Studies for "The Bride at Her Toilet on the Day of Her Wedding"

Sir David Wilkie British, Scottish
ca. 1838
Not on view
This is one of a group of sketches where Wilkie developed compositional ideas for a painting he would show at the Royal Academy, London in 1838 (now National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh). Pen lines suggest movement, and wash is used to indicate shadow as the artist conveys the movements of a young woman dressing for her wedding assisted by a companion. The figure's nudity and elevated placement echo classical models, even though the subject was one of Scottish genre, and Wilkie's technique indebted to Dutch seventeenth-century masters such as Rembrandt.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Studies for "The Bride at Her Toilet on the Day of Her Wedding"
  • Artist: Sir David Wilkie (British, Cults, Scotland 1785–1841 off Gibraltar)
  • Date: ca. 1838
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 8 x 4 1/2 in. (20.3 x 11.4 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1908
  • Object Number: 08.227.2
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Sir David Wilkie - Studies for "The Bride at Her Toilet on the Day of Her Wedding" - The Metropolitan Museum of Art