The Princess and the Swineherd, by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, ROI, RWS 1872-1945

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The Princess and the Swineherd (an illustration for Hans Christian Andersen's story of that title)

Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, ROI, RWS 1872-1945

Captioned "From a drawing"

c.1898

Source: E.B.S. (in The Studio, 107)

The commentator notes here Brickdale's "trick of reducing the scale of her quadrupeds" in the foreground. "It has no doubt been done of set purpose, but 'piggies' the size of white rats require a good deal of ingenious defence when the average man in the street raises his not unsupported objections" (104). [Commentary continues below.]

Formatting and text by George P. Landow and Jacqueline Banerjee.

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Nevertheless, "E.B.S." finds the group "charming," displaying "so much vigour, and such an admirable power of telling a story, that it would be easy to forgive her the 'five little pigs' for the sake of the rest." As for the swineherd, apart from a rather poorly drawn left arm, he is felt to show

an enormous amount of vitality; indeed it would not be easy to find a passage in current literature which tells a story so well. He is no lay figure, no stage tenor, but an old-world lover whose passion is by no means reciprocated by the greedy little princess grudgingly paying her toll of one hundred kisses for the magic pipkin with bells round the rim, bells that jingle Lieb> when the water boils. Miss Brickdale may possibly have seen Mr. Byam Shaw's delightful picture of the same subject — certain details of the costume suggest his influence; but all the same she has not given us a paraphrase of his idea, but a very adequate and delightful interpretation of the story that witches one in middle age as fully as it did in the nursery. Technically speaking, one feels that less attempt to model the flesh would be better, the convention of black and white is apt to suggest "dirty" rather than rose-red faces when too many lines are used for the cheeks and the neck. These criticisms, whether well- or ill-founded, do not affect the very high appreciation which the design merits, and it is one that will hold its own despite them. [104]

Perhaps "E.B.S." denotes Byam Shaw's first wife Evelyn. At any rate, there are some niggling criticisms of the drawing, such as her husband might have made, mingled with a larger amount of general praise.

Bibliography

E.B.S. "Eleanor F. Brickdale, Designer and Illustrator." The Studio [London] Vols. 11-13, Vol 13 (1898): 103-8. Internet Archive. Contributed by Robarts Library, University of Toronto. Web. 27 December 2018.

Last modified 26 February 2012