Painting Detail
BashkirsArtist: William Allan
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 43x63 cm
Date: 1814
Genre: Genre Painting
Source: Anichkov Palace, Petrograd, 1918
Bashkirs is remarkable for the ethnographical precision with which the characters are depicted, a precision which drew the attention of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, who was in Edinburgh in 1816 and visited Allan's studio. He purchased three paintings from the artist for the Anichkov Palace, his residence in St Petersburg. The original title of this work was Bashkirs Conducting Convicts to Siberia, which would seem to be a typical reflection of the kind of scenes Allan would have been witness to during his travels.