His father Mīrzā Ebrāhīm Khan Mostawfī Eʿteṣām-al-Molk (or Ebrahim E'tesami) was from Ashtian and the head of finance of the Iranian province of Azerbaijan.

Then he spent some years in Isfahan to learn architecture and decoration techniques, and later went to work at Tehran University.

On the Iranian Ministry of Fine Arts' request, the maquettes were sent to Brussels' 1958 Universal Exhibition, where Abolhassan E'tesami 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, E'tesami left a series of oil on canvas paintings including Some ruins in Dowlat-Abad, 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.