Woman Sleeping in a Landscape with a Letter
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
unframed: 32.4 × 40.6 cm · framed: 36 × 44 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Bequest of Muriel Butkin
Accession Number
2008.289
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
The subject matter here probably comes from an English novel popular in France around 1800. The monument’s inscription indicates that the wife of Fotheringham, an English military leader in India, has recently died. The reclining woman (perhaps sleeping, mourning, or dead) has dropped a portrait miniature of Fotheringham, accompanying a letter to his mother. The narrative has yet to be deciphered, but the husband may have written home, unaware of his wife’s death.