Lot Essay
This painting is done after Sir David Wilkie's celebrated full-length seated portrait entitled 'His Highness Muhemed Ali, Pacha of Egypt', painted in 1841 (Tate Britain, NO4276). A Scottish artist, Wilkie was one of the most prodigious talents of British art in his generation. He met the Pasha when he went to Egypt in 1841 to study the people and landscape of the Near East for paintings based on a series of biblical subjects.