Diana and Actaeon

SIR DAVID WILKIE, R.A. (CULTS, FIFE 1785-1841 GIBRALTAR)
Diana and Actaeon
signed and dated 'D Wilkie 1818' (upper left, on the reverse)
oil on panel
5 x 7 in. (12.7 x 17.8 cm.)

This essay in the manner of Titian, a rare engagement on Wilkie’s part with the subject of the nude, likely takes as its primary inspiration Titian’s work of the same name and its companion piece Diana and Callisto (jointly owned by the National Gallery, London and National Gallery, Edinburgh), which Wilkie would have seen in the collection of the Marquis of Strafford. The nymph to the far right seems to have been drawn from the figure of Ariadne in Bacchus and Ariadne (National Gallery, London), Wilkie has even dressed her in corresponding blue and red.

Bought from the artist by General Sir Willoughby Gordon, 1st Bt. (1772-1851), on 4 July 1818, and by descent to his son,
Sir Henry Gordon, 2nd Bt. (1806-1876), and by descent to his daughter,
Mary Gordon (d. 1926) and her husband General Robert Disney Leith (1819-1892), and by descent in the family to their grandson,
Captain the Hon. John Disney Leith (1909-1968), and by inheritance to his wife,
Mona Leith (1910-1980); Phillips, Edinburgh, 7 November 1980, lot 94, where acquired by the following,
with The Fine Art Society, London, where acquired by the present owner.

London, The Fine Art Society, Fourteen Small Pictures by Wilkie, 1981, no. 7.

This lot is offered without reserve.
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