Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (25 January 1872 – 10 March 1945) was an English artist known for her paintings, book illustrations, and a number of works in stained glass.

Life

Fortescue-Brickdale was born at her parents' house, Birchamp Villa in

Upper Norwood Upper Norwood is an area of south London, England, within the London Boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth and Southwark. It is north of Croydon and the eastern part of it is better known as the Crystal Palace area. Upper Norwood is situated ...

, Surrey as Mary Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale the daughter of Matthew and Sarah Fortescue Brickdale. Her father was a barrister. She was trained first at the Crystal Palace School of Art, under Herbert Bone and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1896. In that year she also exhibited a work at the Royal Academy, RA, and won a prize for designing a

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

, ''Spring'' for the RA Dining Room. Her first major painting was ''The Pale Complexion of True Love ''(1899). She soon began exhibiting her oil paintings at the Royal Academy, and her watercolours at the Dowdeswell Gallery, where she had several solo exhibitions. While at the academy, Fortescue-Brickdale came under the influence of John Byam Liston Shaw, a protégé of

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

much influenced by

John William Waterhouse John William Waterhouse (6 April 184910 February 1917) was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His artworks were known for their dep ...

. When Byam Shaw founded his

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-seco ...

in 1911, Fortescue-Brickdale became a teacher there. In 1909, Ernest Brown, of the

Leicester Galleries Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...

, commissioned a series of 28 watercolour illustrations to

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

's ''

Idylls of the King ''Idylls of the King'', published between 1859 and 1885, is a Literature cycle, cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892; Poet Laureate from 1850) which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knig ...

'', which Fortescue-Brickdale painted over two years. They were exhibited at the gallery in 1911, and 24 of them were published the following year in a deluxe edition of the first four ''Idylls''. She lived during much of her career in Holland Park Road, opposite

Leighton House The Leighton House Museum is an art museum in the Holland Park area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. The building was the London home of painter Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton (1830–1896), who commi ...

, where she held an exhibition in 1904. Fortescue-Brickdale exhibited at the first exhibition of the

Society of Graphic Art The Society of Graphic Art for Pornographique (renamed Society of Graphic Fine Art in 1984) is a British arts organisation established in 1999. History The Society of Graphic Art (SGA) was founded in 1999 by Frank Lewis Emanuel, whose idea it wa ...

in 1921. Her 1921 World War I memorial to the

King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall ...

is in

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbis ...

. Later, she also worked with

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

. She was a staunch Christian, and donated works to churches. Amongst her best known works are ''The Uninvited Guest'' and ''Guinevere''. She died on 10 March 1945,"Obituary. Times ondon, England14 Mar. 1945: 7. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 30 Aug. 2013. and is buried at

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Estab ...

, London.

Books illustrated

* ''Poems by

'', 1905 * ''Pippa Passes'' by

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

, 1908 * ''Men and Women'' by Browning, 1908 * ''Dramatis Personae'' by Browning, 1909 * ''Dramatic Romances and Lyrics'' by Browning, 1909 * ''Idylls of the King'' by Tennyson, 1911 * ''Story of St Elizabeth of Hungary'' by WM Canton, 1912 * ''Book of Ols English Songs and Ballaids'' by WM Canton, 1915 * ''Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale's Golden Book of Famous Women'', 1919 * ''The Sweet and Touching Tale of Fleure and Blanchfleure'', 1922 * ''Carols'', 1925 * ''Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics'' published by Palgrave, 1925 * ''A Diary of an Eighteenth Century Garden'', Calthorp, 1926.

Works

File:Brickdale, Fortescue -The Uninvited Guest -1906-.jpg, ''The Uninvited Guest'', 1906. File:They toil not, neither do they spin.jpg, They toil not, neither do they spin File:The introduction.jpg, The introduction File:Riches Brickdale.jpg, Riches

Golden book of famous women (1919)

File:Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) - cover.jpg File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14777074592).jpg, Intro File:Eloisa and Abelard.jpg,

Héloïse Héloïse (; c. 1100–01? – 16 May 1163–64?), variously Héloïse d'ArgenteuilCharrier, Charlotte. Heloise Dans L'histoire Et Dans la Legende. Librairie Ancienne Honore Champion Quai Malaquais, VI, Paris, 1933 or Héloïse du Paraclet, wa ...

and

Abelard Peter Abelard (; french: link=no, Pierre Abélard; la, Petrus Abaelardus or ''Abailardus''; 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician. This source has a detailed desc ...

File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14590723400).jpg,

Fair Rosamund Rosamund Clifford (before 1150 – ), often called "The Fair Rosamund" or "Rose of the World" (Latin: ''rosa mundi''), was a medieval English noblewoman and mistress of Henry II, King of England, who became famous in English folklore. Life ...

File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14777445755).jpg,

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

and Beatrice File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14590736330).jpg, Laura and

Petrarca Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...

File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women 61.jpg,

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...

File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14590743250).jpg,

Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...

File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) - The Queen's Marie.jpg, "Yestreen Queen Mary had four Maries, This night she'll hae but three; She had Mary Seaton, and

Mary Beaton Mary Beaton (1543–1598) was a Scottish noblewoman and an attendant of Mary, Queen of Scots. She and three other ladies-in-waiting (Mary Livingston, Mary Fleming and Mary Seton) were collectively known as "The Four Marys". Family Mary was bo ...

, And Mary Carmichael, and me" (

Mary Hamilton "Mary Hamilton", or "The Fower Maries" ("The Four Marys"), is a common name for a well-known sixteenth-century ballad from Scotland based on an apparently fictional incident about a lady-in-waiting to a Queen of Scotland. It is Child Ballad 1 ...

) File:Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) - Una and The Red Cross Knight (p. 143).jpg, Una and The Red Cross Knight File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14797322763).jpg,

Bottom Bottom may refer to: Anatomy and sex * Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or dominant * Bottom (sex), a term used by gay couples and BDSM * Buttocks or bottom, part of th ...

and Titania File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14590815808).jpg, Rosalind and Celia File:Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) - Guinevere (p. 191).jpg,

Guinevere Guinevere ( ; cy, Gwenhwyfar ; br, Gwenivar, kw, Gwynnever), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First ment ...

File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14777464575).jpg, Maud is only seventeen File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14775111384).jpg, Kate Barlass File:Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) - St. Catherine of Siena (p. 239).jpg,

Catherine of Siena Catherine of Siena (Italian: ''Caterina da Siena''; 25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and on the Catholic Church. ...

File:Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale's Golden book of famous women (1919) (14590758180).jpg,

Clare of Assisi Clare of Assisi (born Chiara Offreduccio and sometimes spelled Clara, Clair, Claire, Sinclair; 16 July 1194 – 11 August 1253) was an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladie ...

References

* Pamela Gerrish Nunn (2012). ''A Pre-Raphaelite Journey''.

External links