Angel of Music

Oil on Masonite, 18” x 24”, 1995 SOLD

‘The Angel of Music’ brings solace and quietude to the grieving. In her glowing embrace all is healed, forgiven, and made whole. This painting was based on a statue in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. Many great musical luminaries are interred in Père Lachaise: the composers Georges Bizet, Luigi Cherubini, Frédéric Chopin, Gioachino Rossini, as well as French Jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani, and singers as varied as Turkish/Kurdish singer and songwriter and political exile Ahmet Kaya, Italian opera singer Giulia Grisi, French opera singer Célestine Marié, the legendary American-born Greek opera singer Maria Callas, 20th Century French chanteuse Édith Piaf, and rock singer and poet Jim Morrison, among many other musical talents.

This painting was done in a negative/wipe-off technique, in cool colors, with warm tones glazed over later. I sought to achieve an effect similar to stained glass. I took inspiration for the hair and face of the angel from the 15th century Filippino Lippi painting, “Apparition of The Virgin to St Bernard”.