Illustrations of two of Wordsworth's poems by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, ROI, RWS 1872-1945. 1903. Left: To the Daisy. Source: Sparrow 141. Right: The Female Vagrant. Source: Sparrow 142. Even though many of Brickdale's works stand alone as artistic compositions, many are also intended as illustrations, whether or not they appear in one of the books she illustrated. This is because she does have an allegorical bent, choosing titles and quotations to suggest her ideas. Something is being represented or happening in all her compositions, and we can use the title as a clue to work out what it might be. In short, her works suggest something beyond themselves, not telling a story in the (by now) old-fashioned way that, say William Frith's might. Brickdale's approach is more in the manner of symbolist art. Another reason for the apparent overlap between "fine art" and illustration in her work is that her paintings are small.
These two are, of course, clearly illustrations of poems of the same titles. One (To the Daisy) quotes in the border Wordworth's various imagined embodiments of the flower — as nun, maiden, queen, or demure maid — while the other shows a female wayfarer in a loose robe and plaid skirt, flopped on the bank of the hedgerow among the (one might say "other") wild flowers, recalling from Wordsworth's narrative poem the lines, "By high-way side forgetful would I sit / Whole hours, my idle arms in moping sorrow knit." The borders, themselves unusual and intricate, mark both compositions out quite clearly as illustrations.
Text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Sparrow, Walter Shaw, ed. Women Painters of the World: From the Time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the Present Day. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1905. Project Gutenberg (but also available through the Internet Archive, which gives page numbers). Web. 30 December 2018.
Created 30 December 2018
Last modified 19 February 2022