"The photo depicts the palace of Chihil Sutun and the garden and pool in front of it. The palace, located inside the garden complex of Chihil Sutun, was built on the orders of Shah Abbas I (b.1571-d.1621) and heavily expanded during the reign of Shah Abbas II (b.1643-d.1666). The name of the palace - 'forty columns' - derives not from the actual number of columns in the palace's deep front balcony, but commonly refers to the number of the columns and their reflections in the front pool. The palace also houses one of the largest collections of Iranian mural paintings." Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Curatorial Research Assistant.
Provenance
This photograph forms part of a group that is believed to have belonged to Earl Thomas Crain (1907-1989), an American foreign service officer who was stationed in Iran from 1935. The group of photographs are believed to have been originally acquired by the father of Crain’s wife, Elizabeth Agnes Hildebrand, who was an honorary council for Switzerland in Iran after the first world war.
Publications
A glass negative of this image is in the Myron Bement Smith Collection: Antoin Sevruguin Photographs. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith, 1973-1985. Reference number: FSA A.4 2.12.GN.28.03
A 225 mm x 165 mm gelatin silver print of this image is located in the Pitt Rivers Museum of the University of Oxford. The print has a reference number of 2008.7.27. This print also does not appear to have a negative number on recto.