The present engraving depicts a vignette from a large scale scene by British painter Sir George Hayter. The picture, titled ‘Enlevement of Circassians’, was described thus by a contemporary viewer in the pages of the Morning Post:
“The subject of the present Picture originated from a party of Circassians committing depredations on a Georgian Village; the Georgians, unable to retaliate unassisted, engaged a party of Kurdistan soldiers (who are always willing to fight for any of the neighbouring Powers who pay them.) Thus increased in strength, they attacked the Circassian hamlet and carried off the female inhabitants as hostages, until due reparations should be made for the injury they had sustained. The Picture represents the moment when the few Circassian men who were left guardians of the village had been overcome, and the women are being torn from their native homes, some in the utmost despair, preferring death to the brutal violence they dread […]” The section represented in this engraving depicts “the Kurdish chieftain bearing away his struggling prize on the white horse, who bears with ease his double load”. (Morning Post, Thursday 5 March 1829.)
This almost hyperbolic Orientalism of this scene speaks to contemporary perceptions of the Caucasus in the 1820s, fuelled by the likes of Pushkin and Byron.
This engraving, made in Paris, was designed to serve as a raffle ticket with which the painting itself could be won. The picture had initially been commissioned from Hayter by his patron Lord Carysford who had unfortunately died before payment was made, and Hayter was forced to find other means of recouping his lost earnings on this and two other pictures.
Sir George Hayter (1792-1871) was a renowned portrait and subject painter who operated outside of the Royal Academy, but with many aristocratic patrons. These including Princess Charlotte, William Beckford, King Leopold of Belgium and Queen Victoria, who, along with her husband Albert, he guided in printmaking efforts of their own. When she came to the throne in 1837 she employed Hayter as her painter of portraits and history scenes.
Very rare. Another proof state is held in Hayter’s own album of his prints at the BM, otherwise a single copy of a used ticket, numbered and sealed with wax, is held at the Yale Centre for British Art.
Alexander, David. George Hayter (1792-1871): A Printmaker of the 1820s. in Print Quarterly. Vol. 2, No.3. Sept 1985. pp218-229. (Number 53 in his checklist.)
