International studio (14.1901)

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

then been trained in a school of art, and, like all girl
students, had suffered in two ways ; for the rule-of-
thumb precepts had made her self-timorous and
self-conscious, while the hourly influence of clever
studies by young men had also a disturbing effect,
as it appealed strongly and constantly to her
feminine aptitude for simulating various styles.
For these reasons, during the time she spent in
the Royal Academy Schools, Miss Fortescue-
Brickdale was not really herself, and some friend
ought to have said to her, what Ruskin said to
Lady Waterford, that her best guides in art were
Nature and her own intuitive delight in the
best work. Nor did she begin to come by her
own until circumstances forced her to abandon
all the tricks and methods which she had acquired
so laboriously in the schools. Those circum-
stances came into play when Miss Fortescue-

“THE CUP OF HAPPINESS

Brickdale, about two years ago, started to work
in water-colours, a medium of which she had
no school knowledge. It was entirely new to her;
hence she had to find out her own way of making
it serve as a means of expressing ideas. This was
the self-discipline that Miss Fortescue-Brickdale
needed, and its effects are admirably various and
very attractive. The medium itself is never
paraded, as in most modern water-colours ; it is
always a quiet, unobtrusive servant to the artist’s
play of thought, fancy, and sentiment; and this
result is entirely in accordance with instinctive
ways of work most suitable to women of genius.
But it has a few drawbacks as well as many ines-
timable advantages. Again and again, in the art
practice of true women, technical defects must be
pardoned, not reluctantly, but with as much readi-
ness as we excuse the errors of archaeology in the
plays of Shakespeare. As
an example of this in the
work by Miss Fortescue-
Brickdale, let me remind
you of the colour-print
representing a picture en-
titled Chance, a page of
sunlight that appeared in
The Studio for April.
The oversight to be for-
given in this water-colour
is the face that peers out
from the background, just
behind the raised hand of
the principal figure. The
composition would be
much improved if that
face were hidden by the
leafed, tapestry-like back-
ground ; and yet one is
willing to be annoyed by
it for the sake of the
notable good qualities,
like the exquisite handling
of the flowing red robe,
the subtle and beautiful
colour, the gentle serious-
ness and sincerity of the
general treatment, and the
delicate spirit of high
comedy, so fresh and yet
so scenic in lightness, that
gives so much charm to the
pretty girl in the act of ques-
tioning Chance, as young-
sters do it in the fields.

BY ELEANOR FORTESCUE-BRICKDALE
(By Permission of Messrs. Dowde swell)

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