A painting by Hafsa Imran

AnarPomegranates

One fruit closed, one opened, and inside more than the skin ever promised.

Anar (Pomegranates) is a painting by Lahore artist Hafsa Imran. A whole pomegranate and a split one, its ruby seeds exposed, sit in warm golden light, with a few loose seeds scattered in front. Anar is the Urdu word for pomegranate.

Ask about Anar

Last updated: 22 October 2026

Anar (Pomegranates), a painting by Hafsa Imran on a shelf: a whole red pomegranate and a split one showing its ruby seeds, with loose seeds scattered in warm golden light on a dusky pink ground — Hafsa Imran, *Anar (Pomegranates)*. Hand-painted by Hafsa Imran.

Look closely

What is in the painting

Two pomegranates sit in warm, golden light: one whole, its crown of dry sepals standing up at the top; one split open, showing its pale pith and its packed ruby seeds.

Each seed is painted with its own small highlight, so the open fruit glitters like a box of jewels.

A few loose seeds lie scattered in front, and behind them the ground is a soft wash of dusky pink, rose and grey.

Artist: Hafsa Imran (Lahore, Pakistan)
Title: Anar (Pomegranates)
Form: Painting, portrait format
Images: Digital presentation of the work, prepared with AI tools from a photograph of the canvas.

Detail of Hafsa Imran's Anar: the split pomegranate, its pale pith and packed ruby seeds each painted with a highlight — Detail. Every seed painted with its own small highlight, like a jewel.

Detail of Hafsa Imran's Anar: the crown of dry sepals on top of the whole pomegranate — Detail. The crown of the whole fruit, standing up like a small diadem.

Detail of Hafsa Imran's Anar: a few loose pomegranate seeds scattered in warm light — Detail. A few loose seeds, fallen in the golden light.

The story

Reading Anar

The fruit of the Gardens

Surah Ar-Rahman names the pomegranate among the gifts of Paradise: in the two gardens are fruit, and date palms, and pomegranates (55:68). After each gift the surah asks the same question: which of the favours of your Lord will you deny?

Closed and open

From the outside a pomegranate gives nothing away: a leathery skin and a dry little crown. Only when it is opened does it show what it was holding, hundreds of seeds, packed tight.

Hafsa paints both. One fruit is the promise, the other is what was inside, and the scattered seeds in front are what has already been given away.

Anarkali

In Lahore the fruit has a name in the city itself. Anarkali means pomegranate blossom: the name of the woman in the legend said to be loved by Prince Salim, later the Emperor Jahangir, and of the bazaar that still carries it.

Historians still argue over who she was. The name has outlasted the argument.

The description and reading on this page are written by the Bloom & Beyond studio. They are our reading of the painting, not a statement by the artist.

Ask about the work