Fidelia Bridges: Once Famous Pre-Raphaelite Painter

 

 

 

In this hectic holiday time, it's good to feel a peaceful calm by looking at the small beauties of nature - especially when the eye can fall on what is (unfortunately) referred to as "negative space." It gives the eyes and the mind a sense of well being. Such an artist, who recreated that environment in her paintings was Fidelia Bridges (1834-1923).

 

 

Once again, we rediscover a woman artist who was renown in her time and who made a living at her art, but whose name has almost disappeared in our time. 

 

 If it wasn't for her art, her life would be a mirror of life for women as written by Jane Austen. She and her 3 siblings were orphaned by the loss of both parents. Her oldest sibling, Eliza, supported the other three by working as a school teacher - one of the few professions considered respectable for women.

 

 

 

Fidelia was sickly and spent time in her room drawing. When she was well enough to find work, she was a nanny to a wealthy family. Meanwhile, she pursued her growing interest in oil paintings. 

 

Through her employer, she met a renown painter of pre-Raphaelite nature art. His style not only influenced Bridges, but he sold some of her paintings to his patrons.It was the recognition from this patron of her art that led to support from her employer into creating a studio in the top floor of their house.They even provided the funds to send her to Italy for further training. 

 

 

By age 34, her reputation as a specialist nature painter led to membership in the American Watercolor Society - the first woman to be invited to join. Her circle of patrons included Mark Twain.

In later years, she lived in a hillside cottage overlooking meadows and a stream. There, she continued to paint, but rarely exhibit, enjoying her quiet rural setting and using the scenery for inspiration. (She was named in the book titled: "Notable American Women: 1607-1950") 

 

When the Bells Tolled for Her

Her life was short. She was 26 when she died and she was buried days later on her 27th birthday. Yet she live long enough to make her mark on photojournalism - as the first woman to cover a war and die while doing so.

It was 1936 and Gerda Taro (nee Gerta Pohorylle; 1910-1937), was a photo assistant to Robert Capa (nee Endre Ernő Friedmann; 1913-1954), a photographer and photojournalist best known for his photos on the front lines of war zones.

Taro was a German Jewess. She knew about fascism first-hand. She opposed the Nazi party in Germany and was arrested for distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets. After her release, the family left Germany.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out, she went with Capa to cover the anti-fascists soldiers. It was there that she established herself as a war photographer. Below are some of her photos at Navacerrada Pass, Segovia front, Spain:



(This failed offensive was the basis for Ernest Hemingway's, "For Whom the Bells Tolled.")

A year later, Taro would be killed in a freak war accident. Her fame was such that LIFE magazine printed two full pages about her.

The Unrecognized Artists...

Last week's blog was about the modern day influences of the Hudson River School - a pastoral art movement of the mid-19th century.

The movement included names such as Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt. What you don't hear about - even in Wikipedia - are the names of the women artists in the movement. The question is: why not?

The answer is reminiscent of the same circumstances that surrounded the women Impressionists artists. (Archives: Morisot - Jan. 2010).Women were excluded from the academies and did not have access to wealthy patrons. Some were actually forbidden to make art and came to art later in their lives. Some were the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of their highly recognized male artists and were not able to compete. (Portrait of Eliza Greatorex above.)

Now, recognition of these gifted artists is beginning to happen. There have been recent museum exhibits and an article in the Smithsonian magazine on these talented women.

These were women who hiked in long skirts and corsets through the mountains and cliffs to paint, etch, photograph and embroider images of the landscapes. Many of these women traveled throughout the east and went even south all the way to Florida for the opportunity to paint the countryside and waterways in the Hudson River School style.

Here are some of the women whose names are finally being recognized:

Laura Woodward (1834-1926)

Harriet Cany Peale (1800-1869)

Elizabeth Gilbert Jerome (1824-1910)

Susie Barstow (1857-1934)

Julia Hart Beers (1835-1913)

Eliza Greatorex (1819-1897)