This pastel portrait of Parrish’s aunt was included in the first major retrospective of the artist’s work, organized by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in 1980. In the catalogue to that exhibition, C. Reynolds Brown describes this work, writing, “…Parrish’s composition is rendered predominantly in blacks and dark blues. The few highlighted areas are the woman’s head, hands, and the book which rests on her lap…Close inspection of the highlighted areas of the work reveal a myriad of subtly blended colors depicting the aging contours of the face, hands and hair.”
This picture was exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition. An article in The Age-Herald the following year noted, “Another family likeness which hung in the Palace of the Fine Arts at the Paris Exposition is a pastel of her aunt, seated in the warming light of day, an open bible upon her knees, the color scheme a blend of black and gold and such an impression of calmness on the sweet old face that Parrish calls the picture ‘Evening’.”
![A May 11, 1888 review of the painting, which appeared in the [London] Globe, described the painting as follows: No story is told in Mr. F. D. Millet's "A Tender Chord," but it is a work of great refinement and beauty. It represents a tall and pensive lady of the last century standing beside a wide window with a lute in her hands. In addition to the graceful simplicity of the figure and the very artistic treatment of the draper, the picture is remarkable for its truthful illumination and unity of effect. The glow of reflected light and colour is admirably rendered.](https://media.artsbma.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/11074821/hPiction_Repository_3db_photod8583u33385838200522_01_p01_o2-400x350.jpg "hPiction_Repository_3db_photod8583u33385838200522_01_p01_o2 | Birmingham Museum of Art")
