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! 

Watts Gallery

I visited the beautiful, if a little wet, Watts Gallery just outside Guildford last week. Set in the rolling green Surrey countryside, this gallery is the realised dream of artist G.F. Watts and his wife Mary Seton Watts.

Watts' career spanned a generation,he constantly redefined and recreated his work, seeking new methods and styles of expression and representation. Mary on the other hand epitomised the arts and crafts movement making it her mission to teach local people the art of terracotta sculpting to create a beautiful chapel just down the road from the gallery.

A shrine to the work of Watts, but so much more than that too, the gallery is a hidden gem; pot plants in teapots?! If that doesn't make for an excellent day out, I don't know what does!

Endymion

A talk I delivered at the Watts Gallery

Endymion

G.F. Watts OMA RA

1903

'A Thing of beauty is a joy forever' is the first line of Keats' 1818 poem which tells the story of the classical myth of Endymion. Although he begins life as merely a shepherd of Asia Minor, Endymion's beauty wins the affections of Diana, the moon Goddess. She falls hopelessly in love with him and pleads with Zeus to grant him eternal life. Zeus complies, but cruelly grants Endymion only eternal sleep. Diana remains besotted and visits Endymion sleeping every night.

Watts first painted this subject in the 1860s but the first version finished in 1872 looked very different from this much later attempt.

This representation of the subject deals very much with the narrative of the story. Diana is every bit the classical Goddess; swathed in layers of fabric, flawless skin and long, flowing locks of hair. 

In 1885 Watts gave a paper entitled 'On the Purpose of Art', in which he said that 'the greatest art is that which deals with types...and appeals to the imagination and not merely the eye'. He said this in relation to the rapid development of photography which he believed captured nature so accurately that mimetic, representative art was no longer enough. Art should inspire and engage its audience: it should appeal to the soul.

In the later canvas, Watts paints Endymion as the solid base of the composition. He is obviously mortal and powerless to the moon Goddess. Diana is unrecognisable from the earlier painting; her body is gone and in its place an almost gas-like orb. She is shown to be spiritual and mythical through expression, rather than representation. She completely engulfs the sleeping Endymion, overpowering him with her love and desire. 

Endymion is naked, again an expressive feature used by Watts. This raw vulnerability allows the viewer to harbour empathetic feelings for the character and we too feel overwhelmed by the love of the Goddess. 

Eternity is shown in the circular composition of the piece. Whilst this allows the earthly coloured Endymion to complement the ethereal Diana in an almost ying and yang form, it also reflects the eternal love Diana feels and the power of the eternal spell Endymion is under.

Works like this are largely associated with the French Symbolist movement, whose artists believed their canvases were talisman that would transport any onlooker to the au dela or the beyond. This painting is saturated with subtle meaning and great spiritual force, perfectly ascribing to the Symbolist agenda. Watts himself said it was filled with moonshine, rather than simply alluding to the feather-light, pastel-like paint work he had used, he was most likely alluding to the great sense of presence the canvas has. It is a truly magical piece.