JOHN WHITE ALEXANDER

The similarity between painting and music was one of the great preoccupations of the late nineteenth century. The French Symbolists, English artists such as Albert Moore and Frederick Leighton, and Americans such as Whistler and Thomas Dewing all featured the subject of young women playing instruments and listening to music. Alexander’s rich orchestration of the friezelike composition, with its languid poses, fluid brushwork, and careful color modulation, masterfully evokes their ethereal experience.