The Village Politicians

The Village Politicians
Artist	David Wilkie
Year	1806
Type	Oil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions	57.2 cm× 74.9 cm(22.5 in× 29.5 in)
Location	Scone Palace, Perthshire

The Village Politicians is an 1806 genre painting by the British artist David Wilkie. It depicts a group of figures gathered round a table on a cramped village inn in Scotland. Intently discussing some matter, The painting purposefully emulates the style of the Dutch Old Masters of the seventeenth century, a common feature of Wilkie's early works.

The Scottish Wilkie had moved to London in 1805 to attend the Royal Academy Schools. The picture was commissioned by the Earl of Mansfield. ^[1] It was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1806 at Somerset House in London. The success of the work with the public made Wilkie an overnight celebrity at the age of twenty. ^[2]

The painting is today remains in the collection of the Earl of Mansfield at Scone Palace. ^[3]

References

1. Tromans p.7
2. Solkin p.7.
3. Fairclough p.vii

Bibliography

• Fairclough, Mary. The Romantic Crowd: Sympathy, Controversy and Print Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2013.
• Solkin, David H. Painting Out of the Ordinary: Modernity and the Art of Everyday Life in Early Nineteenth-century Britain. Yale University Press, 2009.
• Tromans, Nicholas. David Wilkie: The People's Painter. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.