Description
This drawing is a preparatory study for a genre scene commissioned by a German nobleman in 1820 and shown at the Royal Academy in 1821. Executed in the three-chalk technique, the sheet betrays the influence of Rubens’s drawings, which Wilkie could have seen in Paris in 1814. In a subject of the artist’s own devising, a young woman covers a potential suitor’s eyes, but will he identify her correctly?
Accession Number
191491
Medium
Black and red Conté crayon, with graphite, heightened with white chalk on tan laid paper, laid down
Dimensions
Primary support: 10.3 × 18 cm (4 1/16 × 7 1/8 in.); Secondary support: 18 × 25.7 cm (7 1/8 × 10 1/8 in.)
Classification
prints and drawing
Credit Line
Regenstein Endowment Fund
