Strudwick (John Melhuish, 1800-1862). Three studies of female figures, pencil on wove paper * Attributed to John Melhuish Strudwick (1800-1862). Head of a Young Woman, pencil on thick wove paper, some soiling and a few small stains, sheet size 255 x 357 mm (10 x 14 ins), together with Study of a female figure bending forward, left leg raised, & Study of a seated young woman, both pencil on thick wove paper, a few pale stains and surface dirt, 255 x 357 mm and 354 x 250 mm respectively, each in card window mount, with modern pencil attribution to card mount to Sir E. Burne-Jones QTY: (3) NOTE: Provenance: Estate of Michael Jaffe (1923-1997), art historian and former director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. We are grateful to Scott Thomas Buckle for this attribution. He notes that "The left hand study is possibly for Passing Days, the middle one appears to be an early idea for Love and Time (although the artist used a male figure in the finished composition), and the right hand study is for Isabella."
Strudwick (John Melhuish, 1800-1862). Three Studies * Strudwick (John Melhuish, 1800-1862). Three Studies: Portrait Study of a Woman in Three Quarter View: and Studies of a Woman bending forward, left leg raised, nude and draped; with a Profile Portrait study of a Woman, verso; and Studies of a draped Youth, seated in contemplation, and a Hand; with a Sketch of a Nude Woman standing in a picture gallery verso, pencil on thick wove paper, a few pale stains, some discolouration and surface dirt, the second and third with a short tear, the first two 255 x 357 mm., the third 354 x 250 mm QTY: (3) NOTE: We are grateful to Scott Thomas Buckle for this attribution. He notes that "The left hand study is possibly for Passing Days, the middle one appears to be an early idea for Love and Time (although the artist used a male figure in the finished composition), and the right hand study is for Isabella."
Strudwick (John Melhuish, 1800-1862). Three Studies * Strudwick (John Melhuish, 1800-1862). Three Studies: Portrait Study of a Woman in Three Quarter View: and Studies of a Woman bending forward, left leg raised, nude and draped; with a Profile Portrait study of a Woman, verso; and Studies of a draped Youth, seated in contemplation, and a Hand; with a Sketch of a Nude Woman standing in a picture gallery verso, pencil on thick wove paper, the drawings with a few pale stains, some discolouration and surface dirt, the second and third with a short tear, the first two 255 x 357 mm., the third 354 x 250 mm QTY: (3) NOTE: We are grateful to Scott Thomas Buckle for this attribution. He notes that "The left hand study is possibly for Passing Days, the middle one appears to be an early idea for Love and Time(although the artist used a male figure in the finished composition), and the right hand study is for Isabella."
John Melhuish Strudwick, British 1849-1937- Five figure studies; each pencil on paper, two sheets with drawings verso, 35.6 x 25.4 cm., 25.6 x 19.9 cm., and 25 x 17.6 cm., three (3), (unframed). Provenance: (the first): Anon. sale, Bonhams, London, 19 November 2008, lot 1. Provenance: (all): Private Collection, UK. Literature: Edward Burne-Jones Catalogue Raisonné online: https://www.eb-j.org/browse-artists-people-artworks/Mjc= Note: The studies are accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the Burne-Jones Catalogue Raisonné Foundation. The first is a study for the central figure of Strudwick's larger composition 'The Gentle Music of a Bygone Day', painted in 1890 and housed in a Private Collection. The second is a study for the head of a woman (sixth figure from the right) in the artist’s oil ‘Love's Music, a Triptych’ (1877), which appeared at Sotheby’s, London, 15 July 2008, lot 3. The verso shows a study for one of the pair of his ‘Angels’, which were exhibited at London's New Gallery, Summer 1896, nos 78 and 82. The third sheet featuring a female figure by a tree trunk, with an older figure kneeling below, has been suggested as a possible study for ‘Dante's Vision Of Leah And Rachel’, whilst the nude verso may be a study for Strudwick’s subject of ‘Isabella’, of which at least two versions in oils exist. Strudwick worked in the studio of Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) around the years 1872-1875, having previously been a studio assistant to his uncle, Spencer Stanhope (1829-1908). He was closely connected to some of the most significant figures in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, with the influence of Burne-Jones strikingly evident in his approach.
* Strudwick (John Melhuish, 1800-1862). Three Studies: Portrait Study of a Woman in Three Quarter View: and Studies of a Woman bending forward, left leg raised, nude and draped; with a Profile Portrait study of a Woman, verso; and Studies of a draped Youth, seated in contemplation, and a Hand; with a Sketch of a Nude Woman standing in a picture gallery verso, pencil on thick wove paper, the drawings with a few pale stains, some discolouration and surface dirt, the second and third with a short tear, the first two 255 x 357 mm., the third 354 x 250 mm Qty: (3)
AFTER JOHN MELHUISH STRUDWICK (1849-1937): ELAINE Photomechanical print on wove paper, 1892, with margins, published by the Belin Photographic Company, London. 20 3/4 x 15 1/4 in. (image), 29 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. (frame).
John Melhuish Strudwick (London 1849-1937) Study of figures in an interior (recto) with architectural studies (recto); and Study of two seated figures with a child (recto) and subsidiary studies of trees and branches (verso) pencil 9 7/8 x 7 ¾ in. (25.1 x 19.7 cm.); and slightly smaller (2)
John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937) Isabella signed 'JM Strudwick/14 Edith Villas/West Kensington/.W./London' (on the artist's label attached to the stretcher) and inscribed '"Isabella"/Piteous she looked on dead &/senseless things/Asking for her lost Basil amourously [sic]/-Keats.' (on a label attached to the stretcher) oil on board 12¼ x 9 1/8 in. (31.1 x 23.2 cm.)
John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937) Study of a seated male nude, looking over his left shoulder with signature 'E. BurneJones' (lower right) pencil 11¾ x 6¾ in. (29.9 x 17.2 cm.)
John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937) Study of a seated male nude, looking over his left shoulder with signature 'E. BurneJones' (lower right) pencil 11¾ x 6¾ in. (29.9 x 17.2 cm.)
JOHN MELHUISH STRUDWICK 1849 - 1937 IN THE GOLDEN DAYS signed and inscribed with the artist's address on an old label attached to the reverse oil on canvas 65 by 45cm.; 26 by 18in.
JOHN MELHUISH STRUDWICK BRITISH 1849 - 1937 PASSING DAYS with an old paper label inscribed Passing days/ by John Strudwick/ Painted in 1878 on the reverse oil on panel 15 by 44 in. 38.1 by 111.8 cm
After John Melhusih Strudwick, British 1849-1937- Lady seated in a music room, publ. February 15 1892 by the Berlin Photographic Co 43 New Bond Street, London; photogravure, signed in pencil, 58x43cm., (A/F) (mounted), (unframed) Subject to VAT
JOHN MELHUISH STRUDWICK 1849 - 1937 IN THE GOLDEN DAYS signed and inscribed with the artist's address on an old label attached to the reverse oil on canvas 65 by 45cm.; 26 by 18in.
Junge Frau in fließendem Gewand in Erwartung eines Besuchs. Bleistift auf Velin. 25,5 x 17,9 cm. John Strudwick gehörte zu den begabtesten Künstlern aus der Nachfolge von Edward Burne-Jones, in dessen Atelier Strudwick auch für einige Zeit arbeitete. Aufgrund seiner akribischen Malweise fertigte er nur etwa 30 Gemälde an, meist mit symbolistischem Inhalt oder Motiven aus alten Sagen und Legenden. Die Gemälde bereitete Strudwick gründlich durch eine größere Anzahl von Bleistiftstudien vor, so daß auch unsere Zeichnung sicherlich in Verbindung mit einem Gemälde stehen dürfte.
John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937) Study for 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil' inscribed and dated 'Study for Isabella (1879) R C W' (lower right) pencil 10 x 7 in. (25.4 x 17.8 cm.)
John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937) Study of a young woman with her hands clasped; and a further subsidiary drawing of the hands and chin pencil on paper 11 3/8 x 9 in. (28.8 x 22.5 cm.)
ELAINE 79 by 58.5 cm., 31 by 23 in. inscribed on an old label on the backing board with lines from Tennyson's 'The Idylls of the King' oil on canvas PROVENANCE William Imrie, of Mosley Hill, Liverpool; His sale, Christie's, London, 28 June 1907, lot 141 (bought Boswell for 115 gns); Edward Thorburn, Lansdowne House, Morpeth, Northumberland; M.D.E. Clayton-Stamm, Virginia Water, Surrey (1963); Patrick Clements Withers esq.; Private collection EXHIBITED London, The New Gallery, Summer Exhibition, 1891 LITERATURE Art Journal, 1891, p.189; Magazine of Art, 1891, p.261, repr. p.263; Steven Kosteren, 'The Pre-Raphaelite Art of John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937), The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Studies, 1:2 Fall 1988, pp.1-16, cat. no.20 NOTE Leaving her household and good father, climb'd That eastern tower, and entering barr'd her door, Stript off the case, and read the naked shield, Now guess'd a hidden meaning in his arms, Now made a pretty history to herself Of every dint a sword had beaten in it. Tennyson Idylls of the King The story of Elaine -- the subject of John Melhuish Strudwick's 1891 painting -- is told by Tennyson in the seventh book of Idylls of the King, 'Lancelot and Elaine'. The poem opens with a description of her: 'Elaine the fair, Elaine the lovable, Elaine the lily maid of Astolat', and tells how she 'guarded the sacred shield of Lancelot; / Which first she placed where morning's earliest ray / Might strike it, and awake her with the gleam'. So powerful a hold did the shield have upon her -- because she loved Lancelot, and felt his presence when gazing upon it -- that she would withdraw during the day into her room, open the case that she had made to keep it in, so as to look at it and dream of Lancelot. Elaine was the daughter of King Pelles, lord of Astolat. Some time before, Sir Lancelot, when travelling to a joust at Camelot, had come to the castle of Astolat and had been received by Pelles and his two sons and daughter. Lancelot had exchanged his shield with that of Pelles's son Sir Torre -- so that Lancelot might appear at the joust without being recognised. This was how his shield, marked with blows from many combats, became the possession of Elaine. Falling in love with Lancelot, she besought him to allow her to serve and follow him. After Lancelot's departure -- at which moment he unkindly refused to take his leave of her -- Elaine was comforted by her father and brothers, each of whom attempted to dissuade her from her hopeless love, reminding her also of his duplicitous love for Guenevere. However, Elaine refused to believe the account she was given, but simply requested that preparations should be made for her funeral, asking that her body might be taken by barge to Camelot and to the court of King Arthur. She wrote a letter to Lancelot, which was to be given to him after her death: 'I, sometimes call'd the maid of Astolat, / Come, for you left me taking no farewell, / Hither to take my last farewell of you. / I loved you, and my love had no return, / And therefore my true love has been my death'. The tragic story of Elaine was one that struck a chord in the Victorian imagination, for it was the tale of a loving and dutiful daughter and sister -- and one who had early assumed responsibilities as the only woman in the family, her mother having died -- but who abandoned the convention of respect for her loving family as the imperatives of love overtook her. Her father, who had indulged her, was powerless to persuade her to give up a passion that could have no happy outcome. In the context of Victorian society, which placed such reliance on the bonds which held family life together -- and within which an hierarchical system of respect and honour operated -- the figure of Elaine stood as a morality tale which warned that all proprieties were at risk as a consequence of unwise love. Tennyson's 'Lancelot and Elaine', as given in the definitive version of Idylls of the King, originated in the poem 'Elaine', which was one of the four first parts to be written, and which were published in 1859. Tennyson drew on Malory's treatment of the legend in Morte D'Arthur, the poem cycle adored by Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Morris in the 1850s, and the inspiration and narrative text of the Oxford Union mural scheme of 1857. Tennyson, however, elaborated and reset the tale, so as to emphasise the alienation of Elaine from her father and brothers. As Debra Mancoff has written, 'Elaine did not simply die for love, she died in defiance of her proper place and her father's counsel. A streak of will flawed her feminine nature, and self-destruction, rather than Lancelot's rejection, caused her untimely and unnecessary death' (The Return of King Arthur -- The Legend through Victorian Eyes, London, 1995, p.78). The subject of Elaine was only occasionally treated by artists of the Pre-Raphaelite circle; Arthur Hughes's Elaine with the Armour of Lancelot (private collection; illustrated Leonard Roberts, Arthur Hughes -- His Life & Works, Woodbridge, 1997, p.92), of 1867, is one example. Also in 1867, Edward Henry Corbould painted an elaborate watercolour of Elaine's dead body being rowed to Camelot (ex Maas Gallery, London; illustrated Mancoff, op. cit., p.81) At about the same time, Gustave Doré was preparing his engraving which showed the funeral barge, "And the dead, Oar'd by the dumb". In Strudwick's version of the subject, Elaine is shown in the private apartment of her father's castle of Astolat. Seated on a carved wooden coffer, she looks intently at the shield of Lancelot, which she has placed on a prie-dieu (as if it were some kind of holy relic). With it is shown part of the embroidered drapery that Elaine had made to keep and protect the shield. Lying at her feet is a lily, the flower of martyrdom with which her legend has been associated since Malory told her story in Morte D'Arthur, and from which she too her name the Lily Maid of Astolat. In the treatment of her anguished expression, and in the way she clasps her hands, Strudwick captures the agonising torment of one who is hopelessly in love, and thus anticipates the tragic consequences of that love. Strudwick is a most intriguing artistic figure, and one for whom a full biographical account is lacking. The principal source of information about him comes from an article in the April 1891 Art Journal by George Bernard Shaw. The painter was born in Clapham, south London, and educated at St Saviour's Grammar School. It seems that he succeeded in resisting his parents' intention that he should follow a career in business, enrolling instead at the South Kensington school of art, and later at the Royal Academy Schools. As a young man he received encouragement from John Pettie, who admired his sense of colour, and for a period Strudwick attempted to paint in a free and dashing style. Strudwick's works were repeatedly rejected by the selection committees of the Royal Academy, and he depended largely on the Dudley Gallery for opportunities to exhibit. In the early 1870s he was employed as a studio assistant by J.R.S. Stanhope and later by Burne-Jones -- both of whom remained close friends of Strudwick's to the end of their lives. In 1876 Strudwick's painting Song without Words (private collection) was exhibited at the Royal Academy -- the only time he ever managed to show there. This caused some degree of excitement among those who were sympathetic to manifestations of latter-day Pre-Raphaelitism, with critics and members of the public wondering how such a quaint and yet technically demanding work could have been undertaken by an otherwise unheard of artist. In reply to the accusation that Strudwick was merely an imitator of an historical style of painting, Shaw wrote: 'There is nothing of the fourteenth century about his work except that depth of feeling and passion for beauty which are common property to all who are fortunate enough to inherit them' (Art Journal, 1891, p.101). The sale of Song without Words marked the critical turning-point in the painter's fortunes. He 'promptly hired a studio for himself; and since that time his vocation as an artist has never been challenged. There is no such thing as an unsold picture by Strudwick; and so the story of his early struggles may be said to end there' ('J.M. Strudwick', Art Journal, 1891, pp.97-101). From this time forward Strudwick gained a following among a circle of collectors and connoisseurs who appreciated the ornate complexity and originality of a style of art that was alien to the gaudy and mechanical confections which were so often seen in the public exhibitions of the period, and who furthermore were patient enough to wait for new works by an artist whose method of production was agonisingly slow. Two Liverpool collectors -- William Imrie and George Holt -- were to become his most loyal supporters. Elaine belonged to the former, who was a wealthy ship-builder and ship owner. Imrie's remarkable collection, partly dispersed in 1907, included Rossetti's Veronica Veronese (Bancroft Collection, Wilmington Society of Arts, Delaware), as well as Rossetti's oil replica of the subject Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice, originally made for William Graham (Dundee City Museum). Imrie also owned Burne-Jones's The Tree of Forgiveness (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight). With these important works kept at Imrie's house, Holmstead, Moseley Hill, were as many as eight works by Strudwick. These were, in addition to the present painting, Passing Days, Evensong, The Ramparts of God's House, Saint Cecilia, The Ten Virgins, and works entitled "The Tuneful Strings wake Memories" and "Thy music, faintly falling, dies away / Thy dear eyes dream that love will live for aye". Paintings from William Imrie's collection provided all the illustrations to G.B. Shaw's article. Of Strudwick's art as represented in that piece, Shaw could write: 'The execution of these easel paintings is smooth, and the method of representation simply drawing on the flat surfaces and colouring it: Holbein, Hogarth, Bellini were not more exact and straight-forward than Strudwick. The pictures are finished up to the point at which further elaboration would add nothing to the artistic value of the picture; and there the work stops, not a stroke being wasted' (loc. cit., p.100). CSN
PROPERTY OF A LADY THE ANNUNCIATION measurements note 56 by 41 cm., 22 by 16 in. signed and dated l.l.: JMS/ 1876 oil on canvas LITERATURE Steven Kolsteren, 'The Pre-Raphaelite Art of John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937), The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Studies, vol. I:2 Fall 1988, pp. 1-16 NOTE Of all the followers of Pre-Raphaelitism who originated as acolytes of Burne-Jones, and who carried the Romantic impulse in English painting into the twentieth century, John Melhuish Strudwick was the most devoted to the vision of a strange and magical dream-world. His paintings have a wistful and poetic quality that beguiles, compelling the viewer to search for a closer knowledge of a sphere of existence which, despite being so clearly observed, derives entirely from the painter's imagination. The present painting of The Annunciation represents Strudwick's distinctive style in its first florescence, when his colours were brighter and compositions less shadowed than at a later stage. The reds and blues of the draperies, the turquoise of the pavement and the lapis lazuli blue of the right-hand column, and the freshness of the landscape, with its drifts of almond blossom, seen through the arcade placed across the width of the composition, are all characteristic of the painter's early career. As George Bernard Shaw wrote in his important 1891 article on Strudwick's art, 'in colour these pictures are rich, but quietly pitched and exceedingly harmonious. They are full of subdued but glowing light; and there are no murky shadows or masses of treacly brown and black anywhere'. Strudwick's representation of the biblical subject follows the text in the gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 26-38, where Gabriel appears to Mary in the house of her father in Nazareth. Gabriel speaks the words 'Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women'. In showing the Virgin fallen to her knees and limply extending her hands towards the angel, Strudwick seems to have been seeking to convey the account given by Luke of how, 'when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be'. The painter departs from iconographic convention in various respects, for example in preferring not to show Mary interrupted in her reading from the book of Isaiah (in which the Prophet foretold the Virgin birth). Likewise, the dove that is usually shown as a symbol of the descent of the Holy Spirit from God to the Virgin has not been included. Lastly, Strudwick has chosen not to give Mary a halo, as she would have had according to traditional iconography. Strudwick painted a number of subjects with Christian themes. One of his earliest known works was a painting of The Good Samaritan, of 1871. Later he painted subjects such as The Ten Virgins, of 1884, two versions of St Cecilia, of 1882 and 1896, and another entitled An Angel, of 1895. It is not known whether Strudwick was a man of religious faith, although he was presumably encouraged to follow Anglican observations at St Saviour's Grammar School, where he was educated. His early interest in the Annunciation as a subject may indicate that he was devout at that period, while the reinvention of the theme in terms that depart from Catholic iconography is in keeping with attitudes of Protestant artists in the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic circles from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. CSN
PROPERTY OF THE PRE-RAPHAELITE INC. SUMMER SONGS measurements note 89 by 102 cm., 35 by 40 in. oil on canvas with gold paint PROVENANCE Joseph Beausire, of Wethersfield, Noctorum, Birkenhead; Beausire sale, Christie's, London, 13 April 1934, lot 74 (as Summer Songs) (bought Abrahams); Sotheby's, London, 23 June 1971, lot 156; Pre-Raphaelite Inc EXHIBITED London, New Gallery, 1901, no.96 (as Summer Songs); Port Sunlight, 1902; Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art; Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art; Aichi Prefectural Art Gallery; Osaka, Daimaru Museum of Art; Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, The Pre-Raphaelites and their Times, 1985, no. 31; Nottingham, Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham Arts Centre, Heaven on Earth -- The Religion of Beauty in late Victorian Art, 1994, no. 67 LITERATURE The Times, 20 April 1901, p. 7; Steven Kolsteren, 'The Pre-Raphaelite Art of John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937), The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Studies, vol. I:2 Fall 1988, pp. 1-16 NOTE Of all the painters who formed the late nineteenth-century manifestation of Romantic Pre-Raphaelitism- a movement which owed much to te example of Edward Burne-Jones and more remotely to Dante Gabriel Rossetti- John Melhuish Strudwick is the most remarkable. Because he painted so slowly, and in such a meticulous style which he never attempted to adapt or simplify so as to be less technically exacting, he is represented by a small but precious corps of works. The painting which was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1901 as Summer Songs (and which in recent years has usually been known as Summer Hours), is one of the most celebrated of Strudwick's paintings and one that exemplifies the essential qualities of refinement and other-worldliness of his art. The subject shows four beautiful female figures in a garden or courtyard. On the left stands the singer, holding a song-book. Beside her a girl is seated at an organ, the richly decorated side of which forms a vertical divide approximately at the centre of the composition. On the right is a kneeling figure, working the bellows of the organ. Seated at the side is a figure holding a book. All of the girls are wearing long flowing dresses of rich but sombre colours, while each has her hair tied back with lengths of cloth, or in one case a golden chain. Behind the figures there is an arcade, with pairs of arches separated by pilasters decorated with relief patterns in blue and gold. Below the arcade's sill, on the surface of the wall, is a painted decoration showing figures against a gold ground. On the entablature of the arcade is an inscription, the words masked by the golden fruit, leaves and branches. Through the spaces of the arches is glimpsed a wide Mediterranean landscape, with distant mountains and a line of umbrella pines. A group of three mounted knights, wearing armour and carrying pennants, are seen in the distance, but whether they are approaching the four maidens or are riding past on an unknown martial mission is not explained. Summer Songs is without any ostensible subject, and is therefore a characteristic product of the English Aesthetic movement in the course of which since the 1860s painters had freed themselves from the need to paint subjects which might be interpreted or understood in narrative terms. Summer Songs has within it two central themes of Aestheticism, each of which conveys a sense of mood to the work and captures the imagination. The first is an allusion to a season of the year. The luxuriance of growth, the warmth of colour, and the sense of heat, in the painting convey subliminally a feeling of summer as well perhaps of experience of the south. The second theme, allied to the first in the painting's title, is that of music. The work follows in line of succession to various St Cecilia subjects that Strudwick produced in the late 1890s (figs 1. & 2.). That now at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool shows St Cecilia, with a companion saint, and with her hands resting on the keys of the organ, and also features an arcade and distant landscape view of the type which is elaborated in Summer Songs. A larger and more complex work entitled Evensong (private collection), exhibited at the New Gallery in 1898, anticipates even more closely the present work, with four principal figures and with the richly decoated organ seen side on and with its keyboard in an obliquely-angled perspective. As John Christian has written, 'Like Burne-Jones, Strudwick loved to paint compositions in which a mood of wistful sadness is evoked by a group of female figures playing musical instruments' (The Last Romantics- The Romantic Tradition in British Art- Burne Jones to Stanley Spencer, exhibition catalogue, London, 1989 (under the discussion of Strudwick's 1897 St Cecilia), p.94). The two themes of Summer Songs -- the season of the year and music -- are allegorically linked. Each represents an imagined continuum, from which the figures will emerge in a transformed condition. The ripeness of the fruit that hangs in the branches overhead, and the scattering of dead leaves on the pavement, are reminders that summer must give way to autumn and that the effulgent bounty of one season will be succeeded by the bleakness of another. The cycle of the seasons are therefore here intended to remind the spectator of the phases of life itself. Similarly, the attention that a player or an audience might give to a piece of music, as represented in the playing of the figures, is intended as a metaphor of the span of life. Thus, Strudwick's paintings are meditations upon the passage of life and the inevitability of death, cloaked in a guise remote from mundane experience. The pattern of Strudwick's own career as an artist is intriguing. Although biographical details are few, it seems that he was not a man who relished public exhibitions or sought the kind of popular fame which might lead to further commissions or flattering reviews. Having trained at the South Kensington school and then at the Royal Academy, he commenced his professional career by painting in a fairly conventional style derived from the example of John Pettie (1839-1893). A crucial formative experience in his move towards a style of art of technical refinement and aesthetic subtlety occurred in the early 1870s when he was employed as a studio assistant first by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and then by Burne-Jones. Strudwick's works were repeatedly rejected by the Royal Academy and his professional prospects were uncertain. However, in 1876 his painting Song without Words (Sotheby's, London, 8 June 1993, lot 22) did gain admission (it was in fact his only contribution to the Royal Academy summer exhibitions in his entire career). The work caused a great stir among those who were curious to know how such a quaint and yet technically demanding work could have been undertaken by an otherwise unheard of artist. According to George Bernard Shaw, who wrote the article about Strudwick which is the principal source of information about the artist, the sale of Song without Words marked the critical turning-point in the painter's fortunes. He 'promptly hired a studio for himself; and since that time his vocation as an artist has never been challenged. There is no such thing as an unsold picture by Strudwick; and so the story of his early struggles may be said to end there' ('J.M. Strudwick', Art Journal, 1891, pp.97-101). From this time forward Strudwick gained a following among a circle of collectors and connoisseurs who appreciated the complexity and intensity of a style of art that was alien to the gaudy and mechanical confections so often seen in the public exhibitions. Two Liverpool collectors -- William Imrie and George Holt -- were his most loyal supporters. In reply to the accusation that Strudwick was merely an imitator of an historical style of painting, Shaw wrote: 'There is nothing of the fourteenth century about his work except that depth of feeling and passion for beauty which are common property to all who are fortunate enough to inherit them'. Strudwick's art made great demands both upon the artist and the spectator, and for this reason he remained outside the artistic establishment of the day. His paintings are, nonetheless, highly sophisticated expressions of an anti-Utilitarian counter-culture in the late Victorian world, and were esteemed for their complete indifference to all that was modern, or indeed distinctly of any age. Summer Songs belonged to the Birkenhead patron and collector Joseph Beausire, presumably having been bought by him at the New Gallery in 1901, and once again demonstrating the particular enthusiasm that was felt for Strudwick's work by the great merchant patrons of the north-west. Beausire had set up a trading company which operated between Liverpool and the West Indies and Latin America, and was chairman of the West India and Pacific Steamship Company. Although Beausire died in 1907, it was not until 1934 that the main body of his collection was sold, with works by Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Sandys and Poynter, as well as landscapes by Turner, Constable and Cotman, and works by members of the Liverpool School being represented. In 1970 C. F. J. Beausire made a bequest of watercolours from the Beausire family collection to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. CSN
Study for an angel in a green dress pencil, watermark 'J WHATMAN 1894', on two joined sheets of paper 27 7/8 x 10 3/8 in. (70.8 x 26.5 cm.); and two photographic reproductions of 'The Angel with a Lute' and 'The Angel with a Scroll.' (3)
Study of figure and a subsidiary study of a figure in an arcade (recto); and a study of a church architrave (verso) with inscription 'J.M. Strudwick 'Study' for ? PCW.' (lower right) pencil 14 x 10 in. (35.5 x 25.5 cm.); and a photogravure after Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones of 'Chant d'Amour' (2)
