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

Sir David Wilkie British, Scottish

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.

Studies for "The Bride at Her Toilet on the Day of Her Wedding", Sir David Wilkie (British, Cults, Scotland 1785–1841 off Gibraltar), Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.