This painting, in its original frame, presents Vedder’s preoccupation with the theme of the soul flanked by worldly knowledge on one side, a classical figure with the face of age and experience, and by Christian faith on the other, with a face of youth and compassion surrounded by a halo. Writing to his friend and patron Agnes Ethel Tracy in 1887, Vedder encouraged her to keep the “3 heads,” stating, “you will never get from me a more remarkable picture.” [https://museum.cornell.edu/collections/american/painting-sculpture-1900/sorrowing-soul-between-doubt-and-faith]