Josephine and the Fortune-Teller

Josephine and the Fortune-Teller is an 1837 history painting by the British artist David Wilkie.[1] It depicts a story about the young Joséphine de Beauharnais visiting a fortune teller on her native island of Martinique, who predicts her future in France as the wife of Emperor Napoleon.[2]

Josephine and the Fortune-Teller
ArtistDavid Wilkie
Year1837
TypeOil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions211 cm × 158 cm (83 in × 62 in)
LocationScottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

The painting was produced at the suggestion of William Knighton and was commissioned by the politician John Abel Smith.[3] The previous year Wilkie had produced a painting featuring Josephine's husband Napoleon and Pius VII at Fontainebleau.

It was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in London.[4] Today the painting is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, having been purchased in 1949.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Johnson p.277
  2. ^ Tromans p.285
  3. ^ Noon & Bann p.148
  4. ^ Tromans p.14
  5. ^ https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/5579

Bibliography

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  • Johnson, Edward Dudley Hume. Paintings of the British Social Scene: From Hogarth to Sickert. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986.
  • Noon, Patrick & Bann, Stephen. Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics. Tate, 2003.
  • Tromans, Nicholas. David Wilkie: The People's Painter. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.