Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/263

 again to Scotland, then buzzing with expectation of the arrival of George IV. Wilkie began making studies for a picture of John Knox preaching, and he also collected the materials for a memento of the ‘King's Entrance to Holyrood.’ The preparation of these two pictures occupied him for some time to come; the former being finished only in 1832, the latter in 1830. But in 1823 he exhibited a portrait of the Duke of York, and another of his own special subjects, ‘The Parish Beadle,’ bequeathed to the National Gallery in 1854 by Lord Colborne, whose commission it was. It is a further transition picture as to style, but also one of the finest of his works. Other efforts which followed the ‘Parish Beadle’ in 1823 were ‘The Gentle Shepherd; or, the Cottage Toilet,’ ‘Smugglers offering Run Goods for Sale,’ and ‘The Highland Family.’ The last named was also the last picture he exhibited before he left England in 1825.

He was at Edinburgh collecting materials for John Knox at the end of 1824, and was royally entertained by the Edinburgh artists. But he was summoned hastily to London by his mother's illness, and failed to reach it before she died. His mother's death was followed by that of an elder brother, James, who not long before had returned from Canada broken in health and means. Close upon this second bereavement came, early in 1825, tidings of the death in India of his eldest brother, John, a soldier; and, to crown all, his favourite sister, Helen, lost her fiancé on the day before her intended marriage. These things, besides sorrow, meant money cares for Wilkie; and his health, never that of a robust man, failed under the strain. Paris and the Louvre, and even Talma, proved powerless to restore his energies, and he turned his face to Italy, visiting Florence, Rome, and Naples in succession, sending many pleasant letters to English friends concerning his travelling impressions, social and artistic. But misfortune followed him abroad. His printsellers, Hurst & Robinson, became bankrupt, and health refused to return. He visited Herculaneum and Pompeii, wrote a note to Chantrey from the crater of Vesuvius, wandered on to Bologna, Parma, Padua, Venice, then to Munich (where, with some difficulty, he was permitted to inspect in the Bavarian palace his own ‘Reading the Will’), Dresden, &c., gravitating at the close of 1826 to Rome once more, in time to eat a Christmas haggis with Severn the artist, and to be feasted later (16 Jan. 1827) by the Scottish art residents of the imperial city. In the summer of 1827 his health was sufficiently established to allow him to paint; and at Geneva he set to work upon the ‘Princess Doria washing Pilgrims' Feet.’ From Switzerland he proceeded to Spain, the Spain that henceforth so powerfully influenced his style. At Madrid in seven months he painted no fewer than four pictures, two of which were ‘The Maid of Saragossa’ and the ‘Guerilla Council of War.’ When in May 1828 he left Madrid, Titian, Velasquez, and Murillo had become his chief models. It is possible, as alleged by many, that his health made the minute finish of the Dutch method no longer congenial to him; but the ‘unpoached game preserve of Europe,’ as he styled the art-riches of Spain, must also count for much in directing the new development of his genius.

He was again in London in June 1828, after a three years' absence, talking enthusiastically of Spanish and Italian art, and undervaluing his earlier successes. In the exhibition of 1829 were eight pictures in the new taste, the ‘Princess Doria,’ the ‘Maid of Saragossa,’ the ‘Guerilla Council,’ the ‘Pifferari,’ and four others—one a portrait (the Earl of Kellie). Criticism was freely bestowed upon this fresh departure. But the artist had made up his mind on the subject, and George IV bought four of the best pictures. The ‘Entrance to Holyrood’ was resumed and finished; and he flung himself with ardour into the ‘Preaching of Knox before the Lords of the Congregation, 10 June 1559,’ which was exhibited in 1832, and is now in the National Gallery, having been purchased in 1871 with the Peel collection. In 1830 he was made painter in ordinary at the death of Sir Thomas Lawrence, retaining this office under William IV and Victoria. He escaped being elected president of the Royal Academy in the same year, that post being offered to Sir Martin Archer Shee [q. v.], who in some respects was better fitted for the decorative part of the duties. Wilkie's more important pictures for the next few years may be briefly enumerated. They are ‘Columbus’ and ‘The First Earring,’ 1835 (National Gallery); ‘Peep-o'Day Boy's Cabin,’ 1836 (National Gallery); ‘The Duke of Wellington writing a Despatch,’ ‘Napoleon and the Pope in Conference at Fontainebleau,’ both 1836; and ‘Sir David Baird discovering the Body of Tippoo Saib,’ 1839. In June 1836 he was knighted. A year later he moved from Phillimore Place to Vicarage Place, Kensington, where he built a ‘beau ideal of a studio.’ In 1839 he went to Scotland again to collect the material for a new Knox; but got no further than a sketch, now in the Scottish Academy. In 1840 he had eight pictures