The Sorrowing Soul Between Doubt and Faith

This painting was shown at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where it was enthusiastically received by critics. Though born in New York City, Vedder spent most of his adult life in Italy. Known as a symbolist, he created brooding, poetic images exploring his own dreams and perceptions. The style of Sorrowing Soul reflects his many years looking at the art of the Italian Renaissance, emphasized further by the elaborate gold frame the artist designed for it.William Howe Downes, in an 1887 review of Vedder’s work in the Atlantic Monthly described the Soul’s companions: “the serene and radiant head of Faith, on the one hand, surrounded by a golden nimbus, and on the other side the shrewd, wrinkled visage of gray-bearded Doubt, who seems to be as vigorous as ever in spite of his great age.” Vedder leaves the Soul in an eternal quandary, her shrouded sorrowful face uncommitted to either faith or doubt.Writing to his friend and patron Agnes Ethel Tracy in 1887, Vedder encouraged her to keep the “3 heads,” noting “you will never get from me a more remarkable picture.” (“We Went to the Fair,” curated by Nancy E. Green and presented at the Johnson Museum August 27–December 18, 2016)