Hope Told a Flattering Tale
William Heath ('Paul Pry') British
Publisher Thomas McLean British
Not on view
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.
