Teheran, which they finally reached in February 1848, seemed a paradise. Mohammad Shah Qajar, who had been taught drawing as a young man by an English artist, Sir Robert Ker Porter, was not only most interested in seeing Laurens's work, but sat for his portrait. Laurens was soon in demand and did the portraits of one of the shah's aunts, Farah Khånoum, Persian notables and members of the European community, as well as drawing soldiers, camel drivers, street tradesmen, etc. Sumptuous feasts and lavish hospitality were offered to the two travellers. Laurens was particularly struck by the luxuriousness of the residence of the French minister, the comte Eugene de Sartigues, which boasted "some fifty servants, twenty-two horses, a calash, two Armenian women, one negress, one eunuch, ten falcons, an eagle, a pack of hounds, baths, seven courtyards planted with trees and flowers, an array of apartments and terraces, carved, painted, gilded and carpeted, the whole display surmounted by a proudly-floating tricoloured flag."
In the spring, Hommaire de Hell and Laurens left on an expedition to measure the level of the Caspian Sea, to verify the possibility of ancient communications with the Black Sea. The province of Manzanderan, with its rice fields, orange groves, cascades and luxurious vegetation, delighted them. In Ashraf, which they found enchanting, a handful of ruined palaces were nearly swallowed up in a chaos of overgrown, mossy, humid greenery (p. 81). The return through the plains of Khorassan and the great salt desert was desperately trying for Hommaire de Hell, still in poor health. After a stay in Teheran — where Laurens had the satisfaction of showing his large drawings to the shah, but was pestered by people clamouring for their portraits — the two men set off again, this time towards Ispahan. Hommaire de Hell, weak, and broiled by the fiery August sun, soon developed a strong fever and died in Djölfa. After burying his companion, Laurens had a narrow escape from the pillaging hordes of tribesmen during the disturbances following the death of Mohammad Shah. He stayed for a few more months in Persia, but since foreigners' safety seemed uncertain under Nåsser al Din Shah's reign, he left Teheran in February 1849.
At the 1850 Paris Salon, Laurens exhibited the first of the many oils inspired by his extraordinary adventures, which had made him famous, partly because of his youth. He wrote and illustrated many articles about the Middle East in such magazines as L 'Illustration and Le Tour du Monde, and made the plates for the magnificent album compiled from her husband's notes by Madame Hommaire de Hell. Laurens was invited to return to Persia by Prosper Bourré but instead, suggested such painters as Louis Tesson, Narcisse Berchöre and Alberto Pasini, who was finally chosen. Although busy writing, engraving and painting, Laurens found time to create a literary and artistic circle around him, which included Prosper Mérimée and Théophile Gautier, the engraver Félix Bracquemond, the Egyptologist Prisse d'Avennes and artists (many of whom had travelled to the East) such as Raffet, Dauzats, Vacher de Tournemine, Doré, Belly, the Princes Soltykoff and Gagarin, Pasini and Colonel Colombari. At the end of his life, Laurens wrote his memoirs, which are full of invaluable information about his contemporaries. He left his watercolours and drawings to the School of Fine Arts in Paris and the museums of Carpentras and Avignon.
Literature: X. Hommaire de Hell, Voyage en Turquie et en Perse exécuté par ordre du gouvernement français pendant les années 1846, 1847 et 1848, plans et illustrations par Jules Laurens, Paris, 1854, 3 vol. and atlas; J. Laurens, La Légende des ateliers, fragments et notes d'un artiste-peintre, 18421900, Carpentras, 1901; L.H. Labande, Jules Laurens, Paris, 1910; L. Thornton, Images de Perse, le voyage du Colonel F. Colombari à la cour du Chah de Perse de 1833 à 1848, Paris, 1981.