Years of Culture, London: V&A Publishing, 2021.","id":"AUTH397834"},"details":"pp.270-271, cat. no. 202","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"B.W. Robinson and G. Guadalupi, <i>Qajar: La pittura di corte di Persia</i>, Milan, 1982, p. 215."}],"production":"signed","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"women","id":"AAT25943"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Jameel Gallery \r\n\r\nLadies Round a Samovar\r\n(above case)\r\nIran, probably Tehran\r\n1860–75\r\n\r\nThis is probably the harem of Nasir al-Din Shah, who ruled Iran between 1848 and 1896. The women have gathered for a tea party in a pavilion overlooking a wooded garden. The artist is unlikely to have seen the harem himself. The stillness of the faces suggests that he worked from photographs, inserting the women’s likenesses into the palatial setting. \r\n\r\nOil on canvas. Signed by Isma’il Jalayir\r\n\r\nMuseum no. P.56-1941\r\nGiven by Lady Janet Clark\r\n","date":{"text":"2015","earliest":"2015-01-01","latest":"2015-12-31"}},{"text":"Jameel Gallery \r\n\r\nLadies Round a Samovar\r\nIran, probably Tehran\r\n1860-1875\r\n\r\nThe members of a harem have gathered for a tea party in a pavilion in a wooded garden. The stillness of most of their faces suggests that the artist worked from photographs, inserting the women's likenesses into an imaginary scene. The artist was Isma'il Jalayir, whose paintings are suffused with a dream-like, melancholy air.\r\n\r\nOil on canvas. Signed by Isma'il Jalayir\r\n\r\nMuseum no. P.56-1941. Given by Lady Janet Clark","date":{"text":"2006-2014","earliest":"2006-01-01","latest":"2014-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["P.56-1941"],"accessionNumberNum":"56","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1941,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-14","recordCreationDate":"2003-06-30","availableToBook":false}}