A boy firing a canon

Details

William Mulready, R.A. (1786-1863)
A boy firing a canon
pen and brown ink
4 7/8 x 4 5/8 in. (12.4 x 11.8 cm.); and Sir David Wilkie, R.A. (1745-1841), Study for 'Reading the Will', 2 1/8 x 3 in. (7.6 x 5.4 cm.) (2)

Provenance

(1) John Varley and by descent in the family (according to a label attached to the backboard)
with Agnew's, London.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The present drawing is a study for The Cannon, (present whereabouts unknown, see K.M. Heleniak, William Mulready, New Haven and London, 1980, p. 205, nos. 112 and 113). Although it is noted in the artist's account book as early as 1813, the finished oil painting of the composition was not executed until 1827 when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy and bought by Sir Robert Peel. Related chalk drawings are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Reading the Will by David Wilkie is a preparatory study for the picture, now in the New Pinakothek, Munich, which was commissioned by the King of Bavaria and exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1820.

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