Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

The exhibition 'A Pre-Raphaelite Journey: Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale' is being shown at the Lady Lever Art Gallery from 1 June - 4 November 2012

Now at the Watts Gallery, Compton, until 9th June 2013

What a fabulous exhibition! I had the privilege of having a preview of this exhibition and a guided tour from the curator, Pamela Gerrish Nunn, a few weeks ago. Now in full swing and open to the public, this fabulous show is well worth a visit. It is the fist time Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale's work has been exhibited in over 40 years and Pamela's astounding research has pulled some brilliant and little-known examples of her work from private collections certainly into the catalogue if not the exhibition itself.

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1872-1945) was a celebrated artist in her own time, working not only as a traditional painter working with oils, but as a designer of stained glass and as an illustrator. Rejected thrice by the Academy following her art education at the Crystal Palace School of Art, she was finally accepted in 1897; quite an achievement at the time. She was also a highly accomplished watercolourist and worked on many commissions for flower books. What is most charming about her work however, is that much of it celebrates nature and is very accurately captued. Fortescue-Brickdale focussed not on the standard Pre-Raphaelite way of doing this through moralising or history genre painting, but by inviting fairy folk into her canvases, The Little Foot (above) is a fine example of a painting of a shy nymph.

Fortescue-Brickdale painted many marvellous watercolour portraits, such as this fine example below. It is a portrait of fellow artist Winifred Nicholson (nee Roberts), wife of artist Ben Nicholson. Testimony to the hard times of women artists being recognised for their work in the early 20th century, Nicholson is pictured gazing absently from the painting and from her occupation of reading out of the picture space, away from the viewer and out of the gallery. Her mind is very well occupied simply with her imagination alone. Around her of symbols of femininity in the blush-pink roses and the domestic setting. The couch is covered in William Morris fabric; a nod to the trends and fashions of interior décor gone by.

 Portrait of Winifred Roberts (1913)

 It is the vibrant luminosity of Fortesque-Brickdale's work however, that makes it really appealing. in June is Dead (1915), the dying cherub shrouded in the heavy foliage of late June, marks the end of midsummer and the onset of late summer and autumn. The radiant colour and effective use of light give the piece an odd melancholy.

The summer is over and the rains will come; something we can very much empathise with in the 'summer' of 2012! 

Rebel and businessman- George Morland

George Morland learned to paint as an apprentice to his father, Henry Robert Morland. When this apprenticeship ended, George rebelled. Rather like we imagine a stroppy teenager would today, the heady world of art got to Morland and he left home to 'plunge into the exhilarations of young manhood' as a 1954 Arts Council booklet on him delicately puts it. 

Rather than following the established route of painting commissions for rich patrons, he painted subjects of his own choosing and sold them through dealers, which was a very modern way of selling art. It meant Morland could please himself and paint as and when he needed the money to support his unlimited extravagance. This was a rash move and separated him from traditional academic painters and the world of patrons and clients. It revolutionised the way art was dealt. 

There is no doubt that Morland made a lot of money from the thousands of paintings he produced in his lifetime. One venture of his was to establish deals with London galleries to show his work in an exhibition for which there was an entrance fee and then sell his work on afterwards. In reality though, this did not fully support Morland's laddish way of life or provide him with a regular income and he often faced periods of relative poverty, living for a time in the countryside. His view of a rural way of life in his paintings remained idyllic however, as this genre painting would have sold well with the middle classes living in urban areas. 

The Piggery painted in around 1790, at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, is a fine example of one of Morland's picturesque rural paintings. He painted many pictures of pigs, simply because he thought they would be good sellers.

Morland was undoubtedly a very talented painter, who worked incredibly hard over his lifetime; a lifetime cut short by alcoholism. It seems that the tale of too much money and too much talent early in life causing the 'celebrity death' we associate with stars like Amy and Whitney today, isn't perhaps, such a new one.

Lady Lever, Hidden Gems

Wedgewood's Jasper Fireplaces

Only four known examples of these exist in the world, three are a the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

 http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/displaypicture.asp?venue=7&id=258

Lost in Interpretation

Portrait of a Lady (Called Mrs Wells) painted around 1777

Accredited to John Hamilton Mortimer (1740-1779)

Lady Lever Art Gallery

This painting has cause me some real issues with my label writing. It is particularly interesting as it is not know exactly who it shows or who painted it! Lever bought the painting believing it to have been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It was later attributed to Francis Coates, as he had painted a portrait of the same name, which was sold to James Orrock, who also purchased the above painting for Lever.

Coates died in 1770 and this painting is thought to be from 1777-9 because of the height of the Lady’s hair. The painting is now attributed to John Hamilton Mortimer as it is similar to and is possibly one of the portraits of Ladies he painted for his 1777 Society of Artists Exhibition.

On the reverse of the painting is an undated label reading ‘Mrs Wells, 1^st wife of Doctor Wells’. No records show that a Dr Wells was known by the artist, nor that anyone called Mrs Wells sat for him and so the subject of the painting remains a mystery.