Sketch for ‘The Duke and Duchess Reading “Don Quixote”’ c. 1829

Editor: This is Charles Robert Leslie's Sketch for ‘The Duke and Duchess Reading “Don Quixote”’. It’s a small oil painting, very intimate. I'm struck by how it feels like we're peeking in on a secret moment. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a whisper of a story, don't you think? A glance into the world of Don Quixote, where reality and fantasy waltz together. Leslie's brushwork is so free, so alive; it's like the very air around the Duke and Duchess is buzzing with their shared experience of the novel, as if they are almost characters themselves. Editor: That's beautifully put. It does feel like a fleeting glimpse. Curator: Leslie captures a feeling, a mood, rather than a strict representation. It’s more about the impression of shared joy, of literature brought to life. It is lovely, isn’t it? Editor: It is. I'll never read Don Quixote the same way again.