Study for "The Peep-O’-Day Boys’ Cabin, in the West of Ireland" ("The Sleeping Whiteboy")
Medium
watercolor, point of brush, and gouache with graphite and brown ink
Dimensions
23.4 × 21.9 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Robert Hays Gries
Accession Number
1941.606
Tags
male
About this artwork
One of the greatest draftsmen of the British school, Sir David Wilkie painted slowly but drew prolifically, making studies upon which he relied to spur his imagination and compose his paintings. In this study for a painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836, the artist worked out the details of a domestic interior. Here he depicted the corner of a cabin in Ireland where wool was processed: a pair of carders used to disentangle textile fibers and a spinning wheel rest upon a rough-hewn bench...