The Wife of Hassan Aga - Burton, Frederic William (Irish painter and museum director, 1816-1900) (My University, 2000)
"The Wife of Hassan Aga reflects Burton's connection with the Pre-Raphaelites ... half-length female figures were common in Rossetti's work from the 1850s on. As for the subject this has not yet been identified; but it may well derive from Lane's version of 'Arabian Nights', for which there was a vogue in Pre-Raphaelite circles at this date. Burton's study for the figure's arms, executed in pencil, black-chalk and watercolour on brown paper, is in the NGI - this from Christie's catalogue entry" "This poem is based on the life of the Mohammedan Serbs. It is noteworthy not only from its own literary merit, but from being the first of the Serbian ballads to become known to western Europe, and, above all, from the magnificent translation of it by Goethe - this from http://sacred-texts.com/neu/hbs/hbs47.htm"
Keywords: Hassan Aga; Art -- Irish; Serbian ballads; Pre-Raphaelites; Exoticism in art; History painting; Women in art