The Parish Beadle

Name: SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR)
Brand: The Parish Beadle
Price: 10000.00 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

Estimate

GBP 12,000 - GBP 18,000

Closed: 9 Dec 2022

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SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR)

The Parish Beadle

Closed: 9 Dec 2022

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR)
The Parish Beadle
oil on canvas
23⁷⁄₈ x 35³⁄₄ in. (60.8 x 90.8 cm.)

Acquired by the current owner in circa 2000.

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Lot Essay

is a full scale sketch for the painting of the same name in the Tate Gallery, London (inv. no. N00241), executed by Sir David Wilkie in 1820-23. A beadle was an an official of the local church, tasked with various civil, educational, or ceremonial duties. This is a comic scene, depicting the excessive zeal of the officer arresting a troupe of itinerent entertainers. From the distinctive shape of the adults' hats, we can tell that these are Savoyard travellers; with their flamboyant dress, instruments and animals they subtly undermine the pompous authority of the stout beadle. Wilkie was not alone in his gentle mockery of this figure; Dickens repeatedly mocks the parish beadle in his early works, culminating in the ridiculous Mr Bumble in (1838), probably his best known satiric portrait of the local official.