John Opie, R.A. (St. Agnes, Cornwall 1761-1807 London)

Gil Blas, or L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, by Alain-René Lesage (1668-1747), was written between 1715 and 1735, and considered one of the great masterpieces of the picaresque genre. Admired in its day for its satirical commentary on society, it was referred to by Jonathan Swift in his comic Directions to Servants, and by the latter 18th century was a staple text for men of literary and artistic taste.
After his abduction by banditti and subsequent imprisonment, Gil Blas escapes by wrestling the key from the old guard, Dame Leonarda. Opie depicts the moment when the protagonist, watched by the torch-bearing figure of Donna Mencia, binds the cords of his captor in the dimly-lit cavern. Another work by Opie of similar dimensions, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1804 and now in the Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery, Kent, shows the drama that immediately precedes this scene; Gil Blas struggles with Leonarda for the key whilst threatening her with his sword.