Here in May Morning on Magdalen Tower we see choristers singing in the rosy light of a summer’s early morning at Magdalen College, Oxford which was William Holman Hunt’s alma mater.
There is an uncertainty in this 1890 picture as to where the ground level is in the picture as a result of the carpet of flowers as if through the song the singing party is propelled beyond the terrestrial towards the transcendent that is symbolized by the rose-clouded sky.
One of the boys in the left-center extends an invitation with his outstretched arm and outward gaze for us to join in praise.
William Holman Hunt’s May Morning on Magdalen Tower is in the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Bebington, United Kingdom