Washington Irving was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He wrote the short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain that deal with subjects such as the Alhambra, Christopher Columbus, and the Moors. Irving served as American ambassador to Spain in the 1840s.
Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter, especially known for his genre scenes. He painted successfully in a wide variety of genres, including historical scenes, portraits, including formal royal ones, and scenes from his travels to Europe and the Middle East. His main base was in London, but he died and was buried at sea, off Gibraltar, returning from his first trip to the Middle East. He was sometimes known as the "people's painter".
Abu Abdallah Muhammad XII, known in Europe as Boabdil, was the 22nd and last Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Iberia.
John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876) was an English Orientalist painter. He specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes in detailed watercolour or oils, very often repeating the same composition in a version in each medium. He lived for several years in a traditional mansion in Cairo, and after his return to England in 1851 he specialized in highly detailed works showing both realistic genre scenes of Middle Eastern life and more idealized scenes in upper-class Egyptian interiors with little apparent Western influence.
Tales of the Alhambra (1832) is a collection of essays, verbal sketches and stories by American author Washington Irving (1783–1859) inspired by, and partly written during, his 1828 visit to the palace/fortress complex known as the Alhambra in Granada, Andalusia, Spain.
El Carnero is the colloquial name of a Spanish language colonial chronicle whose title was Conquista y descubrimiento del Nuevo Reino de Granada de las Indias Occidentales del mar océano, y fundacion de la ciudad de Santafé de Bogotá, ... [also known as El Carnero de Bogotá]. It is a chronicle of history and customs written in 1636-1638 by Bogota-born Juan Rodríguez Freyle.
The Granada War, also called Spanish Christian–Muslim War of 1481–1492, was a series of military campaigns between 1481 and 1492 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It ended with the defeat of Granada and its annexation by Castile, ending the last remnant of Islamic rule on the Iberian peninsula.
Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, Duke of Cádiz (1443–1492) was one of the Castilian military leaders in the conquest of Granada. In 1482, he led the Castilian forces that captured the town of Alhama and later Boabdil. He had earlier been one of the military leaders in the Castilian War of Succession. Juan Pacheco was his father-in-law. He was made 1st Duke of Cádiz in 1484 and succeeded briefly by his heir Francisca Ponce de León y de la Fuente.
John O'Neill, 1st Viscount O'Neill PC was an Irish politician.
Cotta or Cotte was an ancient town built by Romans in the 1st century AD, in the province of Mauretania Tingitana, intended to function primarily as a garum factory. The town was likely abandoned in the 3rd century AD. Its ancient ruins are now located on the Atlantic coast of modern-day Morocco a few kilometers south of Cap Spartel, and include the garum factory, an olive press, a temple, a villa and a bath complex.
The Defence of Saragossa is an 1828 history painting by the British artist David Wilkie. It depicts a scene during the 1808 Siege of Zaragoza at the time of the Peninsular War. Wilkie, A London-based Scottish painter had recently travelled through Spain. This was one of a series of four works he produced featuring scenes of Spanish resistance to the French occupiers in the Peninsular War.
Graham Hamilton is an 1822 two volume novel by the Anglo-Irish writer Lady Caroline Lamb. Her second novel to be published following her 1816 debut Glenarvon, it mocks and attacks the Whig high society in which she had been raised. It was published anonymously by Henry Colburn. Her husband William assisted by proofreading the drafts. Lamb was a noted figure of the Regency era who had caused a scandal with her tempestuous affair with Lord Byron. Her debut novel Glenarvon had been a thinly-disguised depiction of him.
Sir David Baird Discovering the Body of Sultan Tipoo Sahib is an 1839 history painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It presents a scene during the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799. General Baird, a senior British officer and accompanying troops encounter the body of the Tipu Sultan. The ruler of Mysore and an ally of France he was killed when Anglo-Indian forces stormed his capital Seringapatam.
The Parish Beadle is an 1823 genre painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It depicts a comically overzealous parish beadle taking a troupe of travelling Savoyard entertainers into custody for vagrancy. They have evidently been performing at the fair seen in the distance which has some echoes of William Hogarth's Southwark Fair.
Washington Irving in the Archives of Seville is a painting of 1828 by the British artist David Wilkie. It depicts a visit by the American writer Washington Irving to a library in Seville.
Blind-Man's Buff is an 1812 genre painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It shows a game of Blind man's buff. While depictions of the game had appeared in art before, Willkie chose to portray a humbler settling than earlier versions generally set in drawing rooms.
Pitlessie Fair is an 1804 genre painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It depicts the annual mayfair being held in his native village of Pitlessie in Fife.
Napoleon and Pius VII at Fontainebleau is an 1836 history painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It depicts Napoleon, the emperor of France, meeting with Pope Pius VII at Fontainebleau Palace. Wilkie was inspired by a passage in Walter Scott's 1827 biography The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte.
Christopher Columbus Explaining His Intended Voyage is an 1834 history painting by the British artist David Wilkie. It depicts a scene in 1485 at the La Rábida Friary in Huelva when the explorer Christopher Columbus sets out his plans to reach Asia by sailing westwards. Departing seven years later he was instead to land in the Americas, a major moment in the Age of Discovery. It is also known by the longer title Christopher Columbus in the Convent of La Rabida Explaining His Intended Voyage.
The Village Recruit is an 1805 genre painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. Painted at the time of the Napoleonic Wars it shows a recruiting party of the British Army in a country tavern where one young man has just enlisted and prepares to spend his King's shilling on further alchohol. It was painted when Wilkie was around twenty, the year he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy. It was one of three paintings that were spin-offs from his 1804 work Pitlessie Fair, which had featured a recruiting party. Influenced like much of Wilkie's work by the old masters of the seventeenth century, it has strong similarities to his better-known work The Village Politicians. It was initially known by the alternative title Bounty Money.
