Artist/Maker Sir David Wilkie (1785 - 1841)

Genre Scene: Two Seated Men with a Pair of Bird Carcasses and a Dog in an Interior; Three Vignettes; and a Study of Dentures; verso: studies of four heads, a hand, and figures including a woman writing watched by a man wearing a hat and spectacles

ca. 1810-1822

Brown ink and wash and graphite on ivory paper

Overall: 7 5/16 x 9 1/8 in. (18.6 x 23.2 cm)

Gift of Mrs. William F. Bevan

1956.246

As is true of the majority of Wilkie’s drawings, the artist drew this sheet in preparation for his paintings. His sketches of assorted compositions and heads capture fleeting expressions, poses, and groups. The studies, together with the various annotations on the verso, suggest that Wilkie used the sheet on several occasions over a period of time, and both the cropping of the composition on the recto and the inscriptions on the verso indicate that the drawing has been trimmed. The primary scene on the recto features two older men in country attire seated at a table. The man on the right has just come in from the hunt with his canine companion and two birds, the day’s catch, limp on the adjacent table. Behind them, two vignettes in ink and one in graphite represent either the artist’s separate thumbnail sketches or pictures hanging on the wall. Having demonstrated an early talent for depicting genre scenes such as this, by 1799 Wilkie had enrolled in the Trustees’ Academy in Edinburgh. After leaving the academy in 1804, he finished his first genre painting, a panorama of human activity set in his native parish but based on seventeenth-century Dutch prints. Dissatisfied with the production, he moved to London in search of further education and artistic stimulus as well as a larger market and enrolled in the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1806, his Village Politicians brought him instant fame, and his works made their way into important collections. Although the public perceived his compositions as groundbreaking and marking a new artistic era, they were still dependent on the work of David Teniers and other seventeenth-century Dutch masters as can be seen in this drawing. Instead, Wilkie’s originality lay in his psychological realism, attention to detail, and accurate depictions of human expressions. He was named a member of the Royal Academy in 1811. Wilkie traveled to deepen his understanding of the Old Masters and, after an extended stay in Rome brought on by several personal losses, he returned to England. He was honored as Painter in Ordinary to the King, but his later work was given a mixed reception due to his increasing fixation on historical scenes and subjects rather than the domestic scenes of contemporary life for which he was known. He died at sea in 1841 on his return from a visit to the Holy Land. His earlier work influenced a number of nineteenth-century American genre painters, including Francis William Edmonds and William Sidney Mount, providing them with contemporary models to balance those of the seventeenth-century Netherlands. In fact, this drawing was once in the collection of American artist Thomas Pritchard Rossiter who probably acquired the sheet during his European travels.

DescriptionFigures

SignedSigned at lower right in brown ink: "Sir D. Wilkie"

InscribedInscribed at upper left: "and / and /..."; verso inscribed in graphite with accounting figures, ending with: "June 25 1822"; over graphite in brown ink: "Nitris Acid / Plough Court / Lombard Street"; "122 French proofs / 34 India / Sent July 12th"; "GR / GR"; "a woman / writing"

ClassificationsDRAWINGS