The subject comes from Laurence Sterne's novel A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768). It depicts, 'poor Maria sitting under a poplar...with her elbow in her lap…and her head leaning on one side…dressed in white'. A dog takes the place of her lost lover. The artist was the elder brother of the painter Edwin Landseer.
Physical description
Oil on canvas entitled 'Maria', depicting a woman in a white dress, seated forlornly at the side of a tree with a small dog looking up at her in concern.
Place of Origin
Great Britain, UK (probably, painted)
Date
ca. 1836 (painted)
Artist/maker
Charles Landseer, born 1799 - died 1879 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Height: 55.9 cm estimate, Width: 46.9 cm estimate
Object history note
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Descriptive line
Oil painting entitled 'Maria' by Charles Landseer. Great Britain, ca. 1836.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 137-38
The following is the full text of the entry:
"Maria
FAI04 Neg Y461
Canvas, 55.9 X 46.9 cm (22 X 18½ ins)
Sheepshanks Gift 1857
Presumably the painting exhibited at the BI in 1836 as 'Sterne's Maria', the size given in the catalogue as 32 by 28 inches (including the frame, as was usual).
The subject is taken from Laurence Steme's novel A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, first published in 1768, and a popular source for pictures thereafter. The story of Maria occurs towards the end, in the chapter 'Maria: Moulines'; Steme had told it before in his earlier novel Tristram Shandy. The passage illustrated is as follows:
When we had got within half a league of Moulines, at a little opening in the road, leading to a thicket, I discovered poor Maria sitting under a poplar. She was sitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one side within her hand:- a small brook ran at the foot of the tree. She was dressed in white, and much as my friend described her, except that her hair hung loose, which before was twisted with a silken net.- She had superadded likewise, to her jacket, a pale green riband, which fell across her shoulder to the waist; at the end of which hung her pipe.- Her goat had been as faithless as her lover; and she had got a little dog in lieu of him, which she kept tied by a string to her girdle.
The image of the disconsolate Maria was especially popular in the later 18th century for its display of sensibility. Angelica Kauffmann's painting of the subject, for example, was made widely known through engravings (see the 1779 print by W W Ryland in the British Museum); the painting, according to a note in the Departmental files, was very similar to the present work, which may also be compared with E F Bumey's painting (this does not seem to have been exhibited) engraved by J Heath (repr Connoisseur 1914, p31). J G Strutt exhibited the subject at the RA in 1819.
The dog is traditionally supposed to have been painted by the artist brother, Sir Edwin Landseer.
EXH: ?BI 1836 (38)"
Materials
Oil paint; Canvas
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Woman; Dog
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
