By the Hills

Brockhurst had already acquired a reputation for his haunting portraits of women, when a young woman named Marguerite Strickland approached him as a model, believing herself to be his 'type'. After twenty-eight sittings at his Chelsea studio he had completed only the head. He then used his favourite model, Dorette, for the torso, finding Lady Marguerite 'too thin'. The title By the Hills was suggested by Strickland herself, although she did not see the finished painting until it was hung at London's Royal Academy, displaying all the gloss of Hollywood publicity of the period. The slick, almost photographic realism employed by Brockhurst has encouraged many to view his work alongside that of his contemporaries, the British Surrealists. Together with Meredith Frampton's (1894-1984) equally enigmatic A Game of Patience, this is one of the Ferens' most popular paintings,