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Woman Sleeping in a Landscape with a Letter
About the 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.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Bernard Gaillot (French, 1780–1847)
- Date
- c. 1800
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 36 x 44 cm (14 3/16 x 17 5/16 in.); Unframed: 32.4 x 40.6 cm (12 3/4 x 16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Muriel Butkin
- Accession no.
- 2008.289
Provenance
1979-: Jan G. Milner, sold to Noah L. Butkin 1979-1980: Noah L. Butkin (1918-1980), Shaker Heights, Ohio, by inheritance to his wife, Muriel Butkin 1980-2008: Muriel Spiro Butkin (1915-2008), Shaker Heights, Ohio, upon her death, held in trust by the estate 2008: Estate of Muriel Butkin, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art 2008-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00010263
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