Fortescue-Brickdale, (Mary) Eleanor (1872-1945)

English painter and illustrator. She designed posters for the government during World War I, after which her stained glass window designs were in great demand. Her paintings include The Forerunner (1920, Lady Lever Gallery) and The Lover's World (1905, Bristol Gallery). She was the first woman to be elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and to be an associated member of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colour.

Fortescue-Brickdale was born in Surrey. Her training took place at the Crystal Palace School of Art and the Royal Academy (RA) schools, London, and she began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1896. In 1897 she won a prize for the RA dining room design. She illustrated many books of poetry and prose, and taught at the Byam Shaw School of Art, London, before travelling extensively through Italy and the south of France.