Nineteenth century framed print of Sir David Wilkie's 'The Village Politicians' by the engraver Charles William Sharpe.

Although it may now perhaps appear cosy and familiar to us, when it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1806, David Wilkie's painting The Village Politicians caused a sensation. By choosing to depict the common man engaging with politics in his own context without caricature or idealisation, Wilkie was seen to be doing something extraordinary. One critic said of the painting‘Mr Wilkie places nothing more than the truth before us,’ .

Exhibited less than ten years after the end of the French Revolution and twenty six years before the passing of the Reform Act this presentation of common people engaged seriously in political controversy is packed full of fissile political significance.