Study of a Head for ‘The Rabbit on the Wall’

Curator: David Wilkie’s oil study, simply titled "Study of a Head for ‘The Rabbit on the Wall’," captures a young man bathed in a rather unsettling light. Editor: Yes, it's the kind of light that both reveals and conceals. It makes me think of Caravaggio, that dramatic tension between light and dark that speaks of inner turmoil. Curator: It's interesting you say that. Wilkie often imbued everyday scenes with theatrical flair. Perhaps he saw the mundane as inherently dramatic. Editor: Or maybe he was just really good at capturing what was already there. I can't help but think about how we look when we are lost in thought, illuminated only by the shadows of our own making. Curator: A rabbit on the wall! I wonder, what symbols did he weave into the larger painting to tell that story? Editor: Who knows! But I am off to go rabbit-hole diving.