Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

style. Arguably, his most notable painting was '' Work'' (1852–1865). Brown spent the latter years of his life painting the twelve works known as ''

The Manchester Murals ''The Manchester Murals'' are a series of twelve paintings by Ford Madox Brown in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall and are based on the history of Manchester. Following the success of Brown's painting ''Work'' he was commissioned to pai ...

'', depicting Mancunian history, for

Manchester Town Hall Manchester Town Hall is a Victorian, Neo-gothic municipal building in Manchester, England. It is the ceremonial headquarters of Manchester City Council and houses a number of local government departments. The building faces Albert Square to th ...

Early life

Brown was the grandson of the medical theorist

John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...

, founder of the

Brunonian system of medicine The Brunonian system of medicine is a theory of medicine which regards and treats disorders as caused by defective or excessive excitation. It was developed by the Scottish physician John Brown and is outlined in his 1780 publication ''Elementa Me ...

. His great-grandfather was a Scottish labourer. His father Ford Brown served as a purser in the Royal Navy, including a period serving under Sir Isaac Coffin and a period on HMS ''Arethusa''. He left the Navy after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1818, Ford Brown married Caroline Madox, of an old Kentish family. Brown's parents had limited financial resources, and they moved to

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

to seek cheaper lodgings, where their daughter Elizabeth Coffin was born in 1819 and their son Ford Madox Brown in 1821. Brown's education was limited, as the family frequently moved between lodgings in the

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

and relatives in Kent, but he showed artistic talent in copying of old master prints. His father initially sought a naval career for his son, writing to his former captain Sir Isaac Coffin. The family moved to Bruges in 1835 so Brown could study at the academy under Albert Gregorius. Brown moved to Ghent in 1836 to continue his studies under Pieter van Hanselaere. He moved to

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

in 1837 to study under Gustaf Wappers. He continued to study in Antwerp after his mother's death in 1839. His sister died in 1840, and then his father in 1842.

Works

The Tate Gallery holds an early example of Brown's work, a portrait of his father. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840, a work inspired by Lord Byron's poem '' The Giaour'' (now lost) and then completed a version of ''The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots'', with his cousin and future wife Elisabeth Bromley as one of his models. He lived in Montmartre with his new wife and aging father in 1841. He painted '' Manfred on the Jungfrau'', inspired by Lord Byron's poem ''

Manfred ''Manfred: A dramatic poem'' is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Gothic fiction. Byr ...

'' while he was in Paris. In 1843 he submitted work to the Westminster Cartoon Competition, for compositions to decorate the new

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

. His entry, ''The Body of Harold Brought before William'', was not successful. His early works were, however, greatly admired by the young Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who asked him to become his tutor. Through Rossetti, Brown came into contact with the artists who went on to form the

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

. Though closely linked to them, he was never actually a member of the brotherhood itself, but adopted the bright colours and realistic style of William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. He was also influenced by the works of Holbein that he saw in Basel in 1845, and by

Friedrich Overbeck Johann Friedrich Overbeck (3 July 1789 – 12 November 1869) was a German painter. As a member of the Nazarene movement, he also made four etchings. Early life and education Born in Lübeck, his ancestors for three generations had been Protes ...

and Peter Cornelius, whom he met in Rome in 1845–46. Brown struggled to make his mark in the 1850s, with his paintings failing to find buyers, and he considered emigrating to India. In 1852 he started work on two of his most significant works. One of his most famous images is '' The Last of England'', painted from 1852 to 1855, which was sold in March 1859 for 325 Guineas (''2010: £''). It depicts a pair of stricken emigrants as they sail away on the ship that will take them from England forever. It was inspired by the departure of the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner, who had left for Australia. In an unusual tondo format, the painting is structured with Brown's characteristic linear energy, and emphasis on apparently grotesque and banal details, such as the cabbages hanging from the ship's side. The husband and wife are portraits of Brown and his second wife Emma. Ford Madox Brown - Work - artchive

Brown's most important painting was '' Work'' (1852–1865), begun in Hampstead in 1852 and which he showed at his retrospective exhibition in 1865.

Thomas Plint Thomas Edward Plint (1823–1861) was a British stockbroker and important Pre-Raphaelite art collector who commissioned and owned several notable paintings.Dianne Sachko Macleod, "Plint, Thomas Edward (1823–1861)", ''Oxford Dictionary of Nationa ...

advanced funds to enable Brown to complete the work, in anticipation of obtaining the finished painting, but died in 1861 before the painting had been completed.Dianne Sachko Macleod, ‘ Plint, Thomas Edward (1823–1861)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 In this painting, Brown attempted to depict the totality of the mid-

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

social experience in a single image, depicting ' navvies' digging up a road (The Mount, off Heath Street in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, north London) and disrupting the old social hierarchies in the process. The image erupts into proliferating details from the dynamic centre of the action, as the workers tear a hole in the road – and, symbolically, in the social fabric. Each character represents a particular social class and role in the modern urban environment. Brown wrote a catalogue to accompany the special exhibition of ''Work''. This publication included an extensive explanation of ''Work'' that nevertheless leaves many questions unanswered. Brown's concern with the social issues addressed in ''Work'' prompted him to open a

soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the Hunger, hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoo ...

for Manchester's hungry, and to attempt to aid the city's unemployed to find work by founding a labour exchange. Brown found patrons in the north of England, including Plint, George Rae from Birkenhead, John Miller from Liverpool, and James Leathart from Newcastle. By the late 1850s he had lost patience with the poor reception he received at the Royal Academy and ceased to show his works there, rejecting an offer from Millais to support his becoming an associate member. He founded the

Hogarth Club The Hogarth Club was an exhibition society of artists, based at 84 Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia, London, UK, which existed between 1858 and 1861. It was founded by former members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood after the original PRB had been d ...

in 1858, with William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and his former pupil Rossetti. After a successful period of a few years, the club reached over 80 members, including several prominent members of the Royal Academy, but Brown resigned in 1860, and the club collapsed in 1861. From the 1860s, Brown also designed furniture and stained glass. He was a founder partner of William Morris's design company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., in 1861, which dissolved in 1874 with Morris continuing on his own. He was a close friend of the landscape artist

Henry Mark Anthony Henry Mark Anthony (4 August 1817 – 1 December 1886) was an English landscape artist, often favourably compared to John Constable by critics. He exhibited at many major art institutions and travelled widely, being credited with introducin ...

. Brown's major achievement after ''Work'' was ''

'', a cycle of twelve paintings in the Great Hall of

depicting the history of the city. Brown would be 72 by the time he finished the murals. In total, he took six years perfecting the murals, which were his last major work.

Family

Grave of Elizabeth Madox Brown in Highgate Cemetery

Ford Madox Brown was married twice. His first wife Elizabeth Bromley was his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's sister Mary. They were married in

Meopham Meopham is a large linear village and civil parish in the Borough of Gravesham in Kent, England, lying to the south of Gravesend. The parish covers , and comprises two villages and two smaller settlements; it has a population of 6,427 increasi ...

in Kent in April 1841, shortly before his 20th birthday and less than a year after the sudden death of his sister Elizabeth. They lived in Montmartre in 1841 with Brown's invalid father who died the following summer. Their first child died young as an infant in November 1842. Their daughter Emma Lucy was born in 1843 and the family moved back to England in 1844. They travelled to Rome in 1845 to alleviate the illness of his wife, who was suffering from consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis). She died in Paris in June 1846, aged 27, on the journey back to England from Rome, and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery. Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal and other members of the Rossetti family were later buried alongside. Emma Hill became a frequent model for Brown from 1848; for example, she is the wife in '' The Last of England''. She became his mistress, and they shared a house in London, but social convention discouraged him from marrying an illiterate daughter of a bricklayer. Their daughter Catherine Emily was born in 1850, and eventually they were married at

St Dunstan-in-the-West The Guild Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West is in Fleet Street in the City of London. It is dedicated to Dunstan, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is of medieval origin, although the present building, with an octagonal ...

in April 1853. Ford leased a house in Fitzroy Square. Their son, Oliver Madox Brown (1855–1874) (known as Nolly) showed promise both as an artist and poet, but died of blood poisoning before his maturity. The death of Nolly was a crushing blow for Brown, and he kept a room for his son's belongings as a shrine. Another son Arthur was born in September 1856. Brown used Arthur as the model for the baby held by a ragged girl in the foreground of ''Work'', but he died aged only ten months old in July 1857. Ford Madox Brown - Pretty Baa-Lambs - Google Art Project

Ford Madox Brown - Pretty Baa-Lambs - Google Art Project

His daughters

Lucy Madox Brown Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti (19 July 1843 – 12 April 1894) was a British artist, author, and model associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. She was married to the writer and art critic William Michael Rossetti. Early life Madox Brown was born in P ...

and

Catherine Madox Brown Catherine Madox Brown Hueffer (11 November 1850 – 1927), also known as Cathy, the first child of Ford Madox Brown and Emma Hill, was an artist and model associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and married to the writer Francis Hueffer. Early li ...

were also competent artists. Lucy married William Michael Rossetti in 1874. Catherine, married

Francis Hueffer Francis Hueffer (born Franz Carl Christoph Johann Hüffer; 22 May 1845 – 19 January 1889) was a German-English writer on music, music critic, and librettist. Biography Hueffer was born in Münster, Germany, on 22 May 1845 to Johann Hermann Hü ...

; through Catherine, Brown was the grandfather of novelist Ford Madox Ford and great-grandfather of

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Home Secretary Frank Soskice.

Death

Brown's second wife died in October 1890, and he died in Primrose Hill, north London, in 1893. He is buried in the St Pancras and Islington Cemetery in East Finchley. He was given a secular funeral, and the funeral oration was delivered by the American

Moncure D. Conway Moncure Daniel Conway (March 17, 1832 – November 15, 1907) was an American abolitionist minister and radical writer. At various times Methodist, Unitarian, and a Freethinker, he descended from patriotic and patrician families of Virginia and ...

, the secularist after whom Conway Hall was later named. File:Lucy Madox Brown.jpg, Brown's first surviving daughter Lucy in 1849 File:Catherine Madox Brown2.jpg, Catherine Madox Brown File:Oliver Madox Brown.jpg, Oliver in 1855 File:Arthur Madox Brown1.jpg, Arthur in 1856 File:Ford Madox Brown - The Last of England - Portrait of Emma Hill - Google Art Project.jpg, Emma in 1852 (study for ''The Last of England'') File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti drawing of Ford Madox Brown 1867.jpg, ''Ford Madox Brown'', 1867, drawn by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Legacy

The J D Wetherspoon pub in Oxford Road, Manchester is named after Ford Madox Brown. It states on the Wetherspoon's website that "This J D Wetherspoon pub is named after the much-travelled artist Ford Madox Brown, a one-time resident of Victoria Park, a suburb south of the pub." The pub opened in 2007.

Gallery

File:James Leathart.jpg, ''James Leathart'' File:Traveller001.jpg, ''Traveller'' File:Ford Madox Brown - The Irish Girl - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Irish Girl'', 1860 File:Cromwell, Protector of the Vaudois.jpg, ''Cromwell, Protector of the Vaudois'', 1877 File:Ford Madox Brown - Finding of Don Juan by Haidee - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Finding of Don Juan by Haidee'' File:Cordelia's Portion2.jpg, ''Cordelia's Portion'' File:Byron's Dream.jpg, ''Byron's Dream'' File:St Louis IX.jpg, The French saint King

Louis IX Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, was King of France from 1226 to 1270, and the most illustrious of the Direct Capetians. He was crowned in Reims at the age of 12, following the d ...

in the stained glass of the East window of

All Saints Church, Cambridge All Saints' is a church on Jesus Lane in central Cambridge, England, which was built by the architect George Frederick Bodley. The church was constructed in stages between 1863 and 1870 and is a notable example of English Gothic Revival style. ...

Image:Ford Madox Brown - Chaucer at the court of Edward III - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Chaucer at the Court of

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

'', oil on canvas painting by Ford Madox Brown, 1847–1851,

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

Image:Romeo and juliet brown.jpg, ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...

'' parting on the balcony in Act III. Delaware Art Museum, 1870 File:Ford Madox Brown - The Coat of Many Colours - Google Art Project.jpg, Brown's ''Jacob and Joseph's Coat'' at Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico File:King Rene-s Honeymoon 1864.jpg, ''King Rene's Honeymoon'', 1864, an imaginary scene in the life of the art-loving medieval king René of Anjou. File:Jesus washing Peter's feet.jpg, ''Jesus washing Peter's feet''

References

Sources

Virginia Surtees Virginia Surtees (née Bell, formerly Virginia, Lady Clarke and Virginia Craig) (9 January 1917 – 22 September 2017) was a British art historian and author. Early life She was the second daughter of American diplomat Edward Bell (1882–1924) ...

(ed.), ''The Diary of Ford Madox Brown'', 1981, . *Kenneth Bendiner, ''Ford Madox Brown: Il Lavoro'', Turin: Lindau, 1991. *Kenneth Bendiner, ''The Art of Ford Madox Brown'', University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 1998. *Tessa Sidey (ed.), ''Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite'', Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 2008, . *Julian Treuherz
''Ford Madox Brown: Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer''
Philip Wilson Publishers, 2011, , p. 12. *Angela Thirlwell, ''Into the Frame: The Four Loves of Ford Madox Brown'', Pimlico, 2011, .

External links

The iBiblio Web Museum exhibit on Brown
*Some of his paintings in th

library
Waiting: An English fireside of 1854–5
*Spartacus Educational
Chronology on Britain UnlimitedPhryne's list of pictures in public galleries
* ttp://pre-raphs.bmagonline.org/ The Pre-Raph PackDiscover more about the artists, the techniques they used and a timeline spanning 100 years.
Ford Madox Brown: PreRaphaelite Pioneer
Exhibition, Manchester Art Gallery, Saturday 24 September 2011 – Sunday 29 January 2012
"The secret love of Ford Madox Brown"
essay on Ford Madox Brown and Mathilde Blind, by Angela Thirlwell, fro
''TLS''
8 October 2008
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery's Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource
includes almost two hundred paintings on canvas and works on paper by Ford Madox Brown *

Tim Barringer Tim Barringer is the Paul Mellon professor of the history of art at Yale University. Selected publications *''Opulence and Anxiety: Landscape Paintings from the Royal Academy''. Kineton, Warwickshire: Compton Verney, 2007. *''Men at Work: Art and ...

, 'Brown, Ford Madox (1821–1893)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 200
accessed 2 May 2014

Biography of Ford Madox Brown
Manchester Art Gallery * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Ford Madox Artists' Rifles soldiers British agnostics 19th-century English painters English male painters English people of Scottish descent Morris & Co. Pre-Raphaelite painters 1821 births 1893 deaths People from Calais Burials at St Pancras and Islington Cemetery People of Montmartre