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Two men playing the game of Cirid

Anonymous Greek artist

1809

watercolor

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Romanticism Early 19th Century

Dominant colour

Two men playing the game of Cirid is a 1809 watercolor by Anonymous Greek artist, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Who painted this?: Anonymous Greek artist
When & what style?: 1809 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Victoria and Albert Museum

About this work

This watercolor shows two men on horseback playing Cirid. The game used blunt wooden lances to knock riders off balance. It was one of many scenes painted for a British diplomat in Istanbul around 1809. The artist stayed nameless, but Turkish scholars think he worked near Konstantin Kapidagli. The pictures were made to document what the diplomat saw during his travels. The game itself is worth a look. Check the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The story of this work

Overview

Two men are depicted playing Cirid, an equestrian game in which riders on horseback throw blunt wooden lances to unseat each other. The work is part of a larger series of views and studies commissioned by Stratford Canning during his diplomatic mission to Istanbul in 1808–09. The anonymous Greek artist, possibly associated with the circle of Konstantin Kapidagli, blends dense Ottoman water and bodycolour techniques with European conventions of perspective and representation. The series was later bound in a volume and acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1895 from Canning’s daughter,…

Read the full account in the museum source.