| The Village Holiday | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | David Wilkie |
| Year | 1811 |
| Type | Oil on canvas, genre painting |
| Dimensions | 127.6 cm× 94 cm(50.2 in× 37 in) |
| Location | Tate Britain, London |
The Village Holiday is an 1811 genre painting by the British artist David Wilkie. It depicts a scene outside an ale house, and was originally titled The Public House Door. Its final title is a misnomer, as it in fact depicts an inn then on the outskirts of London at Paddington. [1] The Scottish-born London-based artist made his name with such narrative genre pieces before later turning to portraits and history paintings on a greater scale. Stylistically it references the seventeenth century genre works of the Dutch Old Master David Teniers the Younger. [2]
Begun in 1809, it was not completed until two years earlier. It was the centrepiece of a solo art exhibition Wilkie staged in 1812. [3] Today the painting is in the collection of the Tate Britain in Pimlico, having been purchased for the National Gallery in 1824. [4] It was acquired as part of the collection of John Julius Angerstein and was therefore the only work of a living artist to feature in the initial National Gallery after its establishment. [5]