"But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!" by Charles Edward Perugini

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"But O for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!"

Charles Edward Perugini (1839-1918)

1896

Oil on canvas

77.2 x 54.9 cm. (30.4 x 21.6 in.)

Pérez Simón Collection, Mexico

On show at the exhibition, A Victorian Obsession at Leighton House Museum in Kensington, London, 14 November 2014-29 March 2015 [Review]

Image reproduced by kind permission of Leighton House Museum; text and and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

This portrait of a mourning woman was painted in the year in which Frederic Leighton, for many years Perugini's patron and friend, passed away. Its title comes from Alfred Lord Tennyson's famous poem, "Break, Break, Break," written in response to the death of his own close friend, Arthur Hallam:

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

For his model, Perugini chose Mary Lloyd, who had sat for a number of works by Leighton in these later years. Angela Bolger describes her as "seated, wearing an ivory damask, Renaissance-style dress, her eyes closed, her head resting on her hand in the traditional attitude of Melancholy." Bolger also notes that, in some parts, the painting seems to have been "hastily finished," surmising that Perugini was keen to show it at the Royal Academy that year. An early volunteer with the Artist's Rifles (see Barrington 56), Perugini donated the work to the fund for the relief of the wounded and widowed of the Boer War. Apparently the Prince of Wales himself entered the bidding for it when such paintings went up for auction, but it was not until the twenty-first century that it entered its present collection.

Related Material

Bibliography

Barrington, Mrs Russell. The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton. London: George Allen, Ruskin House, 1906. Volume II Project Gutenberg. Web. 25 September 2024.

A Victorian Obsession: The Peréz Simón Collection at Leighton House Museum: Exhibition Guide and Events Programme.

Created 25 September 2024