Studio Portrait: Two Men, A Young Man and Three Boys

Object Details

Local Numbers: FSA A.4 2.12.GN.02.09
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

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.

Archival Repository: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

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 2."

Collection Rights: Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Scope and Contents: "Group portrait of two men and three children. The youngest boy is sitting on the chair, frowning at the camera, while the two older boys stand beside and behind him. A young man is accompanied by two older men in the back row of the image. The brick wall of the background wall is covered with a piece of cloth with a small part of the wall visible in the left top corner of the image. The seated young boy's hand is on top of a table, covered in cloth." [Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Curatorial Research Assistant]; - FSg curatorial research specialist remark on Antoin Sevruguin photo manipulation reads, "The image is a reprint of a photograph that is missing the lower part. Antoin Sevruguin seems to have drawn the missing part on the photograph and then taken a image of the remade photograph. On the negative he puts extra varnish on this spot which would blur the brush work, making it look like part of the original image."; - Myron Bement Smith handwritten caption in English reads, "47.P; Box 2: unknown." [Myron Bement Smith Collection, Subseries 2.1: Islamic Archives History, Collection Information; Box 60; Folder 44: 47 P: Antoine Sevruguin, glass negatives, Iran]