Abolhassan Etessami

Abolhassan Etessami, Iranian architect, calligrapher, painter, and novelist, was born in 1903 and died in 1978. His father Ebrahim Etessami was the head of finance of the Iranian province of Azerbaijan; and his brother Yussef Etessami was the founder of the "Bahar" journal, and the father of the poetess Parvin Etessami.

Abolhassan Etessami was educated in Tehran at the Aghdassieh School, the American School, and the Kamal-ol-molk School of Fine Arts. Then he spent some years in Isfahan to learn architecture and decoration techniques, and later went to work at Tehran University.

Abolhassan Etessami produced a series of architecture projects, detailed maquettes of which were made by himself. On the Iranian Ministry of Fine Arts' request, the maquettes were sent to Brussels' 1958 Universal Exhibition, where Abolhassan Etessami was awarded the gold medal in the individual presentation category. The maquettes were later bought by the National Museum of Iran, and included in the permanent collection of the Islamic arts division.

In addition to architecture projects, Abolhassan Etessami left a series of oil on canvas paintings including "Some ruins in Dowlatabad", "A village home in Niavaran", and "Pasteur's intercession for Napoleon", and some novels including "The left alone man" and "The malicious Mohil-o-doleh".

Sources

Dehkhoda, Ali-Akbar. 1977. Biographical note. In "Poems of Parvin Etessami", ed. Abolfath Etessami, p. 342. Tehran: Abulfath Etessami.

Etessami, Abolhassan. 1958. Biographical note. "Tehran University News Bulletin" 374, pp. 34-7.