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Daniel Maclise , Irish, 1806-1870

Title

A Scene from Gil Blas

Date1839

MediumOil on panel

Dimensions

76.5 x 94 cm

Signedlower left: D. MACLISE, 1839

Credit LinePurchased, 1969

Object numberNGI.1927

Exhibition HistoryDaniel Maclise (1806-1870), Romancing the Past, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 24 October 2008 – 14 February 2009
Label TextIn the nineteenth century, artists throughout Europe looked increasingly to literary sources for narrative themes. The subject of this picture is drawn from a picaresque novel by Alain-René Lesage, translated as The Adventures of Gil Blas. Set in seventeenth-century Spain, the book plots Blas’s rise from humble origins to wealth and social position. Here, he appears in a fripier’s workshop, trying on a second-hand velvet suit he considers appropriate to his ambition.