A study of knights at a tournament

The present work is likely to have been inspired by the Eglinton Tournament of 1839, a re-enactment of a medieval joust organised by Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton (1812-1861), at Eglinton Castle, near Kilwinning in Scotland. The tournament was widely publicised at the time and open to the public, and Allan, who attended, 'often spoke of the procession of knights...as surpassing all that he had ever seen in brilliancy of colour' (D. & F. Irwin, Scottish Painters at Home and Abroad, 1975, p.212). Compositional comparisons can be made between the present work and Allan's Scottish Academy picture of 1840, Heroism and Humanity (Glasgow Museums).