SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. | Domestic Life

Acquired from the artist by Juan Peyronnet, Toulouse, 1836; Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 29 May 1875, lot 136 ("La Vie Domestique"), to Polak for £50;

A.B. Yuille, Bellevue, Bridge of Allan;

By whom sold, London, Christie's, 6 February 1909, lot 59 (Domestic Felicity), to Field for £18, 18s;

J. R. Edmiston, by whom acquired 19 February 1969;

With Ian McNicol, Glasgow;

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Lady'), Edinburgh, Christie's, 30 April 1986, lot 240, to Peter Nahum, on behalf of John Robertson; 

Robertson Collection, Orkney, thence by descent.

Edinburgh, Bourne Fine Art, The Wilkie tradition: David Wilkie and his Scottish contemporaries, December 1999, no. 1.

R. Sutherland Gower, Sir David Wilkie, London 1902, pp. 96 and 130; A. Cunningham, The Life of Sir David Wilkie, 3 vols, 1843, vol. III, p. 530.

The following condition report is provided by Henry Gentle who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak support is well preserved. It is flat with no splits or undulations. The paint layer is in very good original condition with the paint texture unaffected by any previous conservation intervention. There is a small visible loss in the green curtain and there is a disturbance of the paint layer to the edges, a result of frame rebate pressure. Under u-v light one or two minor re-touchings can be detected only. Beneath a discoloured varnish, the removal of which would improve the overall tonality, delicate fine details are visible as well as fresh, crisp and vibrant colours.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This exquisite domestic genre scene is one of a number of works influenced by Wilkie’s European tour in the late 1820s, particularly his experiences in Spain, with its Spanish setting of rich colours, heavy furnishings and exotic costumes. Painted with greater speed than was typical of his earlier work, the picture’s broad painterly handling and vigorous brushwork, so characteristic of his work of this period, is a consequence of Wilkie’s extensive first-hand study of the work of Titian, Velázquez, Murillo and other Old Masters, which he had discovered in the rich collections of Madrid. Wilkie set out on his belated Grand Tour in the summer of 1825, precipitated by a recent bout of ill-health. Having spent two winters in Italy recovering his faculties he travelled through Germany, Switzerland and France, finally reaching Spain in October 1827. The artist was deeply influenced by his time in Spain – both by the works of the Old Masters he saw in the galleries of Madrid, the Escorial and Toledo; and by the culture and history, both recent and ancient, of the country.

Despite this, only four known paintings by Wilkie produced in Spain survive, three of which were bought by King George IV almost immediately upon the artist’s return to England (all three remain in the Royal Collection). The artist’s imagination continued to be fired by subjects from Spanish history and literature long after he returned to England, however, and Spanish subjects featured prominently among the works Wilkie exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1830 and 1835.

This freely painted but exquisitely delicate little work is such a picture and is one of a series of five subjects painted by Wilkie in the mid-1830s that have upper-class female domestic life as their theme, including The Fist Ear-ring (1835, Tate Gallery, London), and The Bride at her Toilet (1838, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh). The work depicts a noble lady, her infant child and the child’s nurse in a richly adorned bedroom interior, dramatically lit, with a strong sense of chiaroscuro, from an unseen window on the left. The standing noble lady wears ermine robes, denoting her high status, a traditional Spanish mantilla on her head and carries a fur muff. She has clearly returned home from some official engagement. The infant, obviously delighted at its mother’s return, attempts to escape the clutches of the nurse maid who has been keeping the child entertained and is about to feed it, judging by the bowl and spoon on the table to the right. At their feet a lap dog resembling a small greyhound – another indicator of social status – scratches itself excitedly behind the ear. Despite the grand setting and elevated social status it is, in many ways, a timeless and universal scene of domestic bliss and familial affection.

The subject demonstrates the influence of the Dutch masters, such as Gerard ter Borch, Johannes Vermeer, and Gabriel Metsu, whose work Wilkie had so admired at the Louvre; whilst the costume and handling are evidence of the artist’s protracted study of Italian and Spanish painters. Wilkie’s model for the noble lady appears to be the same as that for the principal figure in both The Bride at her Toilet and The First Ear-ring. The latter also has a similar disposition of figures; with a comparable dog scratching itself and the same brass ewer and basin lower right (though in this picture they are partly obscured by the red table cloth). The inscription on the back of the picture, written in French, gives instructions for the painting never to be varnished, strongly suggesting that it was painted for, and sent directly to, its first owner, Juan Peyronnet in Toulouse. Wilkie’s work was popular with Continental collectors – his studio in Madrid had been particularly well visited by the Spanish nobility – and he had a number of prominent patrons across Europe.