Sancho Panza and the Duchess

Sancho Panza and the Duchess
Artist	Charles Robert Leslie
Year	1824
Type	Oil on canvas, genre painting
Dimensions	100.3 cm× 123.2 cm(39.5 in× 48.5 in)
Location	Petworth House, Petworth

Sancho Panza and the Duchess is an oil painting by the American-British artist Charles Robert Leslie, from 1824. ^[1]

History and description

It is inspired by a scene from the classic novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Don Quixote's servant Sancho Panza is shown conversing with the Aragonese Duchess. The scene takes place in a sumptuous room in her palace. The duchess, all dressed in white, seems amused and interested while talking with Don Quixote's squire, who appears touching his nose. To the left is an old lady-in-waiting, dressed in black, seemingly unimpressed, while a little dog sits to the right. Four young ladies-in-waiting, one of them black, watch the scene, visibly amused with Sancho Panza.

Leslie produced a number of scenes based on scenes from famous literature, a popular genre in the late Regency and early Victorian. The work was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1824 at Somerset House in London. It was then acquired by the aristocratic art collector George Wyndham, Earl of Egremont for his country estate Petworth House in Sussex. It remains in the collection at Petworth, now controlled by the National Trust. ^[2]

The painting is feature in the background of the Portrait of the Earl of Egremont by Thomas Phillips. ^[3]

See also

• Dulcinea del Toboso , an 1839 painting by Leslie also based on the novel

References

1. Marter p.14
2. National Trust Collections
3. National Trust Collections

Bibliography

• Marter, Joan M. The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Oxford University Press, 2011.