'St Cecilia', John Melhuish Strudwick

Zoom into the detail of this painting|

St Cecilia is the patron saint of music. Strudwick shows her looking not up to heaven but down ‘because I think earth’s sweetest music is not an echo of heaven’s music, but something quite different. I have made my angel sad-faced because there’s always a sadness in our mortal songs.’ The painting was commissioned by George Holt in 1895.