Ford Madox Brown was French-born British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style, although he was never a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Background
Ford Madox Brown was born on April 16, 1821 in Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. His father was Ford Brown, a retired purser in the navy; his mother, Caroline Madox, of an old Kentish family. Brown's parents had limited financial resources, and they moved to Calais to seek cheaper lodgings, where their daughter Elizabeth Coffin was born in 1819.
He was the grandson of the medical theorist John Brown, founder of the Brunonian system of medicine. His great grandfather was a Scottish labourer.
Education
Brown's education was limited, as the family frequently moved between lodgings in the Pas-de-Calais 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 in 1837 to study under Gustaf Wappers. He continued to study in Antwerp after his mother's death in 1839.
Career
Ford Madox Brown first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840. He spent the years between 1840 and 1845 in Paris, London and Rome. In the middle of 1846 he settled permanently in London.
In 1843 he submitted work to the Westminster Cartoon Competition, for compositions to decorate the new Palace of Westminster. 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.
In 1852 Brown started work on two of his most significant works. One of those famous images was "The Last of England", painted from 1852 to 1855.
Brown's another important painting was "Work" (1852-1865), started in Hampstead in 1852 and which he showed at his retrospective exhibition in 1865.
Besides, Ford Brown found patrons in the north of England, including Plint, George Rae from Birkenhead, John Miller from Liverpool, and James Leathart from Newcastle.
From the 1860s, Brown also designed furniture and stained glass. He was also 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. Moreover, Brown was a close friend of the landscape artist Henry Mark Anthony.
Between 1879 and 1893 he completed a series of 12 murals for the Manchester town hall, depicting scenes from the city’s history.
Ford Madox Brown died on October 6, 1893 in London, United Kingdom. He is buried in the St. Pancras and Islington Cemetery in East Finchley, Greater London, United Kingdom.
The Death of Sir Tristan, from 'The Story of Tristan and Isolde', William Morris & Co.
The Expulsion of the Danes from Manchester
The Spirit of Justice, study for the head of a Counsellor
Study of a Monk, representing Catholic Faith
The Finding of Don Juan by Haidee
Madeline Scott
Jesus Washing Peter's Feet
At the grain harvest
Portrait of William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919) by Lamplight
John Kay, Inventor of the Fly Shuttle
The Proclamation Regarding Weights and Measures, 1556, illustration from 'Hutchinson's Story of the British Nation'
Lear and Cordelia
Cathy Madox Brown at the age of three years
The Irish Girl
The finding of Don Juan by Haidée
Elijah restoring the Widow's Son
Bradshaw's defence of Manchester
Cordelia's Portion
Emma Hill
The Last of England
The Trial of Wycliffe A.D.
The hay harvest
Stages of Cruelty
The Opening of the Bridgewater Canal
The Last of England
Chetham's Life Dream
John Wycliffe reading his translation of the Bible to John of Gaunt
The Establishment of the Flemish Weavers in Manchester in 1363
Dalton Collecting Marsh Fire Gas
Cartoon for the Baptism of Edwin (c.585-633) King of Northumbria and Deira
The Young Mother
The Last of England
First observation of the transit of Venus by William Crabtree in 1639
Jacob and Joseph's Coat
Religion
On religious questions he was an Agnostic.
Politics
In politics he was a consistent Democrat.
Personality
Brown was a man of upright, independent and honourable character, of warm affections, a steady and self-sacrificing friend; but he took offence rather readily, and viewed various persons and institutions with a degree of suspicion which may be pronounced excessive.
He felt interest in many questions outside the range of his art. Being a good and varied talker, he had often something apposite and suggestive to say about them.
Connections
Ford Madox Brown was married twice. His first wife Elizabeth Bromley was his first cousin, the daughter of his mother's sister Mary Bromley. They were married in Meopham 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.
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.
Emma Matilda Hill became his mistress from 1848, and they shared a house in London, but social convention made him unable to marry 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 in April 1853.
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.
His daughters Lucy and Catherine were also competent artists. Lucy married William Michael Rossetti in 1874. Catherine married Francis Hüffer. Through Catherine, Brown was the grandfather of novelist Ford Madox Ford and great-grandfather of Labour Home Secretary Frank Soskice.