WILKIE, Sir DAVID, a distinguished Scottish painter, was b. in •Fifeshire, at Cults, of which parish his father was minister, Nov. 18, 1785, His boyish passion for art was too strong to be resistedby his father, who, with much reluctance, sent him in 1799 to study in the academy of Edinburgh. Here he greatly distinguished himself; and returning home, in 1804, he painted his " Pitlessie Fair," a piece in which already his peculiar genius is pronounced, and which brought him the sum of £25. The price seems paltry; but for the work of an unknown country stripling in an original walk of art, it was perhaps to be considered handsome. Shortly after, Wilkie proceeded to London, In tending to return to Scotland after a year or two of study; but the great success of his picture, " The Village Politicians," determined him to settle in the metropolis. Not that pecuniarily, he was very greatly benefited, £30 being all that the earl of 'Mansfield could with difficulty be got to pay for the picture, though aware that, on a point of honorable scruple, the artist had refused repeated offers of £100; but the originality and humor of the work greatly captivated the public, and at once established the reputation of the painter, who had soon commissions in plently, at greatly advanced prices. In 1809 his brethren of the Royal academy ratified the favorable verdict of the public by electing him an associate; and two years afterward he was advanced to the rank of academi cian. In 1814 in company with his friend Haydon, he visited Paris, and inspected with great delight the art-treasures at the Louvre. Though his father had died some years before, and his mother and sister were now living with him at Kensington, in 1817 he made a run into Scotland, and, while the guest of Scott at Abbotsford, painted his well-known picture of the great poet and 'his family. During these years, Wilkie had been engaged on the series of pictures on which mainly his fame rests; pictures familiar by engraving to every one (the "Blind Fiddler," " Card Players,' " Rent Day," "Jew's Harp," "Village Festival," "Blind Man's Buff," ," Distraining for Rent," "the Penny Wedding," "Reading of the Will," etc.), in which the homely humors of humble life are expressed by a vehicle appropriately simple, and—though scarce in the higher sense to be called color—of charming purity and transparency. In this style,
distinctively his own, his genius is commonly held to have culminated in " The Chelsea Pensioners listening to the News of Waterloo," which was painted during the years 1820-21. This work was a commission from the duke of Wellington, who paid the artist 1200 guinea:, for it. Subsequently. he changed his style, sought In emulate the depth and richness of coloring of the old masters, and deserting the`homely life, which he could treat so exquisite:y, chose elevated. and even heroic subjects, to the height of which he could never rightly raise himself. The florid picture, painted in 1830, of "George IV. entering Holyrood," which, though not without its fine points, can delight no one but a flunkey, gave the first hint of the change; and no doubt a tour over nearly the whole continent, which he made for his health, in 1824, everywhere, of course intent upon the grand old masterpieces, did something to stimulate the new and unwise' ambition. 13y common consent it has been adjudged unwise; and Wilkie remains, and will remain, memorable, not for the quasi-high art of his later years, but for the simpler, ;truer, and, in every right sense, higher art of his earlier time. He never, however, ceased to be popular, and honors continued to be showered upon him. On the death of sir Hemy Raeburn, he succeeded him as limner to his majesty; in 1830 he was made painter in ordinary to his majesty, in room of sir Thomas Lawrence deceased; and in 1836 the honor of knighthood was conferred upon him. Wilkie had never been robust; and his health now began to give way seriously. In 1840, seeking to re-establish it, he once more left England; but he did not find what he sought. Having visited Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, he died on his voyage home, off Gibraltar, and was com mitted to the deep.
As an illustrator of Scottish character and manners in humble life, Wilkie, in his best pictures, may take rank with Burns in poetry, and Scott in fiction. As a man, he was kindly, warm-hearted, and of essential generosity of disposition.—See Life and Letters of Wilkie, by Allan Cunningham (1843).