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Description: warrior accompanying a young maid on horseback signed in Latin l.l. and dated 1835 watercolour over pencil on paper approx: 32 by 24.5 cm., 12 1/2 by 9 3/4 in. In 1835 Briullov was saved from his increasing bouts of depression by an offer from Count Orlov Davidov, to accompany him on a scientific expedition to the Ionian Islands, Greece and Asia Minor. Briullov, with his Romantic ideas about the East, saw this as an opportunity to visit the birthplace of art. During this time he did much work in watercolour, a medium he had first used seriously on his trip to Italy in 1822. While Briullov was in Greece, he got the oppurtunity to paint the well known, recently released freedom fighter, Theodoros Kolokotronis. During this time he also sketched many other Greek freedom fighters. It would appear that this watercolour depicts one of these heavily armed warriors, accompanying a girl on a donkey. While he was in Athens, Briullov fell ill with tropical fever and was tranferred to the brig Themistocles, bound for Smyrna. He eventually returned to Russia late in 1835 on the orders of Tsar Nicholas I, to take up the post of Professor at the Imperial Academy of Art.