John Melhuish Strudwick was born at Clapham in London in 1849. He studied at the National Art Training School, South Kensington and the Royal Academy Schools, where he was not particularly successful, but received encouragement from the Scots painter John Pettie. He worked as studio assistant to Spencer Stanhope and then Edward Burne-Jones, which firmly set him on the road to a distinctly Pre-Raphaelite style. His first (and only) picture exhibited at the RA was Song without Words (1876). From the following year, he exhibited at the Grosvenor, and later at the New Gallery. He lived in Hammersmith, close to Burne-Jones and T M Rooke, another studio assistant of Burne-Jones. He married Harriet Reed and had a daughter. Strudwick was one of the most accomplished of Burne-Jones’ followers. He produced some 30 paintings of legendary and symbolic subjects with a lapidary technique and a style that derived from the Italian quattrocento. Many of his paintings have music as a central theme, for example When Apples were Golden(1906). He favoured rich, deep colours, Burne-Jones type faces and complex drapery. There is also an Italianate look to much of his work, which may be ascribed to the influence of Spencer Stanhope. Burne-Jones’ influence is particularly apparent in Strudwick’s painting A Symphony in which architectural elements provide a linear structure for the human subjects. The marble floor and bench, as well as the columns crowned with detailed angels, all echo classical forms in Greek and Roman architecture. The bright robes of the two women in the foreground, and even the instruments in the work, also point to the Renaissance as a source of inspiration for style and subject matter. Strudwick’s characteristic style appears most clearly in the way the bright red and blue robes worn by the two main subjects are painted. He defined each crease and fold with shadow, highlight and a distinct feeling of depth and texture. The attention to detail continues in his rendering of the subjects’ hands and feet, as well as in the decor of the interior. Strudwick even paints the musicians in the background and their instruments with care and precision, though they recede into the shadows and are secondary to the women in the foreground. All of Strudwick’s works after his first introduction to Burne-Jones have the same crisp, precise style. George Holt first encountered Strudwick’s work in the collection of rival Liverpool ship owner William Imrie at the Holmstead, North Mossley Hill Road. In 1890 he decided he wanted his own painting by the artist and purchased Sirce and Scylla (1886). The subject was taken from Greek mythology, as retold by the Roman author Ovid. The enchantress Circe, jealous of the maid Scylla with whom her favourite Glaucus has fallen in love, poisons the water in which Scylla is about to bathe, turning her into a monster. Such was Holt’s pleasure in his acquisition, he went on to commission three more paintings directly from the artist. Strudwick’s A Golden Thread (1885; Tate) was first exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery. It was accompanied by the lines: ‘Right true it is that these/And all things else that under Heaven dwell/ Are changed of Time’. The theme of Time is dealt with in two related parts. Below, the three Fates are spinning the thread of life. Their spindles show part gold and part grey threads. The gold part will measure out the allotted span of a person’s life. Above, a girl and her lover are talking. It is their happiness that is being determined by the Fates: a bell is tolling in a tower, symbolising the passing of time, and Love’s car is waiting in the sky.’ Strudwick’s final artistic statement was the painting When Sorrow comes in Summer Days which remained in the artist’s family until 1983, and which he left unfinished. This gesture, together with the title, reflects the disillusionment he felt. Tastes had changed and the period had ended in which he enjoyed the patronage of important figures such as Imrie and Holt. The end of his exhibiting career coincided with his sixtieth birthday, so it is possible that he had been purchasing an annuity with a view to retirement. Sudley Art Gallery, under the direction of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, is the former home of George Holt, and several of Strudwick’s paintings may sometimes be seen there, including Sirce and Scylla. At the Walker itself is Strudwick’s St Cecilia (1896). When Apples were Golden is at the Manchester City Art Gallery and A Story Book is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia.