About this artwork
A fellow student of David Wilkie at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, William Allan lived for some years in the Ukraine, making expeditions into Russia, Tartary (a vast region of eastern Europe and northern Asia) and Turkey. On his return to Britain in 1814, Allan specialised in painting Circassian (or Caucasian) subject pictures as a variant of romantic orientalism. Here, Nicholson has portrayed Allan as a Circassian archer. Allan made a lasting contribution to the development of Scottish painting through his illustrations of scenes from Sir Walter Scott's novels and subjects drawn from Scottish history.
Updated before 2020
-
artist:William NicholsonScottish (1781 - 1844)
-
title:Sir William Allan, 1782 - 1850. Artist. (In Circassian dress)
-
date created:1818
-
materials:Oil on canvas
-
measurements:91.40 x 71.40 cm; Framed: 115.00 x 95.00 x 8.00 cm / 12.00 kg
-
object type:
-
credit line:Purchased 1925
-
accession number:PG 1022
-
gallery:
-
depicted:
William Nicholson
William Nicholson
Born in Northumberland, Nicholson was a self-taught artist who began his career painting miniature portraits. By 1820 he had settled in Edinburgh. He was a founder member of the Royal Scottish Academy and served as its first Secretary between 1826 and 1830. He exhibited every year at the Royal...
