Sheepwashing

David Wilkie's Sheepwashing of 1816, depicting the traditional agricultural practice of washing sheep before shearing in a Highland stream, belongs to his series of Scottish rural genre scenes that combined documentary accuracy with picturesque appreciation of working life. Wilkie's Scottish subjects were enormously popular in London, where they satisfied both nostalgia for a pre-industrial rural world and curiosity about specifically Scottish customs. The communal labor of sheepwashing — requiring cooperation between multiple workers to immerse and clean the animals — provided material for a scene of social activity and physical comedy.

Wilkie renders the outdoor scene with warm, naturalistic light and careful observation of the farmers' interactions with the sheep. The lively composition and the precise rendering of rural dress and setting demonstrate his command of the pastoral genre.