3-003-810 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Who Can This Be?" by C. R. Leslie, R.A., in the Sheepshanks Collection, South Kensington Museum, 1861. Engraving of a painting. 'Leslie's quiet humour and dramatic tendency are fairly illustrated in this little work, which was painted by him in his best and ripest period, having been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839. A portly and purse-proud burgomaster walking in the public garden of the town over which he presides (the prim-cut hedges and borders of which are of the true school of Dutch gardening), with his young and handsome wife leaning on his arm, is surprised to receive a most courtly salute from a young gallant in crimson coat and broad, befeathered beaver. The old gentleman shows by the expression of his features that he is puzzled perhaps not without a slight suspicion that he is not the sole object of the delicate attention; and with something like misgiving, as he mechanically raises his hand to acknowledge the salute, he seems to inwardly ejaculate "Who can this be?" The lady, who is more alive to the motives of the intruder, seems to wish to avoid his glance; and, with an assumed air of unconsciousness and indifference, pretends to be wonderfully engaged by the gambols of her pet spaniel'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.