Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Jay A. Bisno Collection of Sevruguin Photographs

Summary

Collection ID:
FSA.A.15
Creators:
Sevruguin, Antoin, 1851-1933
Dates:
1969-1985
Languages:
Handwritten annotation in
French
language, on verso of several photographic prints.
Physical Description:
18 Albumen prints
b&w
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Antoin Sevruguin managed and operated one of the most successful commercial photography studios in Tehran in the late 19th century. Born in the 1840s in Iran, Sevruguin's mother returned with her children to her hometown of Tbilisi after his father Vassil, a Russian diplomat in Iran, died in a horse riding accident. Trained as a painter, Sevruguin returned to Iran in the early 1870s accompanied by his two brothers, establishing a photography studio first in Tabriz and then Tehran. His studio's ties to Tbilisi, however, persisted through the years; many of the early portraits of Dervishes and women have been simultaneously attributed to Antoin Sevruguin and Dimitri Yermakov, the Georgian photographer who is often referred to as Sevruguin's mentor from Tbilisi. Many of Antoin Sevruguin's photographs were published as early as 1885 in travelogues, journals and books indicating that by that time he had a fully established practice in Tehran's Ala al-Dawla street, with ties to the court of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar. Often unacknowledged as the producer of published images in his own time - the 1902 photographic survey of Persepolis being the most glaring of such authorial misrepresentations - he was nevertheless celebrated and acknowledged for his artistic vision and his keen eye for composition, achieving the Medal of Lion and Sun from Nasir al-Din Shah, the 1897 Medal of Honour in the Brussels International Exposition, and the 1900 Medal of Honour in Paris International Exposition. Reflecting a career that spans nearly half a century, Sevruguin's diverse body of work includes studio portraits of families, women and dervishes, survey photographs of archeological sites, objects, landscapes and architecture, and photographs of royalty, high officials and ceremonies of the Qajar court. The range of his output not only demonstrates his own pictorial concerns and artistic abilities but also the divergent interests of his clients. Despite numerous devastating incidents throughout his career - the loss of more than half of his negatives in a 1908 blast and fire, an unsuccessful attempt at diversifying into cinematography in the 1910s, and the confiscation of the remainder of his negatives in the mid-1920s to name a few - his studio remained operational even after his death in 1933. A number of negatives from the Sevruguin studio can be dated to the years after Antoin's death, indicating that the Sevruguin studio continued to be commercially viable. As one of the most prolific early commercial photographers in Iran, Antoin Sevruguin's artistic legacy has since proved far more enduring.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Images indexed by original photographic print number.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Jay A. Bisno (b. 1939) was Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History curator of archaeology.

Administration

Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift; Jay A. Bisno; 1985.

Digital Content

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Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Citation
Jay Bisno Collection of Sevruguin Photographs. FSA.A.15. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Jay Bisno, 1985
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

More Information

Local Numbers

Local Numbers
FSA A.15

Date/Time and Place of an Event Note

Date/Time and Place of an Event Note
Mr. Bisno purchased the eighteen unmounted albumen prints from a shop in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1969.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Early Photography of Iran Title Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Clothing and dress Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Criminal procedure Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Landscapes Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Executions and executioners Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
headgear Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Portrait photography Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Religious buildings Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Royalty (Nobility) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Asia Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Iran Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tehran (Iran) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Albumen prints Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographic prints Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Studio portraits Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sevruguin, Antoin, 1851-1933 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nāsir al-Dīn Shāh, Shah of Iran, 1831-1896 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
National Museum of Asian Art Archives
Washington, D.C. 20013
AVRreference@si.edu