Qajar painting in the second half of the nineteenth century and realism

Artists of the Qajar period in the first half of the nineteenth century in Iran exhibited an interest in European paintings of the Renaissance and Baroque periods in response to the enthusiasm of patrons. In the second half of the nineteenth century, changes in artistic viewpoints were caused by social and cultural transformations, the presence of European artists at the Qajar courts, Iranian artists traveling to the West, and advances in photography and lithography. These influences resulted in Qajar painting becoming more realistic in style and subject matter. The artists focused on expressing real events, the lives of ordinary people, individual figures with distinct characteristics, and realistic nature popular in nineteenth-century Europe. Meanwhile, some elements in Qajar painting continued to be influenced by the traditional visual arts from the earlier Safavid time, resulting in an eclectic and highly distinctive art that was unique in the history of Iranian painting.