The Slave Market
Printmaker: Lewis, Charles George · 1808-1880Publisher: Hill, Alexander · 1800-1866Primary artist: Allan, William, Sir, RSA, PPRSA · 1782-1850
Sir William Allan PPRSA exhibited his original oil painting at the RA Annual Exhibition in 1838 (cat.156) and again at the RSA Annual Exhibition in 1839 (cat.50) on both occasions under the title "Slave Market, Constantinople." The painting was purchased in 1980 by the National Galleries of Scotland (NG 2400). The NGS website provides the following background to Allan's painting; "First exhibited in London in 1838, the year of Allan’s election as President of the Royal Scottish Academy, this complex and ambitious picture confirmed the artist’s status as a pioneer of British Orientalist painting. In 1829-30 Allan had travelled to Constantinople with the ambassadors who concluded the treaty which ended the struggle for Greek independence from Turkish domination. In the central group of the painting, which was supposedly based on Allan’s direct experience, an Egyptian slave-merchant is shown selling a Greek girl to a Turkish Pasha on horseback. The melodrama of the scene with the girl being torn from her distraught family contrasts with the relaxed group of men about to be served tea. Allan brought back many Turkish items which he used when composing this picture." [sourced 2022-06-10)
Hill purchased the painting and its copyright and published the print in partnership with [Sir] Francis Graham Moon the prominent London print publisher on 1840-07-01
Additional details
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Object data
Date 1840 Accession 1995.065 -
Exhibitions
No exhibition data for this record.
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