Object Details
- Local Numbers
- FSA A.4 2.12.GN.46.17
- General
- Title and summary note are provided by Shabnam Rahimi-Golkhandan, FSg curatorial research specialist.
- Creator
- Sevruguin, Antoin, 1851-1933
- Names
- Islamic Archives
- Sevruguin, Antoin, 1851-1933
- Smith, Myron Bement, 1897-1970
- Collection Creator
- Smith, Myron Bement, 1897-1970
- Place
- Asia
- Iran
- Topic
- Early Photography of Iran
- Topic
- Portrait photography
- Creator
- Sevruguin, Antoin, 1851-1933
- See more items in
- Myron Bement Smith Collection
- Myron Bement Smith Collection / Series 2: The Islamic Archives / 2.12: Antoin Sevruguin Photographs / 2.12.01: Glass Plate Negatives / Glass Plate Negatives: Sets 1-61
- Biographical / Historical
- Antoin Sevruguin is one of the early pioneers of commercial photography in Iran. He arrived in Iran from Tbilisi, Georgia in the mid 1870s to set up shop in Ala al-Dawla street in Tehran. From the early days, Sevruguin's studio was trusted both by the Qajar court and by foreign visitors to Iran. Highly regarded for their artistic ingenuity outside Iran, Sevruguin's photographs of 'ethnic types,' architecture and landscape, and depictions of daily life of Tehran found their way into foreign travelogues, magazines and books. As such, he stands alone in a relatively large group of early Iranian photographers for being recognized and celebrated outside the boundaries of the country. Antoin Sevruguin passed away in 1933, leaving behind only a fraction of his large collection of glass negatives, which is currently in the Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
- Extent
- 1 Glass negative (b&w, 17.7 cm. x 23.7 cm.)
- Date
- ca. 1930
- Archival Repository
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
- Identifier
- FSA.A.04, Item FSA A.4 2.12.GN.46.17
- Type
- Archival materials
- Glass negatives
- Collection Citation
- The Myron Bement Smith Collection, FSA A.04. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith.
- Arrangement
- According to Myron B. Smith handwritten document (Myron Bement Smith Collection, Subseries 2.1: Islamic Archives History, Collection Information; Box 60; Folder 44: 47 P Antoine Sevruguin, glass negatives, Iran), Antoin Sevruguin's 696 glass negatives, at the time of their acquisition, were arranged into 61 boxes without any apparent organization. Today they are housed in archival document boxes, essentially duplicating the original arrangement, and stored on shelves. This glass negative was included into "Box 46."
- Collection Rights
- Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
- Bibliography
- Mahdi Bamdad, Sharh-i Hal-i Rijal-i Iran dar Qarn-i 12,13,14 Hijri, Tehran: Intisharat-i Zavvar (Zavvar Publishing): 1992, volume 1, p:343-345 The photo is published on page 344.
- Genre/Form
- Glass negatives
- Scope and Contents
- "Born in 1870, Mudarres attended school first in Isfahan and then in Iraq, until he returned to Iran in 1898. he was an avid supporter of the constitutional revolution in Iran and in 1910 he represented the cleric establishment of Najaf as the religious supervisor of the laws passed by the second national congress of Iran. He was then elected as the city of Tehran's member of the third national congress (1914). In 1916 he became the minister of justice in Nizam al-Saltana's cabinet. Mudarres opposed the ovrethrow of Qajar dynasty in the congress meeting of Octber 31st, 1925 and became one of the critiques of the government of the time. In 1926 he was the target of an assassination plot, which he survived despite being heavily wounded in the gunfire directed at him. He spent the next few years of his life in exile until 1934 when he was killed in his prison in Kashmar and buried in the same place. This photo is one of the most widely distributed photos of Mudarres, most probably taken in the last few years of his life." [Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Curatorial Research Assistant]
- - FSg curatorial research specialist remark on Antoin Sevruguin photo manipulation reads, "Varnish on the face and very careful touch ups on the face."
- - Handwritten information on slip of paper (from a 1943-1944 cash book, produced by the Bathni Brothers, Tehran) reads, "91) Mullah Mudaris." [Myron Bement Smith Collection, Subseries 2.1: Islamic Archives History, Collection Information]
- - Myron Bement Smith handwritten caption in English reads, "47.P; Box 46.17: Mullah mudario (#91)." [Myron Bement Smith Collection, Subseries 2.1: Islamic Archives History, Collection Information; Box 60; Folder 44: 47 P: Antoine Sevruguin, glass negatives, Iran]
- Collection Restrictions
- Collection is open for research.
- Record ID
- ebl-1585218933221-1585218933966-1
