The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan is the title of three works by Eugène Delacroix, produced in 1826, 1835 and 1856. They all show a scene from Lord Byron's 1813 poem The Giaour, with the Giaour ambushing and killing Hassan, the Pasha, before retiring to a monastery.[1] Giaour had fallen in love with Leila, a slave in Hassan's harem, but Hassan had discovered this and had her killed.
1826 version[edit]
In 1824, Delacroix recorded in his diary his experience of reading The Giaour and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage,[3][4][5] probably in their 1819–1824 French translations by Amédée Pichot.[1] His first version was presented to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1826 for an exhibition.[1]
This version shows the Giaour and Hassan, both on horseback, fighting in a gorge.[6] A Turk escorting Hassan kneels beside the Giaour's horse, trying to cut its legs with his knife.[6]
1835 version[edit]
Now in the Petit Palais in Paris, the second version.[1] Unlike the 1825 version, it focuses entirely on the two riders.[1][7]
1856 version[edit]
This work is a variant of the two previous versions[8]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e (in French) Jean-Pierre Digard (ed.), Chevaux et cavaliers arabes dans les arts d'Orient et d'Occident, Éditions Gallimard et Institut du monde arabe, 27 November 2002, 304 p. (ISBN 2-07-011743-X), p 261
- ^ "The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan".
- ^ Roger J. Porter, 'A serpent in the coils of a pythoness : conflicts and self-dramatization in Delacroix's journal', in Autobiography, Historiography, Rhetoric: A Festschrift in Honor of Frank Paul Bowman, Rodopi, 1994, 302 p. (ISBN 9051835760 et 9789051835762)
- ^ (in French) Edmond Estève, Byron et le romantisme français, Slatkine, 1973, 560 p., p. 196.
- ^ "Combat : The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan".
- ^ a b (in French) Chenou, Notice sur l'exposition des produits de l'industrie et des arts qui a eu lieu à Douai en 1827, Wagrez ainé, 1827, p. 83-84.
- ^ (in French) Yves Sjöberg, Pour comprendre Delacroix, vol. 3 de Collection Beauchesne, Éditions Beauchesne, 1963, 229 p., p. 127
- ^ (in French) Alfred Robaut, Ernest Chesneau and Fernand Calmettes, L'œuvre complet de Eugène Delacroix: peintures, dessins, gravures, lithographies, Charavay Frères, 1885, page 346