Jan Steen, and Brouwer. Now he began to copy his travelling sketches in a spiritless fashion; he only represented _pifferari_, smugglers, and monks, who, devoid of all originality, might have been painted by one of the Düsseldorfers. Even "John Knox Preaching," which is probably the best picture of his last period, is no exception. "He seemed to me," writes Delacroix, who saw him in Paris after his return from Spain,--"he seemed to me to have been carried utterly out of his depth by the pictures he had seen. How is it that a man of his age can be so influenced by works which are radically opposed to his own? However, he died soon after, and, as I have been told, in a very melancholy state of mind." Death overtook him in 1841, on board the steamer _Oriental_, just as he was returning from a tour in Turkey. At half-past eight in the evening the vessel was brought to, and as the lights of the beacon mingled with those of the stars the waters passed over the corpse of David Wilkie. [Illustration: _Mansell Photo_ LANDSEER. JACK IN OFFICE.] [Illustration: WILKIE. BLIND-MAN'S BUFF.] In judging his position in the history of art, only those works come into consideration which he executed before that journey of 1825. Then he drew as a labour of love the familiar scenes of the household hearth, the little dramas, the comic or touching episodes that take place in the village, the festivals, the dancing, and the sports of the country-folk, and their meeting in the ale-house. At this time, when as a young painter he merely expressed himself and was ignorant of the efforts of continental painting, he was an artist of individuality. In the village he became a great man, and here his fame was decided; he painted rustics. Even when he first saw the old masters in the National Gallery their immediate effect on him was merely to influence his technique. And by their aid Wilkie gradually became an admirable master of technical detail. His first picture, "Pitlessie Fair," in its hardness of colour recalled a Dutch painter of the type of Jan Molenaer; but from that time his course was one of constant progress. In "The Village Politicians" the influence of Teniers first made itself felt, and it prevailed until 1816. In this year, when he painted the pretty sketch for "Blind-Man's Buff," a warm gold hue took the place of the cool silver tone; and instead of Teniers, Ostade became his model. The works in his Ostade manner are rich in colour and deep and clear in tone. Finally, it was Rembrandt's turn to become his guiding-star, and "The Parish Beadle," in the National Gallery--a scene of arrest of the year 1822--clearly shows with what brilliant success he tried his luck with Rembrandt's dewy _chiaroscuro_. It was only in his last period that he lost all these technical qualities. His "Knox" of 1832 is hard and cold and inharmonious in colour. [Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ WILKIE. A GUERILLA COUNCIL OF WAR IN A SPANISH POSADA.]