Name: SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR)
Brand: Figures by a country tavern
Price: 3800.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR)
Figures by a country tavern
oil on panel
5⁵⁄₈ x 7³⁄₈ in. (14.3 x 18.8 cm.)

Though this little sketch may, at first glance, be taken as a copy after Teniers, it is in fact entirely of Wilkie’s own invention, though evidently using the Dutch master as his inspiration. As his first biographer, Allan Cunningham noted: ‘It was a favourite theory of [Wilkie’s] to keep some fine picture in his mind while his brush was wet, that...he might warm his taste by its beauties, and, without exactly imitating, create something akin to it in spirit and feeling’ (The Life of Sir David Wilkie, London, 1843, I, p. 435).

Bought from the artist by General Sir Willoughby Gordon, 1st Bt. (1772-1851), on 18 January 1817, and by descent to his son,
Sir Henry Gordon, 2nd Bt. (1806-1876), and by descent to his daughter,
Mary Gordon (d. 1926) and her husband General Robert Disney Leith (1819-1892), and by descent in the family to their grandson,
Captain the Hon. John Disney Leith (1909-1968), and by inheritance to his wife,
Mona Leith (1910-1980); Phillips, Edinburgh, 7 November 1980, lot 88, where acquired by the following,
with The Fine Art Society, London, where acquired by the present owner.

London, The Fine Art Society, Fourteen Small Pictures by Wilkie, 1981, no. 5.
London, Thomas Agnew and Sons, English Watercolours, Drawings and Small Oil Paintings, 1-24 March 2000, no. 97.

This lot is offered without reserve.
This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

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Lot Essay

Though this little sketch may, at first glance, be taken as a copy after Teniers, it is in fact entirely of Wilkie’s own invention, though evidently using the Dutch master as his inspiration. As his first biographer, Allan Cunningham noted: ‘It was a favourite theory of [Wilkie’s] to keep some fine picture in his mind while his brush was wet, that...he might warm his taste by its beauties, and, without exactly imitating, create something akin to it in spirit and feeling’ (The Life of Sir David Wilkie, London, 1843, I, p. 435).