Watercolor with brown and red ink over graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 8 1/4 x 10 1/8 inches (21 x 25.7 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.4299
Gallery Label:
In 1836 David Wilkie was commissioned by Glendy Burke of New Orleans to produce an oil painting depicting a family saying grace. Wilkie was a painstaking planner, working through every detail of his paintings with careful preparatory drawings. Often he would use watercolor to block in the forms of objects and to define the spatial relationships between them. By using his pigments in an extremely saturated state, the brilliant blues and reds gave Wilkie a visual shorthand for the chromatic richness that was so admired in his final canvases. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)