Sir David Wilkie

Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841) was a prominent Scottish painter. He was one of the artists featured in this blog's very first post.

 Chelsea Pensioners Receiving the Gazette Announcing the Battle of Waterloo (ca. 1819)

  

 Distraining for Rent 1815)

["distrain" means "to seize someone's property to obtain payment
of rent or other money owed" (I had to look it up!)]

   

 His Highness Muhemed Ali, Pacha of Egypt (1841)

  

 Josephine and the Fortune Teller (1837)

[a depiction of the famous episode where Josephine is told of her destiny to be Empress]

  

 Newsmongers (1821)

  

 Pitlessie Fair (1804)

  

 Reading the Will (1820)

  

 Self-Portrait 1805)

  

 The Blind Fiddler (1806)

  

 The Defense of Saragossa (1828)

[depicts the Spanish efforts to resist the second siege of Saragossa in Spain by the 

troops of Napoleon. It highlights Agustina de Aragon, the Maid of Saragossa, 

who took a place at the guns during the three month siege in 1808]
  

 The First Earring (1835)

  

 The Letter of Introduction (1813)

[a very well portrayed little drama]

  

 The Pedlar (1814)

  

 The Penny Wedding (1818)

[nowadays they run about $10K (if you're frugal)]

  

The Refusal (1814)

[Wilkie took his subject from the Robert Burns song 'Duncan Gray', (1798)
in which proud Maggie initially refuses Duncan's proposal of marriage,
but later changes her mind. Wilkie's friend, the painter William Mulready,
was the model for Duncan.]