Kamal-ol-Molk

Mohammad Ghaffari, bestowed the royal title Kamal-ol-Molk ('Perfection of the Realm') by Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar, was born into an illustrious artistic family in Kashan. Impressing the Shah while studying at the Dar al-Funun in Tehran, he became official court painter, spending five years creating his breathtaking masterpiece, The Mirror Hall (Talar-e Ayeneh), in the Golestan Palace.

Kamal-ol-Molk spent years in Europe copying Rembrandt, Titian, and Rubens at the Louvre and in Florence. In 1911, he founded the College of Fine Arts (Sanaye-ye Mostazrafeh) in Tehran, training a generation of realist painters. Banished to Nishapur by Reza Shah for refusing to paint sycophantic portraits, he died revered as the father of modern Iranian painting.