Hope Told a Flattering Tale
Heath here satirizes fashionable society, showing a dandy with curled hair and a tight blue coat over black breeches singing next to a seated lady. Wearing an elborate lace cap trimmed with ribbons, she strums a guitar in a well-appointed drawing room with a draped window at left and a sewing table at right supporting a vase of flowers. The title refers to a popular song in Thomas Arne's opera Artaxerxes which the composer adapted from an Italian source, "Nel cor più non mi sento" in Molinara by Giovanni Paiseillo. The words evoke the pain and delusion often caused by love.
Artwork Details
- Title: Hope Told a Flattering Tale
- Artist: William Heath ('Paul Pry') (British, Northumbria 1794/95–1840 Hampstead)
- Publisher: Thomas McLean (British, 1788–1875)
- Date: ca. 1828
- Medium: Hand-colored etching
- Dimensions: Sheet: 14 1/2 × 10 3/16 in. (36.9 × 25.9 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Jill Spalding, 2022
- Object Number: 2022.309.27
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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William Heath ('Paul Pry')
S. Gans
1830
William Heath ('Paul Pry')
Thomas McLean
1827–29
Multiple artists/makers
1827–29
William Heath ('Paul Pry')
Thomas McLean
1828–29
William Heath ('Paul Pry')
Thomas McLean
1828
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