Sir David Wilkie, R.A.

Private collection, Germany.

The attribution of this work to Sir David Wilkie, R.A. (1785–1841) is based on a close comparison with other brilliant and virtuosic oil sketches and portrait studies by the artist. The particularly lively and fluid handling evident in this panel is also found in the artist's portrait of Prince Augustus Frederick (1773–1843), Duke of Sussex, which sold at auction in 2022.¹ Possibly dating to the 1820s or '30s, it is likely that this portrait was completed before the artist's journeys to the Middle East in 1840, where he produced several portraits and scenes inspired by oriental scenes and figures he observed first-hand. Compared with these more studied examples, this painting was likely to have been made of his own invention inspired partly by grand manner portraiture of the previous decades and infused with an exotericism conjured from his own imagination. This study is yet to be connected with any finished work by the artist.

¹ Christie's, London, 8 July 2022, lot 205 for £13,860.