Explore: Robert Wilkins

(c.1740 - after 1788)

Marine painter Robert Wilkins painted scenes set in various parts of the world. He exhibited 84 works between 1765 and 1782 at the Society of Arts in London (where he was awarded a prize in 1765) and five works at the Royal Academy from 1772 to 1781. He is also known to have painted still-lifes of fruit, birds and fish, although there are now few known examples of these works. In the 1780s he illustrated James ‘Athenian’ Stuart’s treatises on Hellenic antiquities. His latest known work, ‘Man of War off the Coast with Fishermen’, is signed and dated 1799. He is believed to have died shortly after its completion.