Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale: WWI

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale illustration for
"Old English Songs and Ballads

"When Britain entered the war in August 1914 it was by no means clear what aspects of life would be affected by it and, in the event, the patterns of artistic life were variously altered. While there was an argument that luxuries such as art should be abandoned - and there were many instances of artists themselves declaring their profession redundant in the face of this cataclysm - there was an equal argument that they were especially cheering as the strife escalated, and in any case there was the question of how artists were to continue to support themselves during the conflict. As the 'Burlington Magazine's book reviewer wrote, on the re-issue of Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale's 'Idylls' in a cheaper edition for the 1914 Christmas market: 'In the midst of national dangers, domestic sorrows, and financial difficulties... a good many publishers are exerting themselves to provide pastime and distraction, especially for younger and less critical readers, and they deserve every encouragement for doing so.'

Thus, however unintentionally, her next 'coloured book' was perhaps helped to a good reception by its underplayed nationalism. The 'Book of Old English Songs and Ballads' was published in 1915, carrying 24 coloured plates. It played to the artist's strengths, with the classic Pre-Raphaelite figure in nature visualizing 'Barbara Allen', 'The Wish', 'Who Is Silvia?' and other poems. Her weakness for cherubic cupids is in evidence, but the pages were modernized by banishment of the decorative borders which, since the 189s, had been 'de rigueur' where Arthurian subject-matter was concerned.

While in 1917, art was included in the National Service Bill's list of non-essential industries which gave a man of the relevant age no protection from conscription, for women artists the question arose, what should they do for or about the war? Some male artists joined the armed services - and Lucy Kemp-Welch was one female artist who tried to - but the most obvious way for artists of either sex to support the war was through fundraising exhibitions of work - and Fortescue-Brickdale appeared in the RWS exhibition of February 1914 and the vast Red Cross sale in February 1918. She contributed also to the philanthropy expected of her class, serving on the council of the Imperial Arts League (a pre-war organization designed as a professional body for artists) from April 1914 until the end of 1916, and on the founding committee for the Star and Garter Home in Richmond, for which in 1916 she designed the insignia and a wartime medal for the London ambulance service."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Pre-Raphaelite Journey: The Art of Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale" by Pamela Gerrish Nunn.)