성 에울랄리아

Waterhouse painted this in 1885, and it is unlike almost anything else he made. A twelve-year-old Christian girl, Eulalia, has been martyred in Roman Spain, and she lies dead in the forum, her body dramatically foreshortened so her bare shoulders come toward you across the snow. The story Waterhouse followed came from the poet Prudentius, who wrote that snow fell to shroud her and that a white dove flew from her mouth as she died. He scattered 16 doves through the grey square, and a child near her points up at one still hovering, her escaping soul. The picture won him early acclaim and helped secure his election to the Royal Academy. The market stalls stay shuttered behind, the town holding its breath in the cold.