The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Study for "The Peep-O’-Day Boys’ Cabin, in the West of Ireland" ("The Sleeping Whiteboy")

Study for "The Peep-O’-Day Boys’ Cabin, in the West of Ireland" ("The Sleeping Whiteboy")

1835
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The painting to which this drawing relates was purchased by the prominent collector Robert Vernon and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836.

Description

One of the greatest draftsmen of the British school, Sir David Wilkie painted slowly but drew prolifically, making studies upon which he relied to spur his imagination and compose his paintings. In this study for a painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836, the artist worked out the details of a domestic interior. Here he depicted the corner of a cabin in Ireland where wool was processed: a pair of carders used to disentangle textile fibers and a spinning wheel rest upon a rough-hewn bench, and a swath of hand-dyed red cloth is flung over a ladder rung.
  • ?-?
    Dr. Daniel A. Huebsch, Cleveland, OH
    ?-1941
    Robert Hays Gries, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    1941-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Johnson, Mark M. Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 39, no. 30
    Lemonedes, Heather. British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Mentioned: pp. 78-79, 149, no. 25; Reproduced: p. 79
  • British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
    Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980).
    European Watercolors Through the 18th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 14-March 22, 1964).
  • {{cite web|title=Study for "The Peep-O’-Day Boys’ Cabin, in the West of Ireland" ("The Sleeping Whiteboy")|url=false|author=David Wilkie|year=1835|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1941.606