Why so large cost, having so short a lease 1920

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale created this artwork. She used watercolour to paint a man standing amongst gravestones. The colours are muted: lots of greys and browns, greens and blues. The paint is applied in thin washes, so you can see the texture of the paper underneath, which gives it a delicate, ethereal quality. It must have been a slow process. I can imagine the artist carefully layering colours, building up the image in stages with tiny little brushes. The gravestones are worn and weathered, covered in moss and lichen, telling silent stories of lives lived and lost. I can imagine Brickdale thinking of the pre-Raphaelites and the Symbolists, like Dante Gabriel Rossetti or Edward Burne-Jones, who tried to evoke a sense of mystery and romance in their paintings. Brickdale's decision to have the figure leaning on a walking stick is a beautiful gesture, hinting at the frailty of life and the inevitability of death. Artists continue in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas and inspiring one another’s creativity.