HAJJI MIRZA ISMA’IL, QAJAR HOKMRAN (CIVIL ADMINISTRATOR) OF THE KHANATE OF ERIVAN, ON HORSEBACK IN A LANDSCAPE

Alexander Orlowski, a Polish artist and lithographer who was a painter at the courts of the Tsars Alexander I and Nicolas I, travelled to Persia in the company of Gaspar Drouville on a mission from Tsar Alexander I.

He painted numerous works during these travels, most of which are now in the National Museum in Krakow, the National Museum of Warsaw, the Russian Museum and the State Hermitage Museum, both in Saint Petersburg. He also produced lithographs after his paintings and drawings: those relating to Persia were published in Gaspard Drouville’s Voyage en Perse, pendant les annees 1812 et 1813, Saint Petersburg 1819-20, and his own Collection de costumes Persans civils et militaires (1822). The present work, which was also rendered in lithograph, is thought to be the only work by Orlowski with Persian subject matter which is not in a public collection.

Hajji Mirza Isma’il was sent by Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar to the Caucasus to become the civil administrator (Hokmran) of the Khanate of Erivan, alongside the military governor Hossein Quli Khan. The Qajar tribe itself came from this region. With the signing of the treaty of Torkmanchai in February 1828 the Khanate was annexed by the Russian Empire. Hajji Mirza Isma’il was forced to resign his post and evacuate Erivan and return to Persia.