Sir David Wilkie, first image of Queen Victoria as reigning monarch, 1837 (Preparatory oil sketch for The First Council of Queen Victoria, 1838). Royal Collection Trust/ ©Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015.

EDINBURGH.- An oil sketch of Queen Victoria, made just four months after her accession to the throne at the age of 18, will go on display in Scotland for the first time. Painted by the celebrated Scottish artist Sir David Wilkie, it is the earliest image of her as reigning monarch and a study for the first painting commissioned by Victoria when Queen. The sketch will be shown in Scottish Artists 1750 – 1900: From Caledonia to the Continent, the first exhibition dedicated to Scottish art in the Royal Collection, opening at The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse on 6 August. 

Victoria asked Wilkie to record her first meeting with her Privy Council, which took place within hours of her accession on 20 June 1837. The preparatory sketch shows the Queen in near profile wearing a bonnet, just as she appears in Wilkie’s finished work The First Council of Queen Victoria. The bare canvas below her neckline is suggestive of the white dress in which Wilkie chose to portray the Queen, rather than in the black mourning attire she would have worn after the death of her uncle William IV. The white emphasises her innocence and purity in a gathering of more seasoned male statesmen. 

The most successful Scottish artist of the early 19th century, Wilkie had enjoyed a flourishing career under the patronage of George IV. He had succeeded Sir Henry Raeburn as Limner to the King in Scotland in 1823 and was appointed Painter in Ordinary in 1830. Wilkie retained his office on the accession of William IV in 1830 and again on the accession of Queen Victoria. He was the only artist to serve as Painter in Ordinary to three successive monarchs. 

In his role as Painter in Ordinary, Wilkie was required to produce the State Portrait of the new monarch and travelled to Royal Pavilion Brighton for a sitting with Queen Victoria in October 1837. Rather than starting work on the portrait, Wilkie began the painting of the Privy Council meeting at the Queen's instigation. Victoria sat for Wilkie on at least five occasions, and the project at first appeared to be going well. The artist wrote to his sister on 28 October 1837 that ‘All here think the subject good, and she (Queen Victoria) likes it herself’. 

In fact Queen Victoria strongly disliked the painting, completed in 1838, and commented in her journal that 'Everyone was horrified when they saw it yesterday'. The Queen also hated Wilkie's State Portrait, writing on 20 March 1839 that at dinner she had 'Talked of the too atrocious full length picture which Wilkie has made of me… (and) of it's being such a mistake to make him Portrait Painter'. The State Portrait was Wilkie's second and last royal commission. Queen Victoria only purchased one further work by the artist, following his death in 1841. 

Wilkie had also painted Victoria in 1831, when she was just 11 years old and making her first appearance at court on the birthday of her aunt, Queen Adelaide, consort of William IV. Dressed in a white lace and satin dress, the young princess is shown standing in front of the Queen, surrounded by her family and courtiers. 

Seventeen works by Sir David Wilkie will be among 80 paintings, drawings, miniatures and decorative arts by Scottish artists on display at The Queen's Gallery in an exhibition that tells the story of royal patronage and the emergence of a distinctive Scottish school of art. 

Exhibition curator Deborah Clarke of Royal Collection Trust, said 'This sensitive and freely-painted oil sketch by the well-known Scottish artist Sir David Wilkie was the first of over 500 portraits of the queen to be painted throughout her long reign and I am delighted this will be on display in Edinburgh for the first time.'