Guess My Name
1821
Medium
Black and red Conté crayon, with graphite, heightened with white chalk on tan laid paper, laid down
Dimensions
Primary support: 10.3 × 18 cm (4 1/16 × 7 1/8 in.); Secondary support: 18 × 25.7 cm (7 1/8 × 10 1/8 in.)
Classification
prints and drawing
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
191491
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This drawing is a preparatory study for a genre scene commissioned by a German nobleman in 1820 and shown at the Royal Academy in 1821. Executed in the three-chalk technique, the sheet betrays the influence of Rubens’s drawings, which Wilkie could have seen in Paris in 1814. In a subject of the artist’s own devising, a young woman covers a potential suitor’s eyes, but will he identify her correctly?
About the Artist
David Wilkie · 1785–1841
Died at sea near Malta. Comment on works: Portraits; Historical; Genre