| Blind-Man's Buff | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | David Wilkie |
| Year | 1812 |
| Type | Oil on panel, genre painting |
| Dimensions | 63.2 cm× 91.8 cm(24.9 in× 36.1 in) |
| Location | Royal Collection |
Blind-Man's Buff is an 1812 genre painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. [1] It shows a game of Blind man's buff. While depictions of the game had appeared in art before, Willkie chose to portray a humbler settling than earlier versions generally set in drawing rooms. [2]
It was commissioned by George, Prince Regent who intended it to be a companion piece to a work already in his collection The Village Choristers (1810) by Edward Bird. He gave Wilkie a free hand to choose whatever subject he wanted. [2] He exhibited it at a solo exhibition in 1812 and then at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition at Somerset House in 1813, where it was "full as much liked as any I ever painted". [2] It shows the influence of seventeenth century Old Masters on Wilkie's early genre paintings. It became even better known due to a popular engraving produced by Abraham Raimbach in 1822. [3]
The Regent was pleased with the work, which cost him 500 guineas, and hung it in his London residence Carlton House. It was later recorded at the King's Lodge at Windsor. It remains in the Royal Collection. [4] In 1818 George commissioned Willkie to produce a further companion piece The Penny Wedding . [5]
Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter, especially known for his genre scenes. He painted successfully in a wide variety of genres, including historical scenes, portraits, including formal royal ones, and scenes from his travels to Europe and the Middle East. His main base was in London, but he died and was buried at sea, off Gibraltar, returning from his first trip to the Middle East. He was sometimes known as the "people's painter".
Edward Bird was an English genre painter who spent most of his working life in Bristol, where the Bristol School of artists formed around him. He enjoyed a few years of popularity in London, where he challenged the dominance of Sir David Wilkie in the genre painting field, before moving on to history painting, specialising in battle scenes.
Scottish art in the nineteenth century is the body of visual art made in Scotland, by Scots, or about Scottish subjects. This period saw the increasing professionalisation and organisation of art in Scotland. Major institutions founded in this period included the Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, the Royal Scottish Academy of Art, the National Gallery of Scotland, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Glasgow Institute. Art education in Edinburgh focused on the Trustees Drawing Academy of Edinburgh. Glasgow School of Art was founded in 1845 and Grays School of Art in Aberdeen in 1885.
Scottish genre art is the depiction of everyday life in Scotland, or by Scottish artists, emulating the genre art of Netherlands painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Common themes included markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes.
Quilting Frolic is an oil-on-canvas genre painting by American artist John Lewis Krimmel (1786–1821). It was painted in Philadelphia in 1813. Purchased in 1953, the work is held in the permanent collection of the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. The painting depicts an interior domestic scene of merrymaking with a Black child serving and a Black fiddler entertaining partygoers celebrating the completion of a quilt.
The Defence of Saragossa is an 1828 history painting by the British artist David Wilkie. It depicts a scene during the 1808 Siege of Zaragoza at the time of the Peninsular War.
Sir David Baird Discovering the Body of Sultan Tipoo Sahib is an 1839 history painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It is held at the Scottish National Gallery, in Edinburgh.
Newsmongers is an 1821 genre painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It portrays a group gathered around a man and woman holding up a newspaper. The group includes a baker carrying a pie and roast joint. The news being read is not specified, but its been speculated that might be news of the Napoleonic Wars or the more recent Trial of Queen Caroline.
The Penny Wedding is an 1818 genre painting by the British artist David Wilkie. It depicts a traditional penny wedding in which the guests each paid a penny towards the cost.
The Dying Contrabandista is an 1858 genre painting by the British artist John Phillip. Formerly a member of The Clique artistic group, later in his career Phillip concentrated on scenes of Spanish life and was a favourite painter of Queen Victoria.
The Parish Beadle is an 1823 genre painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It is held in the Tate Britain, in London.
Washington Irving in the Archives of Seville is a painting of 1828 by the British artist David Wilkie. It depicts a visit by the American writer Washington Irving to a library in Seville.
The Orphan is an 1834 painting by the Scottish artist William Allan. Allan produced it as a lament for the loss of his friend and supporter the writer Sir Walter Scott who had died in 1832. It depicts the dining room of Abbotsford, the country house in southern Scotland. Scott's daughter Anne leans mournfully against the writer's empty carved oak chair.
Pitlessie Fair is an 1804 genre painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It depicts the annual mayfair being held in his native village of Pitlessie, in Fife. It is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery, in Edinburgh, having been purchased in 1921.
Portrait of William IV is an 1832 portrait painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It is a depiction of the reigning British monarch William IV, who had come to the throne two years earlier. Wilkie was Principal Painter in Ordinary to the king and produced this full-length work showing William in his garter robes with St Edward's Crown beside him. Wilkie was a great admirer of Old Masters and the presentation of the king echoes that of Hans Holbein's Portrait of Henry VIII.
Napoleon and Pius VII at Fontainebleau is an 1836 history painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. It is held at the National Gallery of Ireland, in Dublin.
Josephine and the Fortune-Teller is an 1837 history painting by the British artist David Wilkie. It depicts a story about the young Joséphine de Beauharnais visiting a fortune teller on her native island of Martinique, who predicts her future in France as the wife of Emperor Napoleon.
The Village Recruit is an 1805 genre painting by the Scottish artist David Wilkie. Painted at the time of the Napoleonic Wars it shows a recruiting party of the British Army in a country tavern where one young man has just enlisted and prepares to spend his King's shilling on further alcohol. It was painted when Wilkie was around twenty, the year he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy. It was one of three paintings that were spin-offs from his 1804 work Pitlessie Fair, which had featured a recruiting party. Influenced like much of Wilkie's work by the old masters of the seventeenth century, it has strong similarities to his better-known work The Village Politicians. It was initially known by the alternative title Bounty Money.
The Guerilla's Return is an 1830 history painting by the British artist David Wilkie. It is part of the Royal Collection of the United Kingdom.
The Murder of David Rizzio is an 1833 history painting by the Scottish artist William Allan. It portrays the 1566 assassination of the Italian courtier David Rizzio at Holyrood Palace during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. On the left side of the canvas Mary is shown being restrained by her husband Lord Darnley. The artist took great care to be historically accurate in his depictions of the various figures portrayed in the scene. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition at Somerset House in London where it was major success. Today it is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery, having been acquired in 1927.