Bathsheba at the Bath

Wilkie painted Bathsheba at the Bath in 1817, an unusual biblical subject for an artist best known for Scottish genre scenes. The painting demonstrates Wilkie's ambition to expand his range beyond domestic comedy into the more prestigious realm of historical and biblical painting. In his early career Wilkie's meticulous oil technique was closely modelled on Dutch and Flemish genre masters—Teniers, Ostade, and Wilkie's particular hero, Jan Steen—building up small-scale figure groups with...

Wilkie renders the biblical nude with warm, sensuous lighting influenced by Rembrandt's treatment of similar subjects. The careful rendering of the bathing scene and the atmospheric interior setting demonstrate his growing confidence with the female figure.