Background
Hossein Behzad was born in Tehran, Iran in 1894 to Mirza Lotfollah Esfahani. His father was a pen-holder designer. Since his early childhood he was interested in painting. Hossein began to paint his first pictures with eight.
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Hossein Behzad was born in Tehran, Iran in 1894 to Mirza Lotfollah Esfahani. His father was a pen-holder designer. Since his early childhood he was interested in painting. Hossein began to paint his first pictures with eight.
Hossein opened his own art studio in the bazaar of Tehran age of twenty. In 1934 he left Tehran for Paris and stayed for thirteen months. During this time which time he studied various Eastern and Western painting styles at the Louvre, Guimet museum and Palace of Versailles. It was during this trip developed a completely new style of miniature painting, combining aspects of traditional Persian painting with contemporary painting from the West.
To celebrate the millennium of Avicenna, in 1953 he held an exhibition at the Iran Bastan Museum. This caused a sensation and was seen by many international visitors. The paintings on show, which took ten years to complete, included the like of Ferdowsi and the Maedan Arch. The exhibition became particularly important to scholars of oriental studies.
Shortly after, and to much critical acclaim, Behzad held an exhibition, which was sponsored by the French government, at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The exhibition was opened by the French minister for culture on May 18, 1955.
By 1968 Behzad had become ill and was sent twice to Europe by the Ministry of Culture. Despite this, Behzad died at 8:48 pm on October 13, 1968 at the age of 74. He was buried at the cemetery near Imamzadeh Abdollah in Shahr-i Ray.
He became internationally known and won many awards including the 'first class medal of the ministry of culture' from Iran in 1949 and the 'first class medal of international painting' from Minneapolis, USA in 1958. In 1968 Behzad was give an honorary professorship by the College of Ornamental Arts, Behzad's works have been displayed across the world.
In 1956, fifty Behzad miniatures were put on display in the Library of Congress, Washington DC. As Behzad became a living master, he held exhibitions across the world including London, Prague, New York, Boston and Brussels, as well as in India and Japan.
Untitled
1960Charm and coquetry
1963Drink a glass of wine immortality
1964finished Youth
1951Khayyam
1946Khayyam
1954Last night
1961Masters of Science and Art
1965Master the Art and Knowledge
1950Oldman and harp
1955Omar Khayyam
1957Ormavi
1961Rudaki
1948Saadi
1964Shirin and Farhad
1961Spring breeze
1962The famine of 1916
1961The sound of the flute
1948The sound of the music
1961Zakaria raazi
1962Quotes from others about the person
In an article for the Vatan newspaper of Istanbul, Professor Soheil Anwar wrote, " Behzad, this great artist does not belong only to Iran. He now belongs to the world."
Hossein married Azizeh Khanam in 1921, who gave birth to their only child, Parviz.
