Autolycus
Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859)
about 1836
Great Britain, probably
Oil on canvas
53.3 x 73.6 cm
Museum number. FA.115

Autolycus was a thief disguised as a pedlar who appears in Shakespeare's play A Winter's Tale. He is shown here selling cheap goods and sensational printed ballads to gullible country folk. Leslie based the background sky and the ash tree at the right on studies supplied by a friend, the landscape painterJohn Constable (1776-1837).