Frontier Guards (Circassian Prince on Horseback Selling Two Boys)

The Scotsman William Allan spent nine years in Russia (from 1805), where he sought to capture new and unusual themes. He lived for a time in St Petersburg, where he painted portraits, and then travelled around the Ukraine, the Crimea, the Caucasus and the Caspian steppes. Allan returned to his native Edinburgh in 1814 with a large collection of everyday objects, clothing and weapons, which he used in creating paintings with scenes from the life of peoples who were little known outside the Russian Empire. Allan was much admired by Sir Walter Scott. In some of his works, Allan created a whimsical cocktail of elements, as in Frontier Guards, where only the rider in the centre can truly be identifed with a particular people, in this case a Circassian. The remaining figures are dressed in a mixture of Central Asian and Turkish costume. This painting was purchased by Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich (from 1825 the Russian Emperor Nicholas I) during his stay in Edinburgh in 1816, when he visited the artist's studio. The painting later hung in Nicholas's study in the Anichkov Palace in St Petersburg.

Credit: Source of Entry: The All-Union Society "Antiquariat", 1931 (formerly: the Anichkov Palace, St Petersburg)