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Lot Essay
‘Thy Music, faintly falling, dies away,
Thy dear eyes dream that Love will live for aye'
G.F. Bodley
Painted at the height of Strudwick’s career, Thy Music, faintly falling, dies away… marks the culmination of everything the artist stood for and exemplifies the ‘cult of beauty’ created by the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements. In seeking to escape the ugliness of industrialisation in the latter half of the 19th century these artists focused on producing art that was beautiful, without any deeper meaning: ‘Art for Art’s sake’. Strudwick’s exquisite painting of a dreamy young musician is a perfect example of that ideal.
Although perhaps not as well known today outside of Pre-Raphaelite circles as some of his contemporaries, John Melhuish Strudwick was one of the leading exponents of the movement in the late 19th century. During the 1870s he worked as a studio assistant first to John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and then to Sir Edward Burne-Jones. It is easy to see how he absorbed some of their influence in his technique, as did his contemporary, the niece of Spencer Stanhope, Evelyn De Morgan (fig. 1). However, he developed a style and a subject matter that was all his own.
Strudwick formed part of a second generation of Pre-Raphaelite artists who took more direct influence from the work of Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, as well as the Italian artists of the late 15th and early 16th century such as Botticelli, than from that of the original brotherhood. These artists would go on to fill the walls of the Grosvenor Gallery when it launched in 1877 and its successor, the New Gallery. In lots of ways it is this late 19th century interpretation of the Italian Renaissance that informs many of our ideas of what Pre-Raphaelitism looks like today.
The admiration for works of art from the time before Raphael marked a contrast with academic thinking in the first half of the 19th century which held Titian, Rubens and Rembrandt as the true masters. However, by the latter half of the century artists and writers had begun to show an interest in the period before 1500 and it was during this time that the concept of a Renaissance in the arts was first explored. By the 1870s the directors of the London museums such as the National Gallery and the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria & Albert Museum) were actively acquiring paintings by Raphael, Carlo Crivelli, Giovanni Bellini (fig. 2) and Botticelli (fig. 3). Although Strudwick never travelled to Italy, he would have been aware of the art of these early Italian masters through the National Gallery’s collection, as well as through reproductions of their work disseminated by the Arundel Society and by his friends Spencer Stanhope and Burne-Jones after their own sojourns in Italy.
For Strudwick and his circle, it was the art of Florence, and in particular Sandro Botticelli that was to have the most notable impact. The relationship between Botticelli and the Pre-Raphaelites has been explored in more depth in recent exhibitions such as the 2024 blockbuster Pre-Raphaelites. Modern Renaissance (Museo San Domenico, Forli) and the 2016 Botticelli Reimagined (Victoria & Albert Museum, London and Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin). However, it can clearly be seen in the framing of the figure within Thy Music…, her pure beauty, the rich fabrics of her dress and the tempera-like quality of the paint surface.
Nevertheless the picture is a very romantic British response to the Italian Renaissance. The frieze at the top of the painting which depicts haloed figures, some wearing armour or draperies, framed by sculptural pillars topped with carved angels, is a work of pure imagination that helps create a Renaissance mise-en-scène. Its central theme, that of the sense of sound evoked by the musical subject, was one of the key principles of the English Aesthetic movement. It was also one which preoccupied Strudwick throughout his career in works such as The Gentle Music of a Bygone Day (1890, The Lord Lloyd Webber Collection), In the Golden Days (1907, Pérez Simón Collection) and in various paintings of St Cecilia (fig. 4).
The precision with which the inlaid instrument, probably a psaltery, and the embroidered, brocade and lace fabrics of her dress are executed shows a true appreciation of craftsmanship and anchors the painting firmly within the world of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. Of all Strudwick's paintings Thy Music displays the most elaborately patterned textiles, and arguably heralds the start of the obsession with rich and vibrant fabrics that so came to define the works of the ‘Last Romantics’, the final generation of Pre-Raphaelite artists. It is easy to see Thy Music…’s influence on Thomas Cooper Gotch’s 1896 painting Alleluia (Tate, London), John Byam Shaw’s The Queen of Hearts (fig. 5, sold in these Rooms, 10 December 2020, lot 5, £790,500) and Frank Cadogan Cowper’s Bluebird (1918, sold in these Rooms, 15 June 2011, lot 52, £373,500).
The painting’s first owner was one of Strudwick’s most important patrons, the Liverpool shipping magnate William Imrie (1837-1906), one of the original partners in the White Star Line, the company that later launched the Titanic. In the sale of his collection at Christie's in 1907 there were six paintings by Strudwick alongside eight Evelyn De Morgans as well as works by Burne-Jones, Spencer Stanhope and Rossetti. A comparable collection was formed by a fellow businessman from Liverpool, George Holt, which remains intact and on display at Sudley House in Liverpool and contains three works by Strudwick including O Swallow, Swallow, 1894. Given Strudwick’s relatively small output of around 39 paintings, of which eight are in institutions such as Tate, London and Manchester City Art Gallery, they hardly ever appear on the open market. Therefore Thy Music… presents a rare opportunity to own a seminal work in the canon of one of the greatest exponents of Pre-Raphaelite art in the last decades of the 19th century.
Thy dear eyes dream that Love will live for aye'
G.F. Bodley
Painted at the height of Strudwick’s career, Thy Music, faintly falling, dies away… marks the culmination of everything the artist stood for and exemplifies the ‘cult of beauty’ created by the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements. In seeking to escape the ugliness of industrialisation in the latter half of the 19th century these artists focused on producing art that was beautiful, without any deeper meaning: ‘Art for Art’s sake’. Strudwick’s exquisite painting of a dreamy young musician is a perfect example of that ideal.
Although perhaps not as well known today outside of Pre-Raphaelite circles as some of his contemporaries, John Melhuish Strudwick was one of the leading exponents of the movement in the late 19th century. During the 1870s he worked as a studio assistant first to John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and then to Sir Edward Burne-Jones. It is easy to see how he absorbed some of their influence in his technique, as did his contemporary, the niece of Spencer Stanhope, Evelyn De Morgan (fig. 1). However, he developed a style and a subject matter that was all his own.
Strudwick formed part of a second generation of Pre-Raphaelite artists who took more direct influence from the work of Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, as well as the Italian artists of the late 15th and early 16th century such as Botticelli, than from that of the original brotherhood. These artists would go on to fill the walls of the Grosvenor Gallery when it launched in 1877 and its successor, the New Gallery. In lots of ways it is this late 19th century interpretation of the Italian Renaissance that informs many of our ideas of what Pre-Raphaelitism looks like today.
The admiration for works of art from the time before Raphael marked a contrast with academic thinking in the first half of the 19th century which held Titian, Rubens and Rembrandt as the true masters. However, by the latter half of the century artists and writers had begun to show an interest in the period before 1500 and it was during this time that the concept of a Renaissance in the arts was first explored. By the 1870s the directors of the London museums such as the National Gallery and the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria & Albert Museum) were actively acquiring paintings by Raphael, Carlo Crivelli, Giovanni Bellini (fig. 2) and Botticelli (fig. 3). Although Strudwick never travelled to Italy, he would have been aware of the art of these early Italian masters through the National Gallery’s collection, as well as through reproductions of their work disseminated by the Arundel Society and by his friends Spencer Stanhope and Burne-Jones after their own sojourns in Italy.
For Strudwick and his circle, it was the art of Florence, and in particular Sandro Botticelli that was to have the most notable impact. The relationship between Botticelli and the Pre-Raphaelites has been explored in more depth in recent exhibitions such as the 2024 blockbuster Pre-Raphaelites. Modern Renaissance (Museo San Domenico, Forli) and the 2016 Botticelli Reimagined (Victoria & Albert Museum, London and Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin). However, it can clearly be seen in the framing of the figure within Thy Music…, her pure beauty, the rich fabrics of her dress and the tempera-like quality of the paint surface.
Nevertheless the picture is a very romantic British response to the Italian Renaissance. The frieze at the top of the painting which depicts haloed figures, some wearing armour or draperies, framed by sculptural pillars topped with carved angels, is a work of pure imagination that helps create a Renaissance mise-en-scène. Its central theme, that of the sense of sound evoked by the musical subject, was one of the key principles of the English Aesthetic movement. It was also one which preoccupied Strudwick throughout his career in works such as The Gentle Music of a Bygone Day (1890, The Lord Lloyd Webber Collection), In the Golden Days (1907, Pérez Simón Collection) and in various paintings of St Cecilia (fig. 4).
The precision with which the inlaid instrument, probably a psaltery, and the embroidered, brocade and lace fabrics of her dress are executed shows a true appreciation of craftsmanship and anchors the painting firmly within the world of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. Of all Strudwick's paintings Thy Music displays the most elaborately patterned textiles, and arguably heralds the start of the obsession with rich and vibrant fabrics that so came to define the works of the ‘Last Romantics’, the final generation of Pre-Raphaelite artists. It is easy to see Thy Music…’s influence on Thomas Cooper Gotch’s 1896 painting Alleluia (Tate, London), John Byam Shaw’s The Queen of Hearts (fig. 5, sold in these Rooms, 10 December 2020, lot 5, £790,500) and Frank Cadogan Cowper’s Bluebird (1918, sold in these Rooms, 15 June 2011, lot 52, £373,500).
The painting’s first owner was one of Strudwick’s most important patrons, the Liverpool shipping magnate William Imrie (1837-1906), one of the original partners in the White Star Line, the company that later launched the Titanic. In the sale of his collection at Christie's in 1907 there were six paintings by Strudwick alongside eight Evelyn De Morgans as well as works by Burne-Jones, Spencer Stanhope and Rossetti. A comparable collection was formed by a fellow businessman from Liverpool, George Holt, which remains intact and on display at Sudley House in Liverpool and contains three works by Strudwick including O Swallow, Swallow, 1894. Given Strudwick’s relatively small output of around 39 paintings, of which eight are in institutions such as Tate, London and Manchester City Art Gallery, they hardly ever appear on the open market. Therefore Thy Music… presents a rare opportunity to own a seminal work in the canon of one of the greatest exponents of Pre-Raphaelite art in the last decades of the 19th century.