Cargill and Touchwood

Cargill and Touchwood is an oil on canvas genre painting by the Irish artist William Mulready, from 1831. It depicts a scene from the 1823 novel Saint Ronan's Well by Walter Scott.^{[1] [2]} It is held at the Yale Center for British Art, in New Haven.^[3]

Cargill and Touchwood
Artist	William Mulready
Year	1831
Type	Oil on panel, genre painting
Dimensions	51.4 cm × 41.9 cm (20.2 in × 16.5 in)
Location	Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Description

The painting depicts the meddlesome nabob Peregrine Touchwood barging on the Reverend Josiah Cargill, the minister of the spa town of Saint Ronan's, in the Scottish Borders, while he is reading. The nabob seems very pompous in his attire, holding a cane in his hand, while the reverend appears seated, apparently ignoring or paying little attention to him. He focus instead on his book, as its shown by the detail of his two fingers on his forehead. Other books are lying in the ground, showing that this is a main interest of him. Despite their contrasting worldviews, the two men eventually form a bond over their shared interest in the Holy Land, which Touchwood has visited and Cargill has read a great deal about.

Provenance

The painting was displayed at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition of 1832 at Somerset House in London. Today it is part of the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, in Connecticut, having been given by Paul Mellon.^[4]