A small silk on silk embroidery of “Maria," the subject of Lawrence Stern's novels "Tristram Shandy" and “A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy." The image is of a young woman clothed in a bluish grey dress, gold jacket, a striped scarf, and black shoes with gold buckles, sitting beneath a tree. She rests her head in her left hand and and her left elbow on her left knee.She looks dejected and depressed. A blue ribbon around her body is tied to a flute that hangs by her right side. With her right hand she holds a leash of blue ribbon tied to a small brown and white dog on the ground beside her. Behind her is a landscape of trees, mountains and a small brook. The embroidery is worked in multiple colors (dark, medium and light gold, lt yellow, dark and medium blue or blue-gray, dark medium and light green, olive green, dark medium and light brown, red-brown, rust, lt. rust, beiges, white, black, etc.) on a painted silk ground. The stitching is exquisite with fine shading of the folds of the dress. The face, hands, and forearms as well as the sky are painted in watercolor in a very fine hand. The work is framed with a black églomisé mat (possibly reproduction) with double gilded line around the oval opening, small motifs in the four corners, and the title "SPRING" in capital letters. The whole is framed in a gessoed and gilded Georgian frame (possibly reproduction).