Yet once more on the organ play. Artist: Frederick Sandys. Engraver: J. Swain, 1861. Wood-engraving, 3¾ x 5 inches. Once a Week(23 March 1861): p.350. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
An illustration for a poem by Julia Goddard, ‘From the German of Uhland’. This image depicts the listener’s moment of passing (in agony – or in ecstacy?): the neighbour plays ‘once more’ and death (ironically) provides the air (or breath) for the organ. This image exemplifies Sandys’s art at its most unsettling, notably in the way in which it contrasts the three poses of the main figures – one dying, one alive, one an emblematic figure of death. It calculatedly recalls the example of German wood-engraving of the period, while also invoking Renaissance allegories about the shortness and futility of earthly pleasures.
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Scanned image and caption by Simon Cooke. Text and formatting by Simon Cooke. You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.it
Further Reading and image resources, suggested by Dennis T. Lanigan
Elzea, Betty. Frederick Sandys 1829-1904. A Catalogue Raisonné. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2001, cat. 2.B.10, 202-03.
Yet once more upon the organ play (1861, brush and black ink on cream paper). Collection of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, accession no. 1906P841.
Yet once more upon the organ play (1861, wood engraving by Joseph Swain on cream paper). Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, accession no. E.1370-1900. Victoria and Albert Museum. Web. 26 August 2026.
Created 18 July 2013
Last modified 26 August 2025