Florizel and Perdita

Florizel and Perdita is an 1837 genre painting by the Anglo-American artist Charles Robert Leslie. It features a scene from William Shakespeare's Jacobean play The Winter's Tale. Drawn from Act IV, Scene 4 of the play, it depicts the princess Perdita in disguise with flowers alongside her secret lover Prince Florizel who is disguised as a shepherd. Seated on the right are his father King Polixenes and a Sicilian nobleman Camillo. On the left stands Dorcas, a real shepherdess.
Such depictions of popular literature were fashionable in the late Regency and early Victorian era. Leslie himself, born on London to American parents, produced a number of works based on Shakespeare and other celebrated authors. The painting was displayed at the Royal Academy [Exhibition of 1837] at the National Gallery in London. Acquired by the art collector John Sheepshanks, he donated it to the newly-established Victoria and [Albert Museum] in 1857 as part of the Sheepshanks Gift.