`Abdul Samud - Persian General in Dost Mohd.s. Service Kabul'
Watercolour
1836 (painted)
1836 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Vigne was an intrepid explorer and a gifted amateur artist, especially in his powerful characterisation of the various ethnic types he encountered on his travels. Vigne met Abdul Samut in 1836 at the court of Dost Muhammad, then ruler of Kabul. He took an instant dislike to him, but was persuaded, for his own safety, to give him the bottle of brandy he was demanding. Abdul Samut later moved from Kabul to Bukhara, where he became the right-hand man of the notorious Amir, and was allegedly responsible for numerous cruelties, including the murder in 1842 of two British officers, Colonel Charles Stoddart and Captain Arthur Conolly. When Dr Joseph Wolff, an indomitable clergyman, attempted to discover what had happened to them, he was imprisoned, and only narrowly avoided the same fate. The story is told in Wolff's Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara in the years 1843-1845 (2 vols. 1845), where this portrait is reproduced as a lithograph.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | `Abdul Samud - Persian General in Dost Mohd.s. Service Kabul' (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour over pencil, on paper watermarked S WISD 1828 |
| Brief description | Watercolour, `Abdul Samud - Persian General in Dost Mohd.s. Service Kabul', 1836, by Godfrey Thomas Vigne FRGS |
| Physical description | Watercolour drawing |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Marks and inscriptions | Signed G.T.Vigne, inscribed with title and number 49; inscribed on the back, probably by Dr. Joseph Wolff, Nayeb Abdul Samut Khan The Murderer of Colonel Stoddart, Captain Conolly, Captain Wybur[d] Cavalliere Naselli, and of Hajèe Muhammad Kokanee - one of the officers of the Sultan of Constantinople |
| Credit line | Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A |
| Object history | According to Rodney Searight: - `[Possibly in the collection of the Revd Dr. Joseph Wolff (see Wolff, 1845, Vol.I, Preface p.xi).] Bt fr Villa Antiques, Sept. 1968, £15'. |
| Historical context | J. Wolff, Narrative of a Mission To Bokhara in the years 1843-1845 ..., 1845, Vol.II, facing p.78, lithograph titled Abdul Samut Khan, Nayeb of the Ameer of Bokhara. See Vigne, A Personal Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul, And Afghanistan ..., 1840, pp.184 & 354. Abdul Samut was subsequently in the service of the Amir of Bukhara. The story of the murders at Bukhara of Colonel Charles Stoddart and Captain Arthur Conolly in 1842 and of Dr. Joseph Wolff's subsequent mission there to ascertain their fate, is told by Wolff in his Narrative, 1845, and in F. Maclean, A Person from England, 1958. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Places depicted | |
| Summary | Vigne was an intrepid explorer and a gifted amateur artist, especially in his powerful characterisation of the various ethnic types he encountered on his travels. Vigne met Abdul Samut in 1836 at the court of Dost Muhammad, then ruler of Kabul. He took an instant dislike to him, but was persuaded, for his own safety, to give him the bottle of brandy he was demanding. Abdul Samut later moved from Kabul to Bukhara, where he became the right-hand man of the notorious Amir, and was allegedly responsible for numerous cruelties, including the murder in 1842 of two British officers, Colonel Charles Stoddart and Captain Arthur Conolly. When Dr Joseph Wolff, an indomitable clergyman, attempted to discover what had happened to them, he was imprisoned, and only narrowly avoided the same fate. The story is told in Wolff's Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara in the years 1843-1845 (2 vols. 1845), where this portrait is reproduced as a lithograph. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | SD.1126 |
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| Record created | April 21, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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