Brief Biography-Sir David Wilkie was born in Cults, Fifeshire, in 1789. He studied in Edinburgh before entering the Royal Academy Schools in London in 1805. His painting The Village Politician caused a sensation and assured his success. Adriaen Jansz van Ostade and David Teniers the Younger influenced his works, and his paintings sold at astronomical prices. In 1809 the Academy elected him an Associate, and in 1811 he was a full Academician. He visited Paris in 1814 with Benjamin Robert Haydon and shortly after went to Holland to view the masters’ works there. On his return, he got arrested while sketching the Calais Gate, as was William Hogarth, when suspected of being a spy. He made many trips to Scotland before his health failed, and he went on an extensive journey around Europe, becoming swayed by the styles of Spanish masters. When Sir Thomas Lawrence died in 1830, he became Painter in Ordinary to the King and became knighted in 1836. However, his contemporaries were not too pleased with his style change after returning from Europe, and the Academy failed to elect him as president. He went on a tour of the East in 1840 and painted the Sultan in Constantinople, and on his way back by sea, he died suddenly. He received a burial at sea off Gibraltar, which Joseph Mallord Turner memorialised in his painting Peace, Burial at Sea.