Page 429 - Beholding Liberty!

ΙΙΙ.9.5
Karl Krazeisen (1794-1878) Portrait of Thomas Gordon, 1828
lithograph, 42 × 32 cm
signed: Fr: Hanfstaengl fec (on image, bottom right) Nach der Natur gex. v. Kraxeisen (bottom left) Selb Lith. (bottom right) signature by Th. Gordon (on image, low centre)
inscribed: GORDON. (low centre)
Michalis Ntais Collection
THIS PRINT COMES from the series of portraits by Karl Krazeisen [cat. no ΙΙΙ.1.2]. It shows the Colonel Thomas Gordon, facing to the left, just as he sat for Krazeisen in 1827 in Poros. The colonel’s European-style uniform is nicely complemented by Oriental elements, the idiosyncratic headgear and pistol belt.
Thomas Gordon (1788-1841)
SCOTTISH MILITARY, landlord and tourist, Gordon emerged as one of the greatest Philhellenes. With studies at Eton and Oxford, he served at the Cavalry of the British army, but when he inherited a large fortune, he resigned and started travelling.
During the period 1810-1812, he toured in Athens, Istanbul, Thessalonike, Persia and elsewhere. In 1813 he was captain of the Russian army, while in 1815 he visited Bucharest, where he met the Ypsilantis brothers.
He took part in the Revolution of 1821, equipped with his own money a ship in Marseilles and transported with it philhellenes and Greek fighters. In fact he was the first from the English philhellenes who joined the Greek forces, taking part in the Tripolitsa siege, in September 1821. Accordingly, he returned to Scotland, joined in 1823 the Greek committee of London and contributed to the Battle with money and military supplies.
In 1826 the Greek Parliament members in London persuaded Gordon to return to Greece. He arrived in Nafplio in May 1826, bringing in his suitcases 14.000 British pounds, and with a mission to cooperate with Fabvier for the formation of regular army, preparing the arrival of lord Kochrane. He led the Greek troops with the intervention of Makrygiannis to the president of the Administrative Committee Andreas Zaimis, he partic- ipated in 1827 in the hostilities at Kastella Piraeus without achieving the desired advance to Acropolis.
It is regarded that he was involved in the chain of events that led to the murder of the first Greek governor Ioannis Kapo- distrias, since with his schooner Petros Mavromichalis fled to british-occupied Zakynthos in January 1831.
When he returned to Scotland, Gordon completed his book The History of the Greek Revolution (1833), a work that received general acceptance and influenced the historians of the Revo- lution, like Spyridon Trikoupis and George Finley.
During Otto’s reign, in 1833 he returned to the Greek army, while later he was appointed president of the Court Martial. He died in April 20 1841.
Η ΑΦΥΠΝΙΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Από την αρχαιολατρία στον Φιλελληνισμό 429