The Highland Family

Sir David Wilkie

1824 · Oil on wood · European Paintings

Wilkie, a genre painter, served as a court artist under George IV and his successors. This painting, commissioned by the Earl of Essex in 1824, was exhibited by Wilkie at the Royal Academy in 1825. The scene’s rustic detail, as in the vignette of collie dogs lolling next to the open hearth, and its patriotic sentiment, which stems from the novels of Sir Walter Scott, explain the contemporary opinion that this work was not a costume piece but a "portrait painted from life."

Artist

Sir David Wilkie

Date

1824

Medium

Oil on wood

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Bequest of Maria DeWitt Jesup, from the collection of her husband, Morris K. Jesup, 1914