In the Golden Days, by John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937). 1907. Oil on canvas. 26 by 18 inches (65 x 45 cm). The Pérez Simón Collection, image courtesy of Sotheby's, London.
Strudwick exhibited this work at the New Gallery in 1907, no. 12, the year prior to making his final appearance at that institution. Strudwick stopped painting altogether in 1909, faced with an unmistakable marked decline in interest by dealers and collectors in his style of painting and subject matter. Critics had also largely stopped reviewing his works when they were exhibited because they were considered too "old-fashioned." The title of this painting, In the Golden Days, is taken from Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King:
How sad it were for Arthur, should he live,
To sit once more within the lonely hall,
And miss to hear high talk of noble deeds
As in the golden days before thy sin.
When this work was auctioned at Sotheby's in 2011, Christopher Newall, remarked how this particular work "exemplifies the essential qualities of refinement and other-worldliness of his art. Strudwick was preoccupied by the subject of passing time or of an imagined golden age, from Passing Days of 1878, The Gentle Music of a Bygone Day of 1889 and When Apples were Golden and Songs were Sweet, But Summer had Passed Away of 1906." Steven Kolsteren has pointed out that "Strudwick's private dreamworld is not a perfect hiding place, being continually affected by time and decay" (8).
Newall has described the theme depicted in this picture:
The subject shows three beautiful female figures in a medieval chamber at the bottom of a staircase. On the left sits a damsel clad in rose-coloured robes playing a type of archaic lute, whilst beside her, dressed in green is a second girl holding a song-book. A third girl, dressed in a darker red robe, lifts a veil from her ear and stoops forward to listen to the music played by the other two figures. At the side of the girl dressed in green are pale wild roses growing over a knight's shield, reminiscent of Burne-Jones's Briar Rose series of pictures painted in the 1880s (Buscot Park, Oxfordshire). The title is taken from Tennyson's Idylls of the King from the part of the poem where Guinevere talks of her regret of her sins and desire to return to the idyllic time of her youth. The central figure dressed in green may therefore depict the young Guinevere, attended by two of her companions before she had met Arthur or Lancelot. The crown depicted on the bronze salver behind her and the lions rampant and Fleur-de-Lis on the heraldry probably relate to King Arthur whilst the knight carrying a golden sword and being crowned by angels, depicted in the panel above the window, is clearly the king her future husband holding Excalibur. The wild roses possibly relate to the illicit love of Lancelot.
Véronique Gerard-Powell has a somewhat different interpretation of this picture, particularly concerning which of the three maidens represents Guinevere:
Strudwick, who evokes the young Guinevere's life at court, before her fateful meeting with Lancelot. For Strudwick, this happiness is expressed by music. In a room in the castle, decorated with standards, including one showing Arthur with his sword Excalibur, and pewter dishes decorated with a double crest of a couple, the young queen, with roses in her hair, listens to the music that a lady-in-waiting is playing on a cittern, an unusual musical instrument that the artist may have seen at the South Kensington Museum. The queen seems to be about to dance. The other lady-in-waiting is holding a musical score and may be about to sing. The women have Strudwick's typical facial type, with small, shapely closed lips and lowered, almond eyes. The influence of Flemish painting can be seen in the detailed treatment of the room and the window with its small panes, overlooking the tranquil courtyard of the castle of Camelot. Only the wild roses in the foreground and the dark shield hint at the arrival of Lancelot and the drama yet to come. [181]
Gerard-Powell used this painting as an example to discuss how Strudwick's work had evolved over time: "This picture shows the extent to which he remained loyal to the style he had perfected in the 1870s, with the late development of a greater monumentality in the figures and the use of warmer colours. Traces of the influence of the Italian Renaissance have also been lost in his faithfulness to the pure line of the Pre-Raphaelites. In the Golden Days combines two of his favourite themes – music and the passing of time" (181).
Bibliography
19th Century Pictures and Continental Watercolours. London: Christie's (27 November 1987): lot 138.
Gerard-Powell, Véronique. A Victorian Obsession. The Pérez Simón Collection at Leighton House Museum. London: Leighton House Museum, 2014, cat. 47, 180-81.
Kolsteren, Steven. "The Pre-Raphaelite Art of John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1937)." The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Studies I: 2 (Fall 1988): 8 & 12, no. 35.
Newall, Christopher. Victorian & Edwardian Art. London: Sotheby's (17 May 2011): lot 21. https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/victorian-edwardian-art-l11132/lot.21.html
Created 3 October 2025