Lot Essay
In 1806, the year after he had moved to London and entered the Royal Academy Schools, the young Wilkie met instant fame with the exhibition of The Village Politicians. It was to the backdrop of further acclaim for The Blind Fiddler, exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year, that the artist left London and returned north to spend the summer with his parents at the manse at Cults in Fife. There, at some time between July and September 1807, he executed this picture.
The Rev. David Wilkie (1738-1812) was the heir to John Wilkie, Tenant of Rathobyres, west of Edinburgh. He matriculated first in 1757 at the University of Edinburgh, and again in 1769 at the University of St. Andrews. In the years immediately following his ordination at Cults in 1774, he twice became a widower. In 1781 he married, as his third wife, Isabella Lister (1763-1824), the daughter of a prosperous farmer and miller of Pitlessie, the only village in the parish. They had six children, of whom David was the third, and seem to have had a close relationship. The artist's father is described as being 'sensible' and 'universally esteemed for his genuine piety and rectitude of conduct', while Wilkie's mother, who supported his wish to train as an artist, was a more openly warm and loving character. On the Rev. Wilkie's death in 1812, Mrs Wilkie and her daughter Helen moved to London to live with the artist in a house in Kensington. Her death in 1824 contributed significantly to Wilkie's nervous and physical collapse the following year.
Wilkie's depiction of his parents reveals an engaging intimacy; both the respect in which he held his father, and the close bond he shared with his mother, are clear. In the 1994 exhibition catalogue, Professor Hamish Miles remarks:
'The objects on the table are a Bible, and two communion cups, probably of pewter. It may be supposed that, on the vigil of the Sabbath, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkie are joined in contemplation of the import of these instruments of the ministry he is about to exercise; his abstraction is complete, but her fond, slightly uncomprehending glance at her son, as he paints the picture, mediates touchingly between the spirit and the world.'
In 1813, the year after his father's death, Wilkie painted a slightly smaller version of this picture, which he sent to his brother, Lieutenant John Wilkie, in India. The two pictures are very close although the later work, which is now in the National Gallery of Scotland, is slightly less austere; Mrs Wilkie's shawl being elaborately edged, and the simple settee replaced by a considerably more ornate piece.
The present picture was lent by Wilkie to Francis Chantrey in 1832-3, as an aid for the sculptor's relief portraits on the memorial sarcophagus to Wilkie's parents in the church at Cults.
The Rev. David Wilkie (1738-1812) was the heir to John Wilkie, Tenant of Rathobyres, west of Edinburgh. He matriculated first in 1757 at the University of Edinburgh, and again in 1769 at the University of St. Andrews. In the years immediately following his ordination at Cults in 1774, he twice became a widower. In 1781 he married, as his third wife, Isabella Lister (1763-1824), the daughter of a prosperous farmer and miller of Pitlessie, the only village in the parish. They had six children, of whom David was the third, and seem to have had a close relationship. The artist's father is described as being 'sensible' and 'universally esteemed for his genuine piety and rectitude of conduct', while Wilkie's mother, who supported his wish to train as an artist, was a more openly warm and loving character. On the Rev. Wilkie's death in 1812, Mrs Wilkie and her daughter Helen moved to London to live with the artist in a house in Kensington. Her death in 1824 contributed significantly to Wilkie's nervous and physical collapse the following year.
Wilkie's depiction of his parents reveals an engaging intimacy; both the respect in which he held his father, and the close bond he shared with his mother, are clear. In the 1994 exhibition catalogue, Professor Hamish Miles remarks:
'The objects on the table are a Bible, and two communion cups, probably of pewter. It may be supposed that, on the vigil of the Sabbath, Mr. and Mrs. Wilkie are joined in contemplation of the import of these instruments of the ministry he is about to exercise; his abstraction is complete, but her fond, slightly uncomprehending glance at her son, as he paints the picture, mediates touchingly between the spirit and the world.'
In 1813, the year after his father's death, Wilkie painted a slightly smaller version of this picture, which he sent to his brother, Lieutenant John Wilkie, in India. The two pictures are very close although the later work, which is now in the National Gallery of Scotland, is slightly less austere; Mrs Wilkie's shawl being elaborately edged, and the simple settee replaced by a considerably more ornate piece.
The present picture was lent by Wilkie to Francis Chantrey in 1832-3, as an aid for the sculptor's relief portraits on the memorial sarcophagus to Wilkie's parents in the church at Cults.