Frederick Lee Bridell - Victorian Artist

Welcome to my website about Bridell

The beginning...

The Coliseum by Moonlight

The book ‘began’, if there was a beginning, in the 1970’s as a subject of interest. The early pages were pencil notes on an A4 pad of the works held in Southampton Art Gallery by Bridell. I visited the Gallery if I was passing nearby, to see the magnificent painting The Coliseum. Though I had forgotten, I have been reminded that I also dragged friends in to view it as well. The door-keeper used to say when I entered.. ‘it’s still there’. On one occasion, he added ‘there’s a few more stars on it this week, …. we’ve had the guilders in.’ And yes, the frame, which has held the painting since its hanging in the Royal Academy in 1860, had been repainted.

In due course, I came to London and renewed my interest in the artist. Christie’s staff were extremely helpful, and I was allowed to sit in the basement, surrounded by the most marvellous objects (no CCTV) and write notes from the Sale Catalogues of 1864/5. I don’t think one could do that now!

Photo of Bridell aged 27

Progress was slow. Very little was written about the man himself. There were two letters by his friend, Henry Rose, to the newspaper in 1888, a letter to the same paper, The Southampton Times by Bridell’s wife, Eliza Fox.. The research centred around public records, those of Bridell’s family, his wife and her family, and Holder, his employer and his family. And then, I discovered, by chance, that Elizabeth Barrett-Browning had known the artist before his marriage. His to-be wife, Eliza Fox, had been known to Robert Browning since she was a young girl.

Bingo. Bridell had connections. There were people who recognised his talent during his lifetime. Not only that, but because Robert Browning was known to the bride’s father, William Fox, Fox wrote to Browning, and requested that he give his daughter away, on his behalf, at her marriage to Bridell in Rome.

Dr. Kelley of Baylor University, has provided another helpful step on the way. He is engaged in the mammoth task of cataloguing the Browning’s correspondence. He indicated to me the note by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning to Ruskin, which was intended as ‘an introduction to the artist and his wife’ to visit Ruskin at Denmark Hill. For this I was very grateful, but it seems that the wished for event did not ever occur. Ruskin, a latter day Humpty Dumpty, still remains, to me, something of an enigmatic and interesting character.

Eureka...

The cover of the book

I cannot leave out ‘the Eureka moment’ from this summary. I was aware that Bridell’s employer, Edwin Holder, had advised Sir Charles Winn of Nostell Priory on his art collection. Whilst turning over the papers of Sir Charles Winn in the Leeds Archives, I found a four page letter by Bridell, probably the only one in existence, written 150 years ago. When one’s subject seems lost in the mists of time, it does not get any better than that.

So - why the book?

…because the result of my effort could not have been put in a drawer. I want other people to find works that have been ‘lost’ and to recognise that in this short life of a gifted man, there was incredible skill as an artist. He might even have outshone Turner, if he had had the opportunity.

I hope you enjoy my website and may even be enthused enough to look at the book as well!

C. Aitchison Hull.