Joseph Wright of Derby -- Maria and her Dog Silvio -- oil on canvas -- illustrating Sterne's 'Sentimental Journey'. The model was Mrs Richard Bassano. I W.pinxt, 1781 -- Derby Museum and Art Gallery -- Public domain.

I've just finished "A Sentimental Journey". Charming work, half novel, half travel literature, all infused with both a playful flirtatiousness and an irony that can leave the reader guessing yet not frustrated. The Maria episode that comes towards the end of the book and was foreshadowed in "Tristram Shandy" captured the imagination of readers and artists.

>>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 dress’d in white, and much as my friend described her, except that her hair hung loose, which before was twisted within a silk 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 had kept tied by a string to her girdle: as I looked at her dog, she drew him towards her with the string.—“Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio,” said she.<<

#LaurenceSterne #ASentimentalJourney #BritishLiterature #JosephWright #BritishArt #Art #Literature

Excited to see these at Derby Museum . I love Joseph Wright.

#JosephWright #derby #DerbyMuseum

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