The Old, Old Story

'The Old, Old Story' of 1903 takes its title from Josephine and Adelaide Proctor's Victorian poem beginning 'Tell me the old, old story'—a phrase that referred to the eternal story of romantic love. Godward's application of this Victorian literary title to a Neo-Classical subject was typical of his practice of combining archaeological imagery with the emotional vocabularies of Victorian sentimental culture, giving the Roman subject matter a contemporary emotional resonance that made his work accessible to collectors who might have found pure archaeological painting too cold.

Two figures engaged in intimate conversation are arranged in the close proximity that the title's romantic subject demands, their positioning creating the sense of private exchange within the ostensibly public setting of a classical architectural space. Godward renders the figures' drapery with his customary precision while giving the emotional content of the scene through facial expression and body language.