Lot 2023
EDWARD BIRD, RA (1772-1819)
STUDY FOR `THE RAFFLE FOR THE WATCH`
Watercolour, lightly squared for transfer in pencil
29.5 x 40cm.
* A study for the oil painting on panel (44.5 x 61cm), the gift of Robert Vernon to the Tate (now Tate Britain), 1847. S. C. Hall, writing in 1853 about Vernon's donations to the gallery, commented that "when [Sir David] Wilkie saw [the oil painting], he remarked how proud he should have felt had he painted it; certainly the Scottish artist never produced a more characteristic group than that engaged, in the kitchen of the village ale house, in disposing of the watch which the landlord displays to the assembled company, each one of whom is a natural study. The picture is painted with extraordinary depth and finish, and might not unworthily be placed by the side of a Tenier or an Ostade." The finished oil was also engraved by George Greatbach in 1852.
