In 1826, coinciding with the formation of the Scottish Academy, Bonnar contributed The Tinker and Itinerant Fiddler to the inaugural modern exhibition of the Institution in its prestigious new premises on the Mound. Cameron’s growing reputation as a genre painter and his decisive change of allegiance in favour of the Academy in 1829 were rewarded by his election as an Academician that year. The Gallery’s collection also includes two undated but near-contemporary gouache drawings (provisionally entitled The Return from Market and The Gossips) which, like this painting, reveal the strong and lasting influence of David Wilkie on Bonnar’s practice as a genre painter.