Qajar painting: a window into the life and fashion of Muslim harems of the past centuries

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For a long time, European people have been making representations according to the fantasies of painters about how the life and manner of dressing Muslim women in harems look like. These fantasies usually included a lying naked woman in European style (less often standing) and a couple of slaves in an Eastern setting. Meanwhile, during the reign of the Qajar dynasty, portrait painting flourished in Muslim Iran, thanks to which one can see how the Orientalist artists guessed or did not guess with their canvases. Let's say right away: there are naked women there.

Just as the East influenced Europe, giving rise to the fashion for huge Indian shawls and turbans, which became women's headwear in the West, so the West influenced the fashion of the East. It was under the impression of Western paintings that a new portrait and genre painting developed in Iran, sometimes very fancifully combining the traditions of a flat, stylized oriental portrait and Western realism. Since the painters were very dependent on clients, the images, first of all, indulge the tastes of the clients and did not allow excessive experimentation. So the style of artists during the Qajar dynasty is quite uniform.

First of all, it is striking that the ideas about beauties among Europeans and Muslims were very different, and a man from the East, looking at a picture of a European, would find what to improve in the heroin of the canvas. For example, since the poor fellow has such small and expressionless eyebrows, bring them down by connecting them on the bridge of the nose. It was also customary to let the eyes down by drawing arrows. If we see the naked body of a beauty, then the artist of the East would rather emphasize the voluptuous folds on the stomach than the chest or the bend of the hip. In addition, the chin of the beauties in the Kajar portraits goes much softer into the neck.

In many portraits of the Qajar dynasty, you can see how women in harems dressed and did what they did when no one could see them except their husband (as well as other harem inhabitants, eunuch servants and an artist). Despite the heat, walking naked in the harem was not considered decent at all. The harem beauties wore silk clothing that cooled the body and did not embarrass the figure too much: a skirt or harem pants, a short blouse and a blouse. But the blouse was of such thin silk that the body was clearly visible through it.

Among the famous photographs of the wives of the Iranian Shah, there are also several women in the same transparent blouses, which make it possible to reliably make sure that, contrary to the myth that is widespread in the Russian network, the constant heroine of the photographs is indeed a woman, and, moreover, nursing a child or several. As for the antennae, they were considered piquant in many countries of the East, shading the freshness of the mouth and the whiteness of the skin hidden from the sun. The tenderness of the cheeks was also emphasized by trimmed curls of hair near the ears, and the whiteness of the wrists was made dazzling by painting the palms and fingers with henna red. If a beauty naturally had a mole on her face, she was lucky, such an adornment could delight any man. If there was no birthmark, they would paint it.

It is clear from the Kajar paintings that fashion has influenced not only painting. Traditionally, women in Iran preferred to wear loose harem pants over a skirt and wore flat shoes. In the picture below, the beauty is still in harem pants, perhaps much looser, reminiscent of a skirt, unlike the traditional Iranian style, but a flirty heel has already appeared on her shoes, and the shoes themselves look so that they could well be worn by a European fashionista of the end eighteenth century.

Fluffy skirts, sometimes fantastically decorated, in combination with fitted caftans imitated European dresses. Naturally, despite the western style, the costumes were decorated in a local style. Imitation of European fashion was not blind copying - Iranians creatively interpreted the style that they liked so much. Nevertheless, although a European would find such an outfit "oriental", the Iranians themselves believed that they were wearing European outfits: after all, they differed very noticeably from national clothes.

In addition to unusually fluffy skirts, Iranians borrowed from European fashion and different styles of cuffs and frills at the hem. For example, a girl with a tambourine and a dancer making a wheel, the sleeves of the top jacket are shortened and decorated with sockets, and the skirts are trimmed with a contrasting strip of fabric along the hem.

By the way, all these musicians and dancers - by the way, about how women spent their time in harems. Artists entertained women more often than men, because it was more decent. Women were also seen at the men's meetings, but the dancing boys were more common.

In addition to sleeves-bells, collapsible cuffs of shirts came to Iran, opening like a flower around the wrist. In general, the Iranians liked everything that resembled flowers - it was not without reason that this country was for a long time one of those famous for its varieties of roses.

Another feature of the European costume - a deep neckline and an emphasis on the chest - was possible only in a home outfit, which means that one could very boldly experiment with it, literally exposing the chest completely and framing it with a piping on the shirt.

The most famous representative of the Qajar dynasty in Russia is undoubtedly Nasser ad-Din, the "shah-photographer". Did Iranian Shah Keep a Harem with a Mustache: Myth and Truth About Popular Photos.