Portrait de Thomas, neuvième comte de Kellie

Thomas Alexander Erskine, ninth Earl of Kellie, was a Scottish aristocrat from a family with strong musical associations — his ancestor the sixth Earl was a composer of note in the eighteenth century. David Wilkie painted this portrait in 1829, during his middle period when he was producing grander, more continental work after extensive travel in Spain and Italy in 1827–28. The Spanish masters, especially Velázquez, decisively loosened Wilkie's brushwork from the tight Dutch-influenced finish of his early career, and portrait commissions from 1829 onward show a new breadth and freedom that sometimes drew criticism from patrons expecting his earlier precision.

The influence of Velázquez is evident in the looser, more expressive brushwork compared to Wilkie's early portraits. Aristocratic dignity is conveyed through pose and the quality of costume rather than rigid frontal presentation. The dark background concentrates attention on the face, rendered with warm impasto in the lights.