Wilkie, SIR DAVID, painter, was born at Cults in Fife-shire, of which parish his father was minister, 18th November 1785. His boyish passion for art was too strong to be resisted by his father, who, with much reluctance, sent him in 1799 to study in the Trustees' Academy at Edinburgh. Here he greatly distinguished himself; and returning home in 1804, he painted his 'Pitlessie Fair,' a piece in which already his peculiar genius is pronounced. Shortly after Wilkie proceeded to London, intending to return to Scotland after a year or two of study; but the great success of his picture 'The Village Politicians,' exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1806, determined him to settle in the metropolis. Next year the 'Blind Fiddler' was produced. In 1809 he was elected an A.R.A., and in 1811 an R.A. In 1814, in company with his friend Haydon, he visited Paris, and inspected with great delight the art-treasures at the Louvre. In 1817 he made a run into Scotland, and, while the guest of Scott at Abbotsford, painted his well-known picture of the great poet and his family. During these years Wilkie had been engaged on the series of pictures on which mainly his fame rests; pictures familiar by engraving to every one ('Card Players,' 'Rent Day,' 'Jew's Harp,' 'Village Festival,' 'Blind Man's Buff,' 'Distraining for Rent,' 'The Penny Wedding,' 'Reading of the Will,' &c.), in which the homely humours of humble life are expressed by a vehicle appropriately simple, and of charming purity and transparency, his style including breadth, skilful technique, and elaborate finish. In this style, distinctively his own, his genius is commonly held to have culminated in 'The Chelsea Pensioners listening to the News of Waterloo,' which was painted during the years 1820-21. This work was a commission from the Duke of Wellington, who paid the artist 1200 guineas for it. Subsequently he changed his style, sought to emulate the depth and richness of colouring of the old masters, and deserting the homely life, which he could treat so exquisitely, chose elevated, and even heroic subjects, to the height of which he could never rightly raise himself. The florid picture, painted in 1830, of 'George IV. entering Holyrood,' which, though not without its fine points, can delight no one but a flunkey, gave the first hint of the change; and no doubt a tour on the Continent, including Italy and Spain, which he made for his health in 1824, did something to stimulate the new and unwise ambition. By common consent it has been adjudged unwise; and Wilkie remains, and will remain, memorable not for the quasi-high art of his later years, but for the simpler and truer art of his earlier time. To his later period belong the 'Princess Doria,' 'The Maid of Saragossa,' 'The Two Spanish Monks,' 'The Preaching of John Knox,' 'Columbus in the Convent,' 'Napoleon and Pius VII.,' and 'Queen Victoria at her First Council.' He also painted portraits in some respects admirable, and was successful as an etcher. He never ceased to be popular, and honours continued to be showered upon him. On the death of Sir Henry Raeburn, he succeeded him as Linner to His Majesty; in 1830 he was made Painter in Ordinary to His Majesty, in room of Sir Thomas Lawrence deceased; and in 1836 the honour of knighthood was conferred upon him. Wilkie had never been robust, and his health now began to give way seriously. In 1840, seeking to re-establish it, he once more left England; but he did not find what he sought. Having visited Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, he died on his voyage home (1st June 1841), off Gibraltar, and his body was committed to the deep.
As an illustrator of Scottish character and manners in humble life, Wilkie in his best pictures may take rank with Burns in poetry, and Scott in fiction. As a man he was kindly, warm-hearted, and of essential generosity of disposition. See the Life by Allan Cunningham (3 vols. 1843), Redgrave's Century of Painters, and a short Memoir by J. W. Mollett (1881).