The Daughters of Sir Walter Scott

Wilkie's 1817 portrait of The Daughters of Sir Walter Scott depicted the children of his great Scottish contemporary — the novelist whose Waverley series had transformed Scottish cultural identity and made him the most famous writer in the English-speaking world. Wilkie was a close acquaintance of Scott, both sharing a commitment to Scottish cultural subjects and a similar position as artists who achieved extraordinary popular success by bringing Scottish subjects to an international audience. The portrait combined Wilkie's genre skills with the formal requirements of aristocratic portraiture, showing the Scott daughters with the naturalness of his genre figures within the dignified setting appropriate to the children of a literary celebrity.

Wilkie's oil on canvas demonstrates his refined portrait technique with warm, sympathetic characterization of the young sitters, soft lighting, and the careful attention to personality that distinguishes his best portraits.