Summary

'Encounter Between Cossacks and Bashi-Bazouks', a painting by John Charlton RA & JD Watson. The painting was exhibited in 'The Graphic' publication gallery, part of the British Court at the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition.

The Proprietors of 'The Graphic' exhibited 'the whole process of producing a high-class illustrated newspaper...and somewhat astonished the uninitiated with the multiplicity of labour necessary to the completion of an ordinary weekly issue.' The display was described in the Official Catalogue: 'The inner wall was decorated with original sketches made for illustrations; whilst on the outer wall was shown, in the likeness of the Duke and Duchess of Connault, the various printings necessary for producing a good chromo engraving. On the table in front were shown the box-wood, with the subject drawn on it ready for the engraver; the engraved blocks, with the electro-plate taken from it. Stereotype plates taken from a page of type, together with the moulds, were to be seen. They also exhibited materials for paper-making, paper, and a large pile of finished work in the form of monthly and weekly editions of the 'Graphic'.

'The Graphic' display was awarded three First Order of Merit awards: a silver medal for 'oleos, chrymos, and chromotypographs'; a silver medal for 'publications and chromo-lithos', and a bronze medal for 'printing'.

Physical Description

Gouache wash in black, grey and white depicting a battle between the Cossacks and Bashi-Bazouks. A cossack holds a lance above his head as his horse drops to the ground, while a bashi-bazouk towers over him from the saddle of his own horse, a raised sabre above his head. Another bashi-bazouk aims a musket at the cossack from behind a dead horse at image right, and in the background a solider of the Ottoman Army aims a pistol at the approaching charging cossacks.

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