David Wilkie was born on November 18, 1785, in a small parish called Cults, Fife, Scotland. He was a son of David Wilkie, a Church of Scotland minister, and Isobel Wilkie.
Wilkie revealed his passion for art at the early childhood.
David had three brothers whose names were John, James and Thomas, and one sister named Helen.
Among the well-known relatives of the artist was a British writer Caroline Chevalier.
David Wilkie studied at the schools in Pitlessie, Kingskettle and Cupar finishing in 1799. A year later, he became a student of the Edinburgh Trustees' Academy (currently Edinburgh College of Art) where he had been taught under the painter John Graham till 1804.
The following year, David relocated to London and pursued his artistic training at the Royal Academy of Arts which he had entered on November 28.
David Wilkie started one of his first subject paintings, Pitlessie Fair, in 1804. The canvas depicted the annual May Fair in his native parish with portraits of his neighbours and of some members of his family.
The first commissions Wilkie received came from the pianoforte maker Robert Stodart who introduced him to widow Countess of Mansfield in 1806. At the painter’s debut Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, the same year, countess’s son bought Wilkie’s painting titled Village Politicians. The next patron of the artist became his future lifetime friend Sir George Beaumont who purchased the following year Wilkie’s The Blind Fiddler.
In 1812, David Wilkie tried to organize the exposition of his painting at the Pall Mall street in London, but the exhibition had no success because of the financial problems.
The following year David Wilkie received a commission on a canvas Blind Man's Buff from Prince Regent.
Other important artwork of David Wilkie was Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo Dispatch of 1816. The painting was commissioned by the Duke of Wellington in order to commemorate the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The canvas was presented at the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1822 and had such success that it needed barriers to preserve it from the audience.
The same year, David Wilkie started to produce his other notable artwork, a portrait of King George IV during his visit to Scotland. To finish the canvas, the painter spent seven years.
To cure the nervous breakdown, Wilkie had suffered in 1825, he had three years trip to Europe where he explored and admired the art of Italian and Spanish Old Masters. The masterpieces pushed David Wilkie to change his own style. So, the colours on his canvases became more strong.
Two years after his return to the United Kingdom, David Wilkie succeeded Sir Thomas Lawrence on his post of the ordinary painter to the King. The notable painting of this period included Columbus in the Convent at La Rabida (1835), Napoleon and Pius VII at Fontainebleau (1836), Empress Josephine and the Fortune-Teller (1837), Queen Victoria Presiding at her First Council (1838) and General Sir David Baird Discovering the Body of Sultan Tippoo Sahib (finished in 1839).
The same time, the painter had a lot of commissions for portraits, most of which were royal.
When Queen Victoria ascended to the throne, David Wilkie lost his popularity among the royalty.
At the end of his life, Wilkie travelled to the East. The trip inspired the master on many paintings, one of the last of which became a portrait of Mehemet Ali, made at Alexandria.
David Wilkie was a distinguished genre and portrait painter whose talent was widely recognized during his lifetime and soon after. So, Wilkie’s brilliant engravings were featured in Art Union Journal of 1840. The Scottish author and poet Allan Cunningham created a series of books on the painter’s life and career called The Life of Sir David Wilkie. The first edition came in 1843.
Wilkie’s etchings were also included in the catalogue made by his fellow Academician William Collins.
At the Cults Kirk Parish Church is placed a memorial dedicated to the painter by his sister.
Probably, one of David Wilkie’s paintings is used as a part of the plot in the novel Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher.
As an aspiring painter, David Wilkie was a perseverant young man. Despite, he was very opportunistic – he tried not to miss any fairs and marketplace.
