Name: SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR)
Brand: Seven figures in a church, Ghent
Price: 4000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR)
Seven figures in a church, Ghent
oil on panel
7 x 6¹⁄₈ in. (17.8 x 15.5 cm.)

When this painting first entered the collection of Sir Willoughby Gordon, it was described as being a scene in Ghent. It is not, however, the place that is the focus of the work, but the costume of the people. Wilkie had a fascination for different national dress that he indulged in his trips to France in 1814 and the Low Countries in 1816, where he noted ‘the inveteracy of the resemblance between the Dutch and Flemish pictures [of the seventeenth century] and their [present-day] originals.’

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 93, 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. 4.

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.
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Lot Essay

When this painting first entered the collection of Sir Willoughby Gordon, it was described as being a scene in Ghent. It is not, however, the place that is the focus of the work, but the costume of the people. Wilkie had a fascination for different national dress that he indulged in his trips to France in 1814 and the Low Countries in 1816, where he noted ‘the inveteracy of the resemblance between the Dutch and Flemish pictures [of the seventeenth century] and their [present-day] originals.’