Sir David Wilkie, R. A.

Front matter

The Makers, of British Art

Edited by JAMES A. MANSON

Sir David Wilkie, R.

Preface

The life and art of Sir David Wilkie are of interest not only to Scottish folk, but to the whole art-loving public; even the historian of European art, who deals with none but the greatest names in the annals of the centuries, will find his records incomplete if he omit to notice the famous Scottish master. It is probably at the present day not sufficiently well recognised how great was the homage universally paid to his genius in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, and how he was held to be representative of British art in general as well as of that of the land of his birth. Thus the present volume appeals to a wider circle than that interested in things peculiarly Scottish; and it will, I hope, approve itself as at once more complete and more comprehensive than any other on the same subject already published ; while it is at the same time within a compass which should render it acceptable to busy people who have much to do and many books to read.

The volume includes features of an especial character. The number of Wilkie’s noteworthy acquaintances

vii was large, and I have thought it of interest to show in some detail the intimate nature of his friendships with prominent men of culture of his day, as Haydon and Sir George Beaumont. On the vexed question of Wilkie’s change of style, the solution here offered seems to be supported by careful deductions from the circumstances in which he made the departure from his true line of work. The question is of a sort that is perhaps unique in the history of painting, and, in the case of an artist of Wilkie’s eminence, it calls for observant consideration. On the merits of the work Wilkie did as a painter of genre , the view, I think, may be justly taken that its decline in the eyes of art critics has been caused more by the assertive dictates of fickle fashion than by any element of weakness in his productions. Fashion rules in the maxims of painting as it does in those of literature and music ; and it may be that, with respect to genre painting, the negative principle of to-day will be the renaissance spirit of to-morrow. The likelihood, indeed, is that the universal and enduring qualities of charm pertaining to the subject-matter of Wilkie’s finest pictures, will always remain and powerfully attract the unbiassed lover of art.

I have to express sincere obligations for much courtesy and help extended to me by owners of Wilkie’s paintings. I have to thank the Duke of

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Preface

Wellington, the Earl of Camperdown, and the Earl of Mansfield for the privilege, most generously rendered, of obtaining photographs of original paintings for reproduction in this volume. Lady Abercromby very thoughtfully put herself to considerable trouble in regard to the preparation of the plate of “The China Menders,” belonging to her brother. My thanks are also due to Sir David Baird, Mrs. Charles Kinnear, and Major Graham Bonar, of Greigston, for the kind permission to view important pictures by Wilkie belonging to them. The Marquis of Lansdowne, Mr. Munro-Ferguson, M.P., Mr. Watson-Armstrong, Mr. Thomas Brocklebank, and Mr. John Naylor most courteously gave me information concerning the works of Wilkie in their possession. The bibliography of Wilkie is somewhat extensive. I have stated the leading authorities which I have had occasion to consult. On the literary side of my task, I wish to express my thanks to certain friends who have given me valued co-operation in various ways. To Mr. James L. Caw, Mr. Algernon Graves, and Mr. J. Bolivar Manson I owe useful suggestions on Wilkie’s art. My brother, Mr. Thomas Bayne, and my friends, Mr. George R. T. Ross and Mr. W. Addis Miller, have lightened my task by their advice on points of special criticism and bibliography.

IX

The spontaneous interest taken by Fifeshire people in my investigations about Wilkie’s career has convinced me of the thoroughness of the appreciation with which his work is regarded by those to whom he is closely bound by national ties. It was to me a greatly esteemed honour to receive personal reminiscences of the great painter from his venerable cousin, Miss Hardie, of Pitlessie, who when a girl chatted with him in her father’s house. I am indebted to Mrs. Shand, of Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, also a relative of Wilkie’s, the Rev. W. H. Porter, Cults, and Mr. George Innes and Mr. Alexander Westwood, junior, of Cupar, for appropriate biographical incidents referring to Sir David’s life-work.

WILLIAM BAYNE.

The University, St. Andrews, x

CHAPTER i

wilkie’s Scottish precursors.

PAGE

Wilkie’s versatility — Preceding models — David Allan — Allan’s satirical sketches and sketches of Scots life and character — Thomson’s Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs — Burns on David Allan — Dutch genre — Scots portraiture — George Jamesone — The Medinas — Joseph Michael Wright — William Aikman — Allan Ramsay, the younger — David Martin — Sir Henry Raeburn — Scots historical painting — Gavin Hamilton — The brothers Runciman — Scots landscape work — Wilkie’s comparative neglect of landscape— Jacob More — Alexander Nasmyth ..... i

Chapter II. Birth And Apprenticeship

Wilkie’s birthplace — The Wilkie stock — Professor William Wilkie — Wilkie’s father and mother — The manse at Cults — Precocity — At the Trustees’ Academy, Edinburgh — Studentship— John xi

Graham — Student drawings — Lockhart on Wilkie’s youthful studies — First draught of “ The Village Politicians” — Sketch from The Gentle Shepherd — Sketch from Home’s Douglas — Return to Cults — Letter from John Graham — “Pitlessie Fair”

— “The Village Recruit” — Sketches at Cults — Kinghorn, St. Andrews, and Aberdeen — Setting out for London - - 18

Chapter III. Early Successes

Life in London — The Royal Academy classes — Fellow-students —

JB. R. Haydon — Jackson — Visits to galleries — Introduced to Lord Mansfield — “The Village Politicians” — Sir George Beaumont — Professor Knight’s Memorials of Coleorton — Lord Mulgrave — “ Alfred in the Neatherd’s Cottage ” — “ The Blind Fiddler” — “ The Card Players” — “The Rent Day” — “The Clubbists” — “The New Coat” — Commission from Lord Lansdowne — “The Sick Lady” — The Elgin Marbles — “The Village Festival ” — John Burnet — At Coleorton — “ The Gipsy Mother ” - - - - - - 36

Chapter IV. Royal Academician

“The Wardrobe Ransacked” — Picture of the Neave family — A. R. A. — Hay don’s quarrel with the Royal Academy — Wilkie’s withdrawal of “ The Wardrobe Ransacked ” from the Royal Academy — 111 health — At Dunmow — Completes “The Village Festival ” — R. A. — Visit to Cults — Changes his London residence — Holds a private exhibition of his pictures — Death

xii

Contents of the Rev. David Wilkie — Mrs. Wilkie and Helen Wilkie settle in London — “ Blind Man’s Buff” — “ The Bagpiper ” — “The Letter of Introduction” — “Duncan Gray” — In Paris — “Distraining for Rent” — “The Rabbit on the Wall” — Holiday in the Netherlands — Visit to Hougomont — Arrested at Calais — “The Breakfast” — “Sheepwashing” — Tour in Scotland — “The Abbotsford Family” — Burgess of Cupar — “The Death of Sir Philip Sidney” — “ The Penny Wedding” 58

Chapter V. Meridian Of Fame

The Iron Duke commissions “The Chelsea Pensioners” — “The China Menders” — “The Reading of a Will” — Professor Holmberg on “The Reading of a Will” — Maiden speech — Arduous labour at “ The Chelsea Pensioners” — Love story — Minor pictures — “The School” — Over to France to recuperate — “ The Chelsea Pensioners” in the Royal Academy Exhibition— Story regarding the payment of the picture — Wilkie’s picture on George IV. ’s visit to Edinburgh — William Collins — Sir Robert Peel — Limner to the King for Scotland — “The Parish Beadle” — Sketches from The Gentle Shepherd — “ The Smugglers ” — Illness of Mrs. Wilkie — Another trip to Scotland — Entertained by the artists of Edinburgh — Death of Mrs. Wilkie — Further domestic calamities — Breakdown — Resolves to visit Italy - - - - - - - 81

Chapter VI. Italy

Wilkie sets out for Italy — Paris doctor consulted — Journey through Switzerland — Milan— Change of style — Goethe on art — Pisa — xiii

Florence — Rome — Criticism of Michael Angelo — Holy Week at Rome — Financial troubles — Bologna — Parma — Venice — Titian and Tintoretto — Correspondence with Peel and Beaumont— Raimbach’s Memoirs — Visit to Germany — Innsbruck — Munich — “The Reading of a Will” — Dresden — The baths at Toplitz — Vienna — Return to Italy — Entertained by Scottish artists at Rome — Death of Beaumont — George IV. ’s generosity — Revived strength — Italian pictures — Geneva — Arrival in Spain ------ ioi

Chapter VII. In Spain, And Afterwards

Impressions of Spain — Burgos — Madrid — Pictures in the Escorial — Criticism of Murillo and Velasquez — “ The Maid of Saragossa” — “ The Spanish Posada ” — “ The Guerilla’s Departure ” — Washington Irving — Return to England — Patronage of George IV. — Turner — Wilkie’s pictures at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1829 — Critics of the New Mode — Illustrates the Waverley Novels — Death of Lawrence — - Candidature for presidency of the Royal Academy — Serjeant-Painter — The Holyrood picture — “ The Guerilla’s Return” — Portrait of Lady Lyndhurst — Portrait of Lord Melville — Portrait of William IV. .... 124

Chapter VIII. Cultivating History

Wilkie’s second style — “The Preaching of Knox before the Lords of the Congregation ” — Death of Sir Walter Scott — Royal favours — “Two Monks at Confession” — Commissions from

XIV

Contents

PAGE

the Duke of Wellington — “The Spanish Mother” — “Sir David Baird discovering the body of Tippoo Sahib” — “Christopher Columbus in the Convent at La Rabida” — “The First Ear-ring” — Portrait of Edward Irving — Wilkie visits Ireland — Irish sketches — “ The Smuggling Still at Work” — “ The Peep o’ Day Boy” — Portrait of the Duke of Wellington — “Napoleon and the Pope” — Knighted — Incidents regarding the Sir David Baird picture — Notes on art — “Queen Victoria’s First Council” — “John Knox dispensing the Sacrament at Calder Plouse” — Exhibits of 1840 - 144

Chapter IX. Journey To The East, And Death

Departure for Palestine — The Hague — Vienna — The Gates of the East — Constantinople — “ The Turkish Letter-Writer ” — Portrait of the Sultan — Smyrna — Jerusalem — The Dead Sea level — Opinion of sacred art among the Venetian painters — Homeward bound — Portrait of Mehemet Ali — Last illness and burial — Haydon’s tribute — Letter of condolence from the President and Council of the Royal Academy — The meeting at the Thatched House Tavern — Statue by Joseph — Eastern sketches — Portrait of Hallicoo Mirza — Admiral Walker’s daughter — Portraits of Turkish women — Portraits of Turkish soldiers and servants — Sacred subjects — Turkish scenes — Prices of Wilkie’s pictures - 168

Chapter X. Appreciation

Temporary eclipse — Personal appearance — Unselfishness — Friendship with Haydon — Partiality for Scottish talent — Haydon’s

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PAGE

animadversions — Humour — Anecdotes by Wilkie Collins Devotion to art — Religious sentiment — Change of style — Work in history — Early manner — Second manner — Place in art_Mr. Henley’s Views and Reviews— Hazlitt on Hogarth and Wilkie— Originality and variety of Wilkie’s genius

Appendix I.— Wilkie Pictures in Public Galleries XI. — Wilkie Pictures named in this Book „ III. - Wilkie’s Etchings

„ IV. — Bibliography •

Index • xvi

List of Illustrations

Sir David Wilkie, R.A. . , . Frontispiece

From a Photograph by Messrs. Walker & Cockerell of the Original by Wilkie in the National Portrait Gallery,

London.

The Village Politicians . . . To face page 32

From a Photograph by Messrs. Walker & Cockerell of the Original. By permission of the Earl of Mansfield.

The Blind Fiddler .... ,,40

From a Photograph by Messrs. Walker & Cockerell of the Original in the National Gallery, London.

The Rent Day . . . „ 48

From the Engraving by A. Raimbach, after the Original.

The Jew’s Harp .... ,,56

From the Engraving by John Burnet, after the Original.

The Village Festival ... ,,64

From a Photograph by Messrs. Walker & Cockerell of the Original in the National Gallery, London.

Blind Man’s Buff .... ,,72

From the Engraving by A. Raimbach, after the Original in His Majesty’s collection.

The Letter of Introduction . . „ 80

From the Engraving by John Burnet, after the Original.

Duncan Gray .... „ 88

From the Engraving by F. Engleheart, after the Original.

The Rabbit on the Wall ... „ 96

From the Engraving by John Burnet, after the Original.

XVII

The Penny Wedding . . . To face page 104

From the Engraving by J. Stewart, after the Original in His Majesty’s collection.

The China Menders . . . ,,112

From a Photograph by Mr. L. C. Keighly-Peach of the Original. By permission of the Earl of Camperdown.

The Chelsea Pensioners . . . ,, 120

From a Photograph by Messrs. Walker & Cockerell of the Original By permission of the Duke of Wellington.

The Parish Beadle .... ,,128

From a Photograph by Messrs. Walker & Cockerell of the Original in the Tate Gallery.

The Maid of Saragossa . . . „ 136

From the Engraving by Samuel Cousins, R.A., after the Original.

John Knox Preaching to the Lords of

the Congregation „ 144

From the Engraving by G. T. Doo, R.A., after the Original.

Columbus at the Convent of La Rabida „ 152

From the Engraving by H. T. Ryall, after the Original.

The First Ear-ring . . . „ 160

From the Engraving by Chevalier, after the Original.

Napoleon and Pope Pius VII. at

Fontainebleau .... „ 168

From the Engraving by J. H. Robinson, R.A., after the Original.

Queen Victoria’s First Council . . „ 176

From the Engraving by C. Fox, after the Original in His Majesty’s collection.

John Knox Dispensing the Sacrament

at Calder House . . . ,,184

From a Photograph by T. & R. Annan of the Original (unfinished) in the National Gallery, Edinburgh.

xviii

Sir David Wilkie, R.A

Chapter I

wilkie’s Scottish precursors.

Wilkie’s versatility — Preceding models — David Allan — Allan’s satirical sketches and sketches of Scots life and character — Thomson’s Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs — Burns on David Allan — Dutch genre — Scots portraiture — George Jamesone — The Medinas — Joseph Michael Wright — William Aikman — Allan Ramsay, the younger— David Martin — Sir Henry Raeburn — Scots historical painting — Gavin Hamilton — The brothers Runciman — Scots landscape work — Wilkie’s comparative neglect of landscape — Jacob More — Alexander Nasmyth.

Wilkie’s work in painting, while not always concerned with Scottish themes, and done for the most part on English soil, shows pretty decisively that it was based on that of Scottish exponents of his art. If it be no defensible law in painting, as by authoritative agreement it is not one in poetry, that the artist should bind his genius to a single method of expression, then Wilkie’s figure in art is of unusual fascination. Of strong versatility, he was endowed with precious influences from the past.

The Hour and the Man i

B

The greatest of Scottish, and one of the foremost of British painters, he may be taken as representative of the culminating artistic forces of an era. It happened as it has often happened in other spheres of action: the hour as well as the man was ripe. Wilkie by his versatility was able to cope, more or less effectively, with all the prominent forms of painting ; and in doing so he had ever before him some meritorious exemplar of native genius. To say this is to do hardly more than draw attention to a chronological fact. It is not by any means to disparage the extraordinary original gift of Wilkie, who shines beside the little masters of Scotland whom he succeeded, much as does Scott when compared with the old minstrels. Nothing could have restricted the splendid play of his genius, apart altogether from the question of preceding models. Yet that dim forecasts of his achievement existed is noticeable, and has a value of its own.

Before Wilkie’s time, though at no distant date, there flourished in Scotland painters of genre, portrait-painters, artists in historical painting, and landscape-painters ; to each of these groups, if the last be largely excepted, he is linked by a definite tie of interest. Due recognition of the historical elements out of which Wilkie’s art was moulded goes so far to minimise the importance of his later change of style, which was less one of subject than of vehicle and form. This view was advocated by Ruskin ; this he did, it is true, disparagingly, but the substance of his contention may be accepted as

Preceding

Models

David Allan pertinent. “Wilkie,” he writes, “was an historical painter and Chantrey an historical sculptor because they painted or carved the veritable men and things they saw, :not men and things as they believed they might have been or should have been. But no one tells such men they are historical painters, and they are discontented with what they do, and poor Wilkie must needs travel to see the Grand School, and imitate the Grand School, and ruin himself.” What, in fact, has to be kept in mind is this — that Wilkie elaborated all the varieties of painting long before the muchargued results of his journeys to Italy and Spain.

To David Allan belongs the credit of producing the earliest pieces of British genre ; and it is evident that Wilkie owed hints to Allan both in this ^ line and, somewhat remotely, in historical

/j I] nil

painting. The love of nature was with Wilkie the primary axiom throughout his career, but in youth his admiration went forth also to the pictures of Allan. His friend Burnet speaks very appropriately on this matter. “He made,” Burnet says, “nature his Ostade and Teniers, and Carse with his fine tone of colour his Rembrandt and Jan Steen. Next to nature he loved the works of David Allan; and as Raphael is traced in Pietro Perugino, so may David the First be traced, but in a loftier degree, in David the Second. Wilkie, as you may see in some of his pictures, did not hesitate to avail himself of several of Allan’s attitudes: I can see this even in the ‘Chelsea Pensioners’; but the one was always within the circle of taste and propriety, while the other, even in his happiest works, seldom seems to have observed such limits, which are easier felt than defined.” It is not so clear that, as Burnet affirms, Alexander Carse, also a disciple of Allan’s, influenced Wilkie. It is the fashion of Carse’s humour rather than the superiority of his technique that places him with Brouwer, to whom he is sometimes likened.

David Allan was born at Alloa, in Clackmannanshire, in 1744, and died at Edinburgh in 1796. He studied at Rome, and, for an interval not exactly ascertained, practised in London. He earned distinction in his foreign studies, being awarded by the Academy of St. Luke a medal of silver and another of gold for the excellence of one of his pictures. This was a brilliant little picture in oil, called “The Origin of Painting; or, The Corinthian Maid drawing the Shadow of her Lover.” It now hangs in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh. It was not in Allan’s true manner, being done in the style of academic formalism that was fashionable during his stay at Rome. Yet there is much charm in the workmanship ; and Wilkie is said to have praised it as “ one of the best-told stories that colour and canvas ever united to relate.” Other pieces of a historical kind, painted by Allan while he sojourned abroad, were “The Prodigal Son,” and “ Hercules and Omphale.”

At this time, also, he drew four satirical sketches, descriptive of the Roman carnival. These may have been suggested by the “ Election Series ” of Hogarth ;

Allan’s Satirical Sketches they reveal, at any rate, a certain affinity to Hogarth’s mode of caricature, and a treatment of character and grouping similar to his. These sketches . .

have the following titles: — i. The Opening atinca of the Carnival ; 2. Politeness of Romans e*c es to Strangers ; 3. Horse Race at Rome ; 4. The Victor conducted in Triumph. They are strongly touched with caricature : through emphasis of this sort the drawing loses in clearness in some particulars. The first depicts a group of revellers stirred by the sound of the great bell of the Capitol. The motley character of the gathering is in this picture excellently seized. A modern painter in an ancient dress, a knight of Malta, a French grenadier in the Pope’s service, a wandering ballad-singer, and representatives of a Jewish family compose the principal figures of a piquant group. The second sketch varies from this, not so much in essentials as in the scene. In it is described the appearance of the crowd in front of the palace Ruspoli, from the spot where was beheld the spectacle of the horse-race. The different personages are again delineated with brusqueness of fancy and ingenuity of design, and the study is altogether animated and well realised. The two other pictures, if not so full of bright characterisation, are yet aptly imagined and dexterously rendered. Besides these Roman drawings, Allan painted some half-dozen additional pieces in the temper of caricature. All of these approve the facility and verve which are associated with natural inclination. But, good as they are, they are not his best and most typical performance, the performance which was to throw round his name a lustre as the most distinctive precursor of Wilkie.

Allan, on taking1 up his residence in Scotland in 1786, was appointed master of the Trustees’ Academy, an institution for the practice of the fine arts that had been established at Edinburgh in 1760. Then it was that he set about the interpretation of the familiar scenes of Scottish life upon which his fame rests. His first effort was directed to illustrating an edition of Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherd. For this book he prepared ten designs.

Scots Life and

Character

Though the task suited him, and he was successful in it, he appears not to have considered it as of sufficient dignity for artistic purposes. In the dedication of the volume, which is made to Gavin Hamilton, the artist, he says: — “You must take these designs as a specimen of my occupations : the country gives no encouragement to heroic or historic subjects, and I am glad, therefore, to work in a humbler line ; and, without descending to mean and low objects, give a correct representation of ordinary life, which may be made pleasing and instructive as well as morally useful.” The prompt acceptance with which his illustrations were welcomed by the public must have quite undeceived him. They established his fame all over Scotland. The engravings were done in aquatint by his own hand. The execution is somewhat rude, and Allan in his preface pleads for generous consideration to his labours. He remarks that his intention was “not to offer smooth

“The Gentle Shepherd”

and expensive engravings, but expressive and characteristic designs.” It is not too much to say that he realised his modest aim. The fourth and tenth designs have most spirit. In the fourth considerable quaintness is conveyed to the figure of the old woman, who is at the moment being asked by a client to cast his horoscope. The tenth, while admirable in itself, has an enhanced claim to attention from its close identity with a scene of Wilkie’s. The graceful “ Cottage Toilet” of Wilkie has an elaborate parallel in this design by Allan. The three principal figures — Peggy, Jenny, and Glaud — are the same in each instance. Wilkie’s picture, however, has the distinctly simpler composition. He introduces but three figures, and has few accessories. Allan, on the other hand, has two subsidiary figures, an old maidservant and a shepherd ; while the environment is more complex. The effect of both conception and drawing in the two pictures is to put in contrast the laboured exertion of the early painter, and the ready elegance of his successor. It deserves to be remembered that the publishers of this edition of The Gentle Shepherd , illustrated by David Allan, were the Foulises of Glasgow. Twenty years before, they set their imprint on the most sumptuous edition of Gray’s Odes ever published. Gray spoke with enthusiasm of their “laudable ambition of surpassing the Etiennes and the Elzevirs as well in literature as in the proper art of their profession.”

From the pictorial adornment of the pages of The

Gentle Shepherd Allan turned to the rendering of Scottish manners and to the wealth of beautiful incident in the poetry of Burns and the old nameless song-writers. Simultaneously, he essayed some historical paintings. He prospered best with his humorous sketches, and, among those taken from episodes of Scottish life, “ The Highland Dance” and “The Scotch Wedding” must be assigned a leading place. “ The Scotch Wedding,” moreover, may have suggested something to Wilkie in his treatment of the same subject. The plan of the design is virtually the same in both cases. The part of the wedding celebration upon which the two artists have dwelt is the dance following the marriage ceremony. The main grouping of the composition is similar : a few of the merry-makers are engaged in dancing, while others act as spectators or prolong the feast in a fragmentary fashion. Yet a wide gulf separates the art of the two pictures. Allan’s rendering of his composition is extremely crude, his drawing angular and weak. His picture is saved from failure by its lively stamp of the sense of drollery and glee. Wilkie’s “Penny Wedding” is a very different matter. Here, indeed, he may be observed in his most capable mood : he is dramatic, vivid, masterly in drawing and forcible in colour ; at once effective alike in design and in painting.

Allan’s occupation as an illustrator of Burns and the Scottish lyrists was the result of a commission. George Thomson, the musical enthusiast, was busy with the publication of his Collection of lyrics; and,

Burns on David Allan

having obtained the help of Burns* he hoped through Allan’s illustrations to lend further glory to the book. For the Collection Allan produced about twelve designs, several of these for poems by Burns. That illustrating the song, “John Anderson, my Jo,” has been much praised. The mingled humour and pathos of the story ! are strikingly presented. Burns’s correspondence

(proves his thorough appreciation of Allan’s handiwork. He devotes a letter to a long and careful description of the stock-and-horn, an ancient musical instrument i which Allan was wont to associate with the minstrelsy of his shepherds. This letter concludes with emphatic commendation of the artist’s treatment of Scottish dress. “I will say it,” he declares, “that I look on Mr. Allan and Mr. Burns to be the only genuine and real painters of Scottish costume in the world.” In another letter he alludes to the beauty of a design which dealt with the sentiment of the old song, “Woo’d and Married an’ a’.” This, it seems to Burns, “is admirable.” The grouping he thinks “beyond all praise”; while he maintains that “the I expression of the figures, conformable to the story of the ballad, is absolutely faultless perfection.” Such flattering terms do not bear analysis. Cunningham takes a sounder view of these domestic sketches. While Allan, he contends, draws a scene of rough I humour with a good deal of power, his touch was too | heavy to treat with precision “the delicate hues of feeling and of fancy.” Allan’s most fatal defect was ! his lack of discernment in the portrayal of character;

Dutch

genre here he not unseldom crossed the boundary between truth and caricature.

Conjecture can be the only guide as to the possibility of Allan’s acquaintance with the works of the celebrated Dutch genre painters of the seventeenth century. Prints of these were possibly known to him. But it is quite probable that, like Hogarth in the appropriate task of illustrating Hxidibras , he came to his peculiar employment guided by the spontaneity of his instinct. From the work of none of the Dutch genre painters is there reason to suppose that Allan imitated or even knew their productions. The points of actual resemblance consist in trifling details that he has in common with Jan Steen. Their subjects are sometimes alike, while both have a decided taste for the grotesque. But the Dutch painter’s draughtsmanship and colour so very far excel that it may be regarded as certain that Allan had no cognisance of them. The relationship between the Dutch school of genre and that of Scotland, which developed so markedly in Wilkie, is curiously obscure in its origins. Sir Walter Armstrong thinks that the kindred inspiration may have sprung up in Wilkie from his having seen, in his days as a student at the Trustees’ Academy, a picture by Jan Molenaer, whose technical qualities seem to be mirrored in “ Pitlessie Fair.” Yet this, as he admits, must be looked upon as mere guesswork. It is truly passing strange that, though for half a century there was in Scotland a sympathy, if scarcely more, for genre painting, at last o