Blind-Man’s-Buff was Wilkie’s first royal commission and sealed his triumphant rise to fame in London. His inspiration came from Dutch ‘merrymaking’ scenes popularised by artists such as Jan Steen and Adriaen van Ostade. In Wilkie’s hands this scene from everyday life is not merely an amusing, comic episode, but a broader comment on the wholesome values and pleasures of a section of society at large. Painted for George IV, when Prince Regent, in 1811-13