Historical Scene: Cardinal Woolsey

David Wilkie, a Scottish artist trained at the Royal Academy in London who would himself become an Academician, was a popular painter of anecdotal scenes and portraits. His early works are highly finished; however, after a trip to Italy and Spain (1825-28) Wilkie began to paint with looser brushwork. Though his exhibits were criticized as "embrowned with the fatal glaze," he continued to find patrons easily. This rapid sketch in pen and brown ink is of Thomas Woosley (1473-1530), who became a cardinal in 1515, the same year he was made Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII. Wilkie began to draw and paint such historical subjects and portraits as the one in the present sheet after his trip abroad.