Old Masters
Old Masters
Lot Closed
June 11, 04:13 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A.
Fifie 1785 - 1841 at sea off Gibraltar
PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER AITKEN, HALF LENGTH, WEARING A DARK COAT WITH A BUFF WAISTCOAT AND A WHITE STOCK
oil on canvas
canvas: 30 by 25 in.; 76 by 63.5 cm.
framed: 36 by 31¼ in.; 91.4 by 79.4 cm.
Lt. Col. G. L. Leslie-Smith (family of the sitter);
Thence by descent in the family;
Acquired by the present owner, 1994.
Alexander Aitken was the eldest son of George Aitken of Todhall and his wife Janet Panton. He lived at Cupar in Fife, was a banker, became a Colonel in the Fifeshire Militia, and later a captain in the Black Watch. This portrait is one of a group of about thirteen that Sir David Wilkie painted of local landowners and professionals in Cupar between late 1804 and May 1805, after he left the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh and before the he left Scotland for London. The portraits in the group display the influence of Sir Henry Raeburn, and in style, format, and handling, this present lot shares similarities with Wilkie's own Self Portrait, today in the Scottish National Portrait Galleries,1 which he completed around the same time in 1804-1805. It is probable that Wilkie revised the present portrait in 1806, as the payment for the painting arrived around 30 July 1806.