Hossein Behzad

Born in Tehran is 1894, Hossein Behzad is a prominent Iranian painter. His early work was in the styles of the old masters of Persian painting of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1934 he spent time in France, studying various Eastern and Western painting styles. He then developed a completely new style of miniature painting, combining aspects of traditional Persian painting with contemporary painting from the West. As Behzad became a living master known internationally, he held exhibitions across the world including the Museum of Modern Art of Paris in 1955, London, the Library of Congress in Washington, Prague, New York, Boston and Brussels, as well as in India and Japan. He died 52 years ago, on October 13 1968. In his honor, the Behzad Museum was founded in 1994 in Tehran and holds a large collection of his works. As Professor Soheil Anwar wrote in an article for the Vatan newspaper of Istanbul, " Behzad, this great artist does not belong only to Iran. He now belongs to the world."