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Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale Collection

Throughout the page that follows, we have presented a selection of vintage plates from Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale.

 

These images are drawn from his contributions to various editions of The Illustrated London News and a variety of other titles.

 

We have developed a range of Giftware that includes images reproduced from the 1st Edition plates in our collection to ensure the most accurate form, line and colour possible. We have utilised a high definition capture and reproduction technique for the images - in contrast to the low definition representation necessary for this website. The illustrations are available as cards, infants' clothing, T-shirts and unmatted, matted or framed prints (8x6", 10x8", 12x10", 15x10" and 30 x 20" images sizes). Pricing starts at US$4 for single Gift Cards (US$18 for select packs of 6) and 10 x 8" prints (double-matted and framed) begin at US$60. Further details on those reproduction images are available at the Giftware section of this site.

 

Should you wish to discuss an order, please contact us at ThePeople@SpiritoftheAges.com referencing your request with the Stock Code of the plate, or plates in question and a brief description (and rest assured, we do accept payment through PayPal or Direct Bank Deposit).

 

In the meantime, enjoy browsing our selection of genuine vintage and antique plates.

 

 


The Artwork of Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
 

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1871-1945) was born into a family of means and she took her education in art at the Royal

Academy school. It was while attending the Royal Academy that she met Byam Shaw - a prominent artist - whom was not

only a close friend, but also an artistic influence.

 

The comment from The Times (14 March, 1945) following her death provides a contemporary summary of her life and

achievements, thus:

 

A Versatile Artist. Miss Fortesque Crickdale RWS, painter, modeller, and designed of stained glass,

and black and white artist died on March 10th as briefly announced in our columns yesterday. She

was the last survivor of the late Pre-Raphaelite painters, who though - or possibly because - they

did not come into personal contact with the original Brotherhood, carried some of their principles

to extremes. Her nearest affinity was with the late Byam Shaw, in the period of his Loves Baubles,

and she was at the height of her reputation about the same time as he.

 

It was the allegorical side of Pre-Raphaelitism that Miss Fortesque Brickdale inherited, and her work

was distinguished by brilliance of colour and great fidelity to detail. One of her most successful

pictures The Deceitfulness of Riches, is crowded with detail of patterned garment and fruiting trees.

As the title suggests there is often a moral of symbolic meaning behind her pictures. Eleanor

Fortesque Brickdale, youngest daughter of the late Mr M I Fortesque Brickdale, barrister of Lincoln's

Inn was born in 1871. She studied at Crystal Palace School of Art, and at the Royal Academy Schools,

where in 1896 she won a £40 prize for her design for the decoration of a public building. Her first

appearance in a Royal Academy Summer Exhibition was made the following year. She continued to

exhibit there fairly frequently, her contributions including several portraits.

 

Her pictures were also seen at the Royal Watercolour Society, but the highly wrought nature of her

work kept her from being a prolific exhibition artist. Decorative illustration was her natural bent, and

typical works of hers were The Forerunner in which Leonardo da Vinci was depicted showing his

model of a lying machine to the Duke of Milan, and The First visit of Simonetta. For the first British

Empire Exhibition in 1824 she painted the reredos in the Chapel of Remembrance. She is represented

in the permanent collection of Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham.

 

As might be expected from the character of her pictures with their brilliant colours and sharp drawing,

Miss Fortesque Brickdale was successful as a designer of stained glass, and there is a window by her in

Bristol Cathedral. In his English Pre-Raphaelite Painters, their associates, and successors in 1910 Percy Bates

says that she should do much in the future to exemplify the still living force of Pre-Raphaelitism. Whether

or not that prediction was fulfilled, she deserves to be remembered for her consistent fidelity to

the tradition.


 

Pencil Study of a Rose Bush in Flower (1902)

 

Pencil Study of a Rose Bush in Flower

 

 

Provenance: An American Collector

 

Image Size: 12.3 x 20.3cm

Vintage Image Price: US$250

 

Code: EFB PSRB 1

 

 

10 x 8" Reproduction: US$25

 


 

The Idylls of the King (1902)

 

Before the coming of the sinful Queen

 

 

Provenance: A French Collector

 

 

Code: EFB IK 18

 


 

The Legends of the Flowers (The Illustrated London News, 1924)

 

The contributions prepared by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

 

The Birth of the Sweetest Flower: The Angel

Gabriel Salutes the Blessed Virgin, and the

First Rose Blooms

Set Free by Christmas to Unite in Christian

Rejoicings: The Little People of Fairyland Join

the Carol Singers

How the Lavender Came to Smell of Paradise: The

Blessed Virgin Dries Our Lord's Swaddling Clothes

on its Scented Bush

The Rose is not only the emblem of our country, the

very soul of summer, and the sweetest of all the blooms

in an English garden, but it is a flower interwoven with

the mystic legends of our religion, and is closely

associated with the Virgin Mary. The legend of the

rose's birth is that when Gabriel saluted the Blessed

Virgin, "the Rose wherein the Word Divine was made

incarnate," her namesake first sprang from the earth,

and twined itself into a sweet-scented arbour above

her head

 

 

Provenance: An American Collector

 

Image Size: 17.6 x 26.9cm

Vintage Image Price: US$300

 

Code: EFB LF 1

 

 

10 x 8" Reproduction: US$25

Holly, the Christmas bush with its lacquered green

leaves and gay red berries, is associated in every mind

with the Christmas season, and yet how few of us know

all the legends that twine about the tree? For instance,

at this season the restrictions on the Little People of

Fairyland are loosed. At no other time may they stay

to hear the name of Our Lord mentioned; but at this

sacred season they have been known to appear and

actually to join the carol singers under the

Holly Tree

 

 

Provenance: An American Collector

 

Image Size: 17.6 x 26.9cm

Vintage Image Price: US$300

 

Code: EFB LF 2

 

 

10 x 8" Reproduction: US$25

Lavenders, the cool, scented herb, whose perfume

conjures up visions of peace and suggests the charm of

an old-world sheltered life, is a summer spice associated

in legend with the Blessed Virgin. It was, runs the tale, a

scentless bush until the Mother of Our Lord dried His

swaddling clothes upon its misty blue spikes. In honour

of Him the perfume which "breathes of Paradise" came

as a gift to the Lavender, and it has retained the

heavenly smell until this day

 

 

Provenance: An American Collector

 

Image Size: 17.6 x 26.9cm

Vintage Image Price: US$300

 

Code: EFB LF 3

 

 

10 x 8" Reproduction: US$25

The Elfin Rout made Visible by the Four-Leaved

Clover: The Meadow Treasure as the Key

to Fairyland

Many are the legends which are entwined about the

Four-Leaved Clover, that wonderful luck-bringing

meadowland treasure; and the old country tale runs

that those who find it and keep their discovery a secret

may use it as the gat to Fairyland. He or she who hold a

four-leaved clover may behold the high pomp and state

of the Little People, and see the elfin rout of brownies,

goblins, fairies, and the like go riding by on the soft

summer breeze, and be transported into the strange

intermediate world of Fairyland

 

 

Provenance: An American Collector

 

Image Size: 17.6 x 26.9cm

Vintage Image Price: US$300

 

Code: EFB LF 4

 

 

10 x 8" Reproduction: US$25


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Last modified: 06/29/08