KATE ELIZABETH BUNCE (BRITISH, 1856-1927)

Kate Bunce is one of the most prominent female artists among the later Pre-Raphaelites. She was from Birmingham, where her father was editor of the Birmingham Daily Post, and where he was instrumental in forming the magnificent collection at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Kate’s best known picture, Melody, also on a musical theme and showing a clear debt to Rossetti, is shown there.
She studied at the Municipal School of Art, and later contributed to the murals in the Town Hall. In 1901, along with Walter Crane, and fellow Birmingham artists Joseph Southall, and Arthur Gaskin, she founded the Society of Painters in Tempera. She also exhibited at the Royal Academy and the New Gallery.
St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music. Her early legend suggests that she rejected the sound of musical instruments on entering the house of her betrothed, having ears only for celestial music which kept her pure in body and soul. Thereafter, she was often depicted listening to angelic choirs, suggested here by the figures depicted on the tapestry behind her. Like the Lady of Shalott, she leads a cloistered existence: a sunlit landscape lies beyond the windows. Hers is the contemplative, rather than the active life.