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The subject of this humorous picture is taken from chapter seventeen of Sir Walter Scott’s novel St. Ronan’s Well (1823), which begins with a quotation—seen on the frame—from Samuel Butler’s satirical poem Hudibras (1663–78). The painting shows the meddlesome nabob Peregrine Touchwood barging in on Josiah Cargill, the learned minister of St. Ronan’s, while the latter is deep in studious contemplation. The scene sets up the classical distinction between two competing ways of life: the vita activa (the life of action) and the vita contemplativa (the life of contemplation). But, as Scott’s story explains, after the two spend an afternoon together discussing their knowledge of the Holy Land (Touchwood’s comes from experience, Cargill’s is from books), both come to understand each other better, “and the familiarity led to their forming a considerable estimate of each other’s powers and acquirements.”

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016