ELEANOR FORTESCUE-BRICKDALE, R.W.S. | THE POSTHUMOUS CHILD

Purchased by the parents of the present owner in the 1920s

The Builder, 16 April 1904, n.p

'We know which is the most remarkable work in the exhibition, but the Hanging Committee did not or they would have hung it in a more central position... The Posthumous Child, is a most remarkable production. It is an allegorical picture. In a deep glen, with her feet among thorns and thistles, a beautiful young woman in widow's mourning leans against a rocky barrier on the right, her figure and dra[pery designed so that they make the commencement of a curve which is continued above by an indistinct rainbow, with the line of which an angel, beautiful in colour, with outstretched wings, leans over to her, and in front of the angel hovers in the air a little figure of a naked infant with its hands full of forget-me-nots. It is as thoroughly a poem in a painting as we have ever seen, and one in which the pictorial effect and composition are as complete as the pathetic interest of the picture. It ought to have been hung in a place of honour in the centre of the end wall, or in respect of the higher aims of art there is nothing in the room equal to it; but it is a work that not many people will really understand.' (The Builder, 16 April 1904, n.p)