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Creator:
Sir George Hayter, 1792–1871
Title:
Banditti of Kurdistan Assisting Georgians in Surprising and Carrying off Circassian Women
Date:
1827
Materials & Techniques:
Graphite and brown wash, squared and numbered for transfer on moderately thick, slightly textured, beige wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 22 1/2 × 32 5/8 inches (57.2 × 82.9 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in graphite, upper right: "Size of picture 7 feet 1 by 4ft 8"; in graphite and in pen and brown ink, lower right: "1827 | George Hayter Pinxt | Florence"; in pen and brown ink, lower center: "Circassian women taken as hostages for depradations committed against a party of Georgians, who are assisted in the enlevement by Banditti of Kurdistan, painted at Florence 1827 for Lord Carysfort. sold at his sale after his death and repurchased by me | 1828"; extensively numbered along edges for transfer

Signed and dated in graphite and in pen and brown ink, lower right: "George Hayter M.A.S.L. & M.A.P. Pinxit et Delt Firenze | 1827

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.7.2
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
battle | historical subject | horse (animal)
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:10411
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Hayter's career began inauspiciously when he ran away from his studies at the Royal Academy Schools at sixteen to join the Navy, before being returned to his studies through the intervention of his father. Initially a miniaturist, Hayter was appointed portrait and history painter to Queen Victoria (1819-1901) on her accession to the throne in 1837 and, at David Wilkie's death while returning from the Middle East in 1841, Painter in Principal to the Queen.

This drawing, which has been "squared" for transfer as a painting or print, depicts a scene that is in all probability imaginary. Circassian women, from the northern Caucasus, were reputed for their beauty and said to be favorites in the harems of the Ottoman Empire. As British artists began to travel to the region in the 1840s, Circassian women (or European women standing in for them) were often chosen as subjects. The eroticized violence of this scene combines an interest in military costume and the imagined sexual mores of the Orient.

Gallery label for Pearls to pyramids: British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1820 (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-02-07 - 2008-04-28)

Pearls to Pyramids: British Visual Culture and the Levant, 1600–1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-02-07 - 2008-04-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Pearls to pyramids : British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1830 [wall labels], Yale Center for British Art, 2008, pp. 51-52, V 2576 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Pearls to pyramids : British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2008, p. 17, V1880 [ORBIS]


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