קובץ:George Dunlop Leslie - Matilda - Dante, Purgatorio, Canto 28.jpg

English: {| style="background-color:inherit; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; margin:.5em .75em; width:33%; float:right;"

|- style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;" | style="width:.5em; color:#B2B7F2; font-size:3em; font-family:'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight:bold; padding:2px; line-height:.5em;" | “ | style="padding:0 10px;" | A lady, wandering through the wood alone,
Singing and culling flower after flower,
Wherewith her pathway was all painted o'er. | style="width:.5em; vertical-align:bottom; color:#B2B7F2; font-size:3em; font-family:'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight:bold; text-align:right; padding:2px; line-height:.5em;" | ” |-

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—Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, Canto XXVIII, v. 40-42

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(see source) Dante's Matilda (Matelda) is usually identified with Matilda, Countess of Tuscany (1046-1115) of the house of Canossa. Leslie depicted her gathering flowers in a beautiful landscape, watched in the distance by Dante, Virgil and Statius. When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1860 it was accompanied by a quotation from Psalms; "For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands" (Psalm XCII, 4) The review by Tom Taylor in Times described it as "a lady reclining in a green garden on the edge of a pool starred with water lilies" and celebrated the "power of faithful landscape painting and a thoughtful and graceful feeling for female form and character, which promise well for this young painter's future." It was bought from the artist by John Hamilton Trist (1811-1891) a wine-merchant from Brighton who owned a fine collection of modern paintings, including examples by Albert Moore, Rossetti, Alma-Tadema and Leighton with a particular taste for the work of Arthur Hughes (he owned twenty examples).