Go make her beauty vary day by day 1913

Curator: Here we have Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale's “Go make her beauty vary day by day,” completed in 1913. It's an oil on canvas, quite characteristic of the Pre-Raphaelite movement she gravitated towards. Editor: Immediately I get a sense of waiting… and also mild claustrophobia. It's beautiful, obviously, but something about the crowded composition makes me uneasy. It feels staged, like everyone's holding their breath. Curator: Note the intricate patterning of the fabrics—the way the artist employs dense, decorative motifs to flatten the picture plane. It adheres to a decorative aesthetic where surface and detail are privileged. The arrangement of figures almost mosaic-like, enhances this sense of compressed space you mention. Editor: And the poor dogs! They're beautifully rendered, but they're crammed in at the bottom, practically underneath everything. To me they give the impression that beauty can feel like a cage. Her fate might be determined. Curator: Your interpretation isn’t unfounded; the source material for this picture comes from the poem 'Mariana' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, inspired by Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. The scene depicts a lady being considered for marriage. Brickdale also made careful symbolic choices—the floral motifs embroidered on the dress could have well indicated her subject’s potential for beauty, even as a wife. Editor: So it’s all very deliberately chosen, every little floral pattern or colour… I suppose that leaves the feeling of being caged for this girl? A rather cruel fate! Curator: Brickdale would use color to intensify that emotional sense, for example. Notice how muted tones generate this mood of stillness and impending dread. In contrast, the saturated reds draw the eye, serving both a compositional and a thematic purpose, indicating perhaps, the underlying passion and blood in the scene. Editor: Right, it's subtle, but that tension between the reds and those faded colors really sets the mood. I think she managed to communicate this heavy idea through what feels like delicate choices. Curator: Absolutely, it's a masterclass in constructing a layered, resonant scene through calculated formal means. Editor: I find it really sticks with you, after all, doesn't it? Makes you think.