.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale studied at both the Crystal Palace School of Art, under Herbert Bone, and at the Royal Academy Schools. Her style was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and Ruskin's notion of 'truth to nature'. She exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1896-1935, and in 1902 was elected first female member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and to the Royal Watercolour Society.
Though unpublished, these works were probably intended for publication in H. Wright's, Beautiful Flowers: And How to Grow Them, 1909. Brickdale had been commissioned, along with ten other artists, to provide ten coloured illustrations to the four volume book. These two intricately detailed watercolours are comparable to the published works and demonstrate Brickdale's confident handling of the medium and photographic analysis of the flowers. One review of Brickdale's work in Beautiful Flowers commented, "...The frontispiece (a comparable rose study to the present lot) is a charming study in the Chinese manner by Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, whose sympathetic and accurate treatment of flowers will be familiar to the too few who are acquainted with her interesting pictures." ("Book-notes, News, etc.", The Journal of Botany, November 1908, vol. 46, p. 368). Whereas the other artist's published in the book depicted flowers in vases or in situ in flower beds, Brickdale's works reference the scientific botanical paintings that were popularised between 1750 and 1850.
We are grateful to Pamela Gerrish Nunn for confirming the authenticity of this work on the basis of a photograph and her contribution to the cataloguing.
Though unpublished, these works were probably intended for publication in H. Wright's, Beautiful Flowers: And How to Grow Them, 1909. Brickdale had been commissioned, along with ten other artists, to provide ten coloured illustrations to the four volume book. These two intricately detailed watercolours are comparable to the published works and demonstrate Brickdale's confident handling of the medium and photographic analysis of the flowers. One review of Brickdale's work in Beautiful Flowers commented, "...The frontispiece (a comparable rose study to the present lot) is a charming study in the Chinese manner by Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, whose sympathetic and accurate treatment of flowers will be familiar to the too few who are acquainted with her interesting pictures." ("Book-notes, News, etc.", The Journal of Botany, November 1908, vol. 46, p. 368). Whereas the other artist's published in the book depicted flowers in vases or in situ in flower beds, Brickdale's works reference the scientific botanical paintings that were popularised between 1750 and 1850.
We are grateful to Pamela Gerrish Nunn for confirming the authenticity of this work on the basis of a photograph and her contribution to the cataloguing.