Bathsheba at the Bath

Bathsheba at the Bath
Artist	David Wilkie
Year	1817
Type	Oil on canvas, history painting
Dimensions	40.3 cm× 53.2 cm(15.9 in× 20.9 in)
Location	Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Bathsheba at the Bath is an 1817 history painting by the British artist David Wilkie. ^[1] It depicts the biblical scene of Bathsheba being spied on by the Israeli king David while bathing, entrancing him. Wilkie was influenced by the style of Rembrandt for this painting. ^[2] The subject had been a popular one since the Renaissance era, second only to David's battle against Goliath in depictions of the monarch. ^[3] It was an unusual subject matter for Wilkie nonetheless, who was best known at this time for small genre paintings of everyday life. ^[4]

Wilkie exhibited the painting at the British Institution in 1818 where it was criticised by the press including the Radical newspaper The Examiner . ^[5] Today it is in the collection of the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, having been acquired in 1932. ^[6]

References

1. Wright, Gordon, & Smith p.824
2. Turner p.283
3. Jones, Murray & Murray p.144-45
4. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/bathsheba-bath
5. Tromans p.10 & 60
6. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/bathsheba-bath

Bibliography

• Jones, Tom Devonshire, Murray, Linda & Murray, Peter. The Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art and Architecture. OUP Oxford, 2013.
• Turner, Nicholas. European Drawings 4: Catalogue of the Collections. Getty Publications, 2001.
• Tromans, Nicholas. David Wilkie: The People's Painter. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
• Wright, Christopher, Gordon, Catherine May & Smith, Mary Peskett. British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections: An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland.