Letter from David Wilkie, Rome, to Lady Beaumont, 1827 March 12 : autograph manuscript signed.

Offering his condolences on the death of Sir George; expressing how much the gift of his friendship and patronage meant to him but adding that what he most wishes to speak about is Sir George's art; saying "In his person were combined the accomplished gentleman with the Artist and the judge of art, the man of Rank & of Family with the follower of Titian and of Claude, giving to what he practiced himself and what he recommended to others an aim the most exalted and enlarged. The beautiful style of art he professed was abstract and general - a poetical recollection rather than a minute detail of nature, full of sentiment and feeling, and eminently successful in what was his chief delight a rich and deep tone of colouring. In this last fascinating quality he was the only one left among us of the School of Reynolds, of Wilson, of Gainsborough - of the primitive time and what I fear, in respect to the present, must now be called the Golden Age of British Art. It was to this his eye was tuned. This he adhered to himself and pointed out with enthusiasm to the emulation of Succeeding Artists. But while his eye thus remained true to his first attachment, the scale and the hues of the British School were gradually undergoing a change. This it was impossible for him to see with indifference, and your Ladyship will know the important discussion upon this subject to which his decided and uniform opinions have given rise. It has been the great and the leading question in Modern Art... The side which he took has now lost its great Champion, but the feelings he instilled have not died with him, and the struggle in favour of that Standard which has stood the test of ages has not been made in vain...A style of Art entirely new is impossible - entirely different is impolitic and absurd. It is a question of practical and vital importance to modern art whether its productions are to aim at a place among the established masters or be produced upon a principle which he well knew and foretold would form a perpetual system of Exclusion;" assuring her that "...Lovers of art will appreciate his opinions as his labours will continue to be sought after and admired;" commenting on his bequest of his collection "...to the great and the powerful British Nation. A nation which if slow in its appreciation of Genius and of Taste is yet never behind hand in its acknowledgment of a Generous Action, and has in this instance made him the best acknowledgment by promptly obeying the stimulus of his example. Of the public Gallery already formed he is as justly considered the founder as Augustus of Saxony was of the Dresden or Lorenzo the Magnificent was of that of Florence;" assuring her "...of how much you have contributed to his happiness, how much you have shared in those virtues for which he has been admired in this life and how much you have in his society fostered those virtues and encouraged that trust which are our best dependence for the life that is to come:" telling her of the sadness of the English artists with whom he is now in Rome; expressing his deep gratitude to Sir George for remembering him in his will; saying "This is after the many obligations I lay under to him most unexpected, but I feel this 'mark of his affection' as the most sacred honor that has ever been paid to me;" wishing her health and consolation.