ABSTRACT
Forming a deep frieze that ornaments the interior of the village schoolhouse, which she built in 1860, each picture depicts a scene from the life of a child in the Bible. As a series the murals were intended both as a decoration and as a form of religious education for the children who studied at the school. Amongst women artists in the United Kingdom, Louisa Waterford's mural series at Ford had a forerunner in the previous generation. Significantly, some of the references to the murals are scattered amongst allusions to her solitude: How good of people to tell the author of people. The large scale project of the school murals was vastly more ambitious than Waterford's customary work in water-colour. The mural frieze continues along the wall in a decorative scheme that involves horse-chestnut trees, festoons and an urn. Several preliminary drawings for this mural exist at the Lady Waterford Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Belton House.
