Exhibited 1888. The widower in the foreground looks up as he thinks for a moment that he hears his late wife’s voice as his daughter, whom he cannot see, begins to sing. The picture was exhibited with lines from Tennyson’s poem Break, break, break: But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand / And the sound of a voice that is still. The poetic quote underscores the painting’s deeply sentimental nature. http://books0977.tumblr.com/post/143663571997/her-mothers-voice-exhibited-1888-sir-william