"The tender grace of a day that is dead will never come back to me" by Walter Langley, RI

"The tender grace of a day that is dead will never come back to me"

Walter Langley, RI

Oil on canvas

1909

H 115.5 x W 105.5 cm

Collection: Gallery Oldham; accession no. 3:10

Purchased from the artist, 1910

The title comes from the last two lines of Tennyson's famous meditation on mortality, "Break, Break, Break," and suggests the mother's longing for her lost husband (and the child's lost father). [Commentary continues below.]

Image kindly released via Art UK on the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives licence. Commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee.

The woman has paused in her mending to look out of the window, as she might once have looked out in hope of her husband's return. Oblivious to her yearning, her son is whittling some wood, perhaps as a mast for a model boat: most likely, he too will one day face the dangers of the deep. Once again. Langley expresses his deep empathy with the lives of the women in this fishing community. Yellow and white flowers in a vase replace the light that would once have burned there to welcome her husband back.

Created 13 March 2021