John Melhuish Strudwick

LAS MOIRAS
ELAINE

My_Beloved_has_gone_down_to_his_garden


THE RAMPARTS OF GOD'S HOUSE
ISABELLA
ramparts-gods-house-



When Apples were Golden and Songs were Sweet but Summer had passed away



STA. CECILIA***St Cecilia is the patron saint of music
Melhuish-Strudwick-Circe_and_Scylla

Acrasia

A Symphony

John Strudwick began his artistic career as a studio assistant to Edward Burne-Jones. Initially, Strudwick enjoyed the patronage of wealthy industrialists but his career went into decline when they withdrew their support. He deliberately left his painting 'When Sorrow comes in Summer Days, Roses Bloom in Vain' unfinished - an indication of the disillusionment he felt at the collapse of his career.
He painted in a flat linear style, with great attention to detail, especially in the draperies and accessories, using rich and glowing colours. The effect is sometimes rather lifeless and static, but always highly decorative.
George Bernard Shaw wrote an article about Strudwick for the Art Journal in 1891.
An excerpt follows:
'... transcendent expressiveness is the moving quality in all Strudwick's works and persons who are sensitive to it will take almost as a matter of course the charm of the architecture, the bits of landscape, the elaborately beautiful foliage, the ornamental accessories of all sorts, which would distinguish them even in a gallery of early Italian paintings....'