The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-04 00:00:00

KARS AND ITS DEFENDERS.

PAINTED BY WILLIAM SIMPSON.
During the last two or three days there has
been on Private View, at the French Gallery, 121,
Pall-mall, an original painting, by William Simp-
son, representing through that one remarkable

work of art the most heroic incident of the late

War, the most brilliant episode of the whole con-

flict, the glorious, tragic, and ever-memorable events
enacted at Kars—those of its Siege, Defence, and
Surrender ! We have seen this picture—we have
examined it carefully in all its details—we have
viewed it at once in reference to the celebrity of
the artist, and in reference to the glory of th•

great historic occurrence he has through it under-
taken to commemorate—and having said all this,

et us honestly add at once that we regard this

really noble pictorial memento of "Kars and its
Defenders" with unfeigned admiration. Mr. Simp-
son bas in it fairly surpassed himself he has
eclipsed all his previous a shievements—
those well-known artistic achievements by
which, during the course of the great Crimean
Struggle, be built up for himself so rapidly
a very remarkable reputation. It has been
said, and said very truly, in regard to those
achievements of his, the Sketches of the Scenes
and Deeds of the War from the Alma to the

Malakhoff, that—" Mr. Simpson did with his
pencil what Mr. Russell did with his pen I" Than
which could there be words of more earnest and
sententious panegyric ? For what, with his pen
of fiery rhetoric, did not Mr. Russell accomplish
in his capacity as the Times' Correspondent
Yet to our thinking far beyond any of his really
admirable Sketches from the Crimea, far beyond
them as a work of art and as an enduring memo-

rial of the dread encounter between Russia and the

Allies, is this one solitary painting from the hand
of William Simpson, representing at a glance--
" Kars and its Defenders." An engraving of it
by George Zobell is now in preparation, one exe-
cuted (as it ought to be) in the first style
of etching and mezzotinto. The plate,
when completed, to be issued to the subscribers
by the Messrs. Paul and Dominic Colnaghi and
Co.—the firm par excellence among printsellers.
A most acceptable commemoration of the war it
cannot fail to prove when finished—acceptable,
we mean, as bringing visibly io our homes and
hearths the Memory of a most Heroic Incident.
The picture, such as it is, portrays (as its title
indicates) not only Kars itself, but its Defenders.
It is taken from the south, and is recognised
universally by those who are competent to pro'
flounce an opinion upon the subject as a most
exact representation. There is the great rocky
fastness of Armenia—the town and fortress of
Kars, situated in 40' 15' north latitude, and 43.
16' east longitude, 7,000 feet above the level of
the sea—in front, a vast plain—in rear, a lofty
range of mountains. Yonder are the town, the
suburbs, the citadel, the hospital, the tabias, the
bastions, the modern walls of defence, the ancient
line of fortifications. And yonder to the right
hand, grouped together—better than all the atone
barriers in the world, are the living buttresses of
defence—the little band of heroes who won for
themselves imperishable fame by their
stern
valour and inflexible endurance, rendering Karsby that valour and endurance another and hex c i,' ,
be it said, a lesser Thermopylae. There they are
wiok
one and all—there General Sir William °en
Williams—there General Kmety—there the Mu'
shir—there Osman Bey the Bashi
Boouk—there
General Kohlman—there Teesdale, and
Lake and
Thompson, and Dr. San dwith the rucdical o
fficer and
erlool
Mr. Churchill the St cretary. Not one man of nitu.
among them all has been omitted. The p
of the
chosen for the scene is the one almost immedi-
ately prior to the great battle °f g
of the
arrison29th of
were
September, 1855, when the devoted
irst beginning to feel Besidesthe dire effects
the historic cha-
racters
figalreadyfigures
haveentiboneeend
scarcity of provisions.
various other charac-
teristic artistically introduced
ur
into the picture, a wounded soldier, a Koord or
Laz, a poor Armenian mother with her children.
m
Altogether the painting is precisely what it should
be upon such a subject and from such a hand---a
picture worthy of the brush of William Simpson,
and not unworthy of commemorating to after
times "Kars and its Defenders."