A pale and glimmering light appeared before him

Stock's ghostly and atmospheric watercolour depicts a scene from Carl Theodor Körner's ghost story The Harp. It tells the story of Edward and Josepha Sellner, a newly married couple who enjoy spending the evenings playing the flute and the harp. However Josepha contracts a fever, and after nine days she passes away. In his grief Edward leaves her room in the same state as it was before her death. One night Edward visits the room to play his flute, when the harp begins to play itself, accompanied by a pale and glimmering light.