DOI issue:
Nr. 99 (June 1901)
DOI article:Sparrow, Walter Shaw: On some water-colour pictures by Miss Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19788#0048
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
RINGS IN GOLD AND PRECIOUS STONES
DESIGNED BY T. LAMBERT
EXECUTED BY P. TEMPL1ER
(See Article on French Jewellery)
Like It," and not as Audrey would
were this rojgh peasant girl in Rosa-
lind's place and hose and doublet.
That these true and generous women-
artists wait for a just recognition, that
they stand in need of pen-knights,
cannot be questioned; and for this
reason, as an introduction to a few
remarks on one of the most brilliant
of them all, it seems necessary to
point out not only why a just recog-
nition is withheld, but also what
limitations ought to be anticipated by
those who wish to study without bias
a woman's contributions to art.
By this means two purposes will
be served at once, both germane to
my subject. It will stir up some
necessary reflection on a few aesthetic
questions which man's Narcissus-
pride of sex has too long obscured ;
and it will be an indirect way of
doing honour to Miss Fortescue-
Brickdale, whose noble and strong
genius has a woman's heart and a
woman's prescient intuition. We
have here a Rosalind that speaks to us, but a Rosalind of
a type rare in painting, because this genius, unmistakably,
has what one may call a Spenserian fondness both for remote,
old-fashioned ways of expression, and also for those veiled
and familiar criticisms of life that good allegories renew with
romance from generation to generation. And this means that
Miss Fortescue-Brickdale, like Edmund Spenser, appears to
have been to some extent impressed and inspired by the
Masques, the Moralities, and the Miracle Plays that form a
vagrant bond of loose union between the drama of classical
antiquity and the greatest plays produced in the spacious
times of Queen Elizabeth.
In any case, however, there are two current prejudices
that tell against a full and just appreciation of Miss
Fortescue-Brickdale and the real sisterhood of artists.
The first one is connected with an idea that came into
vogue before the Victorian era had cut its wisdom teeth ;
BY E. FORTESCUE-BRICKDALE
(By permission of Messrs. Dowdeswell)
33
RINGS IN GOLD AND PRECIOUS STONES
DESIGNED BY T. LAMBERT
EXECUTED BY P. TEMPL1ER
(See Article on French Jewellery)
Like It," and not as Audrey would
were this rojgh peasant girl in Rosa-
lind's place and hose and doublet.
That these true and generous women-
artists wait for a just recognition, that
they stand in need of pen-knights,
cannot be questioned; and for this
reason, as an introduction to a few
remarks on one of the most brilliant
of them all, it seems necessary to
point out not only why a just recog-
nition is withheld, but also what
limitations ought to be anticipated by
those who wish to study without bias
a woman's contributions to art.
By this means two purposes will
be served at once, both germane to
my subject. It will stir up some
necessary reflection on a few aesthetic
questions which man's Narcissus-
pride of sex has too long obscured ;
and it will be an indirect way of
doing honour to Miss Fortescue-
Brickdale, whose noble and strong
genius has a woman's heart and a
woman's prescient intuition. We
have here a Rosalind that speaks to us, but a Rosalind of
a type rare in painting, because this genius, unmistakably,
has what one may call a Spenserian fondness both for remote,
old-fashioned ways of expression, and also for those veiled
and familiar criticisms of life that good allegories renew with
romance from generation to generation. And this means that
Miss Fortescue-Brickdale, like Edmund Spenser, appears to
have been to some extent impressed and inspired by the
Masques, the Moralities, and the Miracle Plays that form a
vagrant bond of loose union between the drama of classical
antiquity and the greatest plays produced in the spacious
times of Queen Elizabeth.
In any case, however, there are two current prejudices
that tell against a full and just appreciation of Miss
Fortescue-Brickdale and the real sisterhood of artists.
The first one is connected with an idea that came into
vogue before the Victorian era had cut its wisdom teeth ;
BY E. FORTESCUE-BRICKDALE
(By permission of Messrs. Dowdeswell)
33