The Archangel: A Remarkable Resemblance

When I was going through old postcards and letters, I came across a postcard with an image by the Finnish artist Esther Helenius, from 1923. It's simply called "The Archangel". I was suddenly struck by the remarkable resemblance to my own painting "The Last Hour" from 1995. I also suddenly realized why I never thought of "the tombstone" (the head in a box) as depressed. Although I felt it accurately describes my condition here on Earth (limited, tied down to the ground, boxed in...) and therefore I was never willing to part with it, I now realize what is in my mind positive about it. I think it may be showing the last phase in a process of purification from the fetters of ignorance. So I hope, at least.

I should add, that the image by EH is not a well known one that I don't think I had ever seen (though possibly the postcard many years ago in the artmuseum's bookshop) and that I received the postcard 5 years after I painted that painting.