Wilkie R.A., Sir David (1785 – 1841) – A Study for ‘Reading the Will’.

This is an early study relating to the painting commissioned by the King of Bavaria. In the Summer of 1818 Wilkie wrote to the Marquis of Stafford, who was acting as an intermediary between artist and patron, suggesting the subject of Reading the Will and observing that it would allow a compositional arrangement similar to a dinner party. With its concentration on the huddled group of figures around a table, the drawing is closer to Wilkie's print of the subject made in 1919, rather than the finished oil painting of 1820.