Ethel Le Rossignol was a spiritual medium and visionary artist whose work emerged as a direct expression of communication with higher realms. Her luminous, symbolic watercolours were created not as aesthetic objects, but as transmissions from spirit guides, intended to uplift, teach, and reveal the hidden harmony between the earthly and the divine. Deeply rooted in the tradition of mediumistic art, Le Rossignol’s work stands as a powerful testament to the belief that creativity can be guided by unseen intelligences for a higher, spiritual purpose.
Little is known about her personal life, but what survives is extraordinary: a bound book of paintings and accompanying texts titled A Goodly Company, completed in the 1920s and published in 1933. The book contains 44 exquisitely coloured plates, each accompanied by messages said to be dictated from the spirit world. The work was presented not as her own creation, but as the product of collaboration with "a goodly company" of spiritual beings. Le Rossignol viewed herself as a channel—her hand guided by spirits, her brush directed by divine instruction.
The paintings themselves are delicate, radiant, and filled with ethereal figures, angels, symbolic landscapes, and flowing patterns of colour. Many show human forms interacting with spiritual beings, ascending toward light, or enveloped in auric fields of energy. Unlike more abstract mediumistic artists such as Georgiana Houghton or Hilma af Klint, Le Rossignol's work is more illustrative, yet it carries a similar sense of mystical purpose. Each image is an allegory—a visual parable meant to convey moral and spiritual insight.
The accompanying texts reinforce this didactic function. They speak in the voice of guiding spirits, offering teachings on compassion, humility, the soul’s journey, and the interconnectedness of all life. The tone is gentle, reverent, and full of light, encouraging the reader-viewer to align with higher truths. Taken together, the images and writings form a kind of visual scripture—an illuminated manuscript for the modern mystic.
Le Rossignol’s worldview was deeply influenced by the spiritualist movement, which flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Spiritualism offered an alternative to institutional religion, focusing instead on personal experience, direct communication with the dead, and the evolution of the soul through many lifetimes. In her work, we find a reflection of these beliefs, combined with a soft but resolute moral vision: that human life is a spiritual journey guided by love, learning, and the ever-present company of the unseen.
What makes Le Rossignol’s work particularly compelling is its clarity of intention. There is no ambiguity in A Goodly Company—it is an offering, a gift meant to illuminate the path of others. She never sought fame or critical acclaim, and her book was privately published and distributed. For many years, it remained obscure, though today it is recognised as a significant and unique contribution to the history of spiritual art.
Ethel Le Rossignol’s legacy is one of quiet devotion. Her paintings and writings invite us to remember that we are not alone—that behind the visible world lies a loving intelligence, guiding and encouraging us through the veils of matter toward the light of spiritual understanding. Her work is both a message and a method: to see beauty as truth, and to follow that truth with humility and trust.
