1785, came to London in 1805 to enter the Royal Academy schools, after
some preliminary training at Edinburgh. His first picture, in the
exhibition of 1806, "The Village Politicians," attracted attention,
and was followed the next year by "The Blind Fiddler." The work of
a youth of twenty-two, it is remarkable for its close observation
of character and the skilful use made of what may be termed the
theatrical faculty of grouping the personages so that their action
tells the story. This is not a merit, and there is little doubt that
the scene would be greater as art were it more consistently human.
Character is well and pictorially rendered; but by its insistence in
every figure, we feel that it is but a moment since the curtain
was withdrawn and the _tableau vivant_ shown. This and the pictures
following it met with the most unbounded popular approval, were
reproduced by engraving, and exercised an influence increased by the
honors and fortune which were showered on the painter.

In 1825 Wilkie made an extended continental tour, and three years
later, after his return to England, changed his class of subjects for
historical and portrait painting, bringing to these later themes the
same ability and the same lack of _naïveté_ which characterized his
former work. A Royal Academician since 1811, he was appointed first
painter in ordinary to the king, on the death of Lawrence, in 1830. He
was knighted in 1836, and died at sea on June 1, 1841, while returning
from Egypt.

[Illustration: THE BLIND FIDDLER. FROM A PAINTING BY SIR DAVID WILKIE.

"An itinerant musician is entertaining a cottager and his family with a
tune on the fiddle; the father gayly snaps his fingers at an infant on
the knees of the mother, behind whom a mischievous boy, with the poker