Details
SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR)
The Parish Beadle
oil on canvas
2378 x 3534 in. (60.8 x 90.8 cm.)
Provenance
Acquired by the current owner in circa 2000.
Special notice
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
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Lot Essay

The Parish Beadle 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 Oliver Twist (1838), probably his best known satiric portrait of the local official.

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