| Josephine and the Fortune-Teller | |
| Artist: | David Wilkie |
| Year: | 1837 |
| Type: | Oil on canvas, genre painting |
| Height Metric: | 211 |
| Width Metric: | 158 |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Imperial Unit: | in |
| Museum: | Scottish National Gallery |
| City: | Edinburgh |
Josephine and the Fortune-Teller is an 1837 history painting by the British artist David Wilkie.[1] It depicts a story about the young Joséphine de Beauharnais visiting a fortune teller on her native island of Martinique, who predicts her future in France as the wife of Emperor Napoleon.[2]
The painting was produced at the suggestion of William Knighton and was commissioned by the politician John Abel Smith.[3] The previous year Wilkie had produced a painting featuring Josephine's husband Napoleon and Pius VII at Fontainebleau.
It was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in London.[4] Today the painting is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, having been purchased in 1949.[5]