Author:
Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841), Scottish painter noted for genre pieces such as 'The Chelsea Pensioners' [Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1797-1868), Director of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie; Duke of Wellington]
Publication details:
'7 Terrace Kensington / July 19th 1835'.
See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Wilkie was in a good position to assist Waagen, who was touring England making notes on significant art collections, for use in his ‘Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris’ (3 vols, Berlin, 1837–39), which formed the basis for his influential ‘The Treasures of Art in Great Britain’ (translated by Lady Eastlake, 4 vols, London, 1854 and 1857). Wilkie had strong connections with Wellington. His 1822 painting ‘The Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo Dispatch’ had been commissioned by the Duke, and was sold to him for the unheard-of sum of 1,200 guineas.
