Oil on paper, 32.5 by 49 cm

Music was a central part of Holiday’s life both as a concert-goer, singer (performing for some time in the Bach and Richter Choruses) and even a composer with several songs to his name. Unsurprisingly musical subjects found their way into his art sometimes as allegorical and genre subjects and elsewhere through his many illustrations to concert programmes. Here, his primary love was the music of Richard Wagner. His drawings appear in programmes for Wagner operas for the impresario Alfred Shulz-Curtuis in the mid-1890s. It is possible that this painting was an idea for a similar programme from the period.