Hossein Behzad

1951 miniature painting by master Behzad depicting the story of Farhad and Shirin.

Hossein Behzad (1894 – 13 October 1968; Persian: ) was a prominent Iranian painter. His early work was in the styles of the old masters of Persian painting of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, hoping to save Persian miniature painting from oblivion.

Biography Hossein Behzad was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1894 to Mirza Lotfollah Esfahani. His father was a pen-holder designer. In 1934 he left Tehran for Paris and stayed for thirteen months.

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. To celebrate the millennium of Avicenna, in 1953 he held an exhibition at the Museum of Ancient Iran. This caused a sensation and was seen by many international visitors. The paintings on show, which took ten years to complete, included the likes of Ferdowsi and the Maedan Arch. The exhibition became particularly important to scholars of oriental studies. 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."

Shortly after, and to much critical acclaim, Behzad held an exhibition, which was sponsored by the French government, at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. The exhibition was opened by the French minister for culture on 18 May 1955.

He first practiced a conservative form of Neo-Safavidism, and later developed a new idiom that merged revivalism and modernism. and is located in Tehran's Sa'dabad Complex and holds a large collection of his works.

Awards 1968 – Honorary title of Art Master by the Council of the Art Instructors of the College of Decorative Arts, Tehran 1953 – Avicenna Medal from Museum of Ancient Iran 1952 – Olympic diploma for the best painting at the Olympic Painting Exhibition in Helsinki, Finland