SIR DAVID WILKIE R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR) The Dortie Bairn signed and dated 'D Wilkie 1818' (upper centre, on the reverse) oil on panel 6 x 51⁄4 in. (15.2 x 13.3 cm.) Executed in late 1816 or early 1817, the title of this painting means 'the sullen child'. The subject may loosely have been taken from one of the verse fables of Wilkie’s third cousin, the Rev. William Wilkie, entitled The young lady and the looking-glass. First published in 1768, these poems were intended as moral lessons. In this case, the young girl was meant to have been sullen and angry, until her mother gave her a mirror: ‘That it might show her how deform'd She look'd, and frightful when she storm'd; And warn her, as she priz'd her beauty, To bend her humour to her duty. All this the looking glass achiev'd.... The maid, who spurn'd at all advice, Grew tame and gentle in a trice.’ In 1829 Wilkie wrote to the then owner, Sir Gordon Willoughby, asking to borrow the painting so that it could be engraved for The Amulet, an annual edited by Samuel Carter Hall, where it appeared opposite his cousin’s texts. A preparatory drawing for the painting can be found in Wilkie’s sketchbook in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
SIR DAVID WILKIE R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR) The Dortie Bairn signed and dated 'D Wilkie 1818' (upper centre, on the reverse) oil on panel 6 x 51⁄4 in. (15.2 x 13.3 cm.) Executed in late 1816 or early 1817, the title of this painting means 'the sullen child'. The subject may loosely have been taken from one of the verse fables of Wilkie’s third cousin, the Rev. William Wilkie, entitled The young lady and the looking-glass. First published in 1768, these poems were intended as moral lessons. In this case, the young girl was meant to have been sullen and angry, until her mother gave her a mirror: ‘That it might show her how deform'd She look'd, and frightful when she storm'd; And warn her, as she priz'd her beauty, To bend her humour to her duty. All this the looking glass achiev'd.... The maid, who spurn'd at all advice, Grew tame and gentle in a trice.’ In 1829 Wilkie wrote to the then owner, Sir Gordon Willoughby, asking to borrow the painting so that it could be engraved for The Amulet, an annual edited by Samuel Carter Hall, where it appeared opposite his cousin’s texts. A preparatory drawing for the painting can be found in Wilkie’s sketchbook in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
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