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| Ford Madox Brown: "The Last of England" |
The exhibtion as a whole is not as large as that held in 1984 mainly because the earlier one contained large sections on both watercolours and drawings and developments beyond 1860 whereas this one, reasonably enough, concentrates on works in oil during the years when the brotherhood could be said to be working to some extent in concert. The consequence of this is that Rossetti appears as a slightly peripheral figure - only 4 or 5 of his watercolours from the 1850's are on display- but this reflects the way things would have appeared to contemporaries more than Rossetti's subsequent and posthumous fame would suggest to us.
Into his place as a vital and powerful member of the group steps the still under valued Ford Madox Brown (1821 - 1893). Although never actually a member of the Brotherhood he was perhaps the one artist working in England in 1848 who should have been. Having been born in France and trained in Belgium he had a knowledge of continental art far beyond that of the actual PRBs and crucially had developed an interest in the German painters working in Rome known as the Nazarenes who had anticipated many of the Pre-Raphaelites aims and concerns. It was to Brown that the young Rossetti turned when looking for an inspirational teacher, the elder man having already painted a pre-raphaelite picture before the fact as it were, in the monumental "Seeds and fruits of English Poetry"
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| Ford Madox Brown: "The seeds and fruits of English poetry" |
Brown was by all accounts an idiosyncratic sort of fellow, difficult to get close to and at times easily offended. His pictures perhaps reflect this, some are difficult to warm to, the colouring is sometimes a bit high and the faces and gestures can border on the grotesque. Some of his pictures are frankly bizarre such as "Stages of Cruelty" but Brown's diary reveals, almost in spite of himself, a warm and tender heart and this shows itself most evidently in his pictures of children, particularly his children such as this delightful early portrait of his daughter Lucy who in later life married William Michael Rossetti, brother of Dante Gabriel.
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| Ford Madox Brown: "Lucy" |
Tender and loving, yes but never sentimental, the overriding quality of his art was its honesty and determination to pursue his vision. These qualities are well illustrated by the most famous of his pictures "The last of England" (see top of the page). The reluctant emigrant and his wife stare broodingly out at us, hand in hand, challenging fate to do its worst as they head off to an uncertain new life but the tiny fist of a baby peeping out from beneath the woman's shawl is a typically tender Brownian touch.
It was the same honesty which made Brown go out into the landscape and paint a picture such as "The Pretty Baa Lambs" a revoutionary picture painted entirely out of doors in full sunlight and experimenting with complementary colours in shadows a good 15 years before the impressionists. Landscape was a strong point for Brown, his "English Autumn afternoon" is one of the greatest of the period but my favourites are the smaller ones done entirely out of doors and experimenting with different light effects such as the lovely luminous "A Hayfield". Brown really was at the cutting edge painting these pictures and has never got the art historical credit he has deserved - a further instance of the wilful blindness of art historians and critics much of which by the way is still very much in evidence in the press reviews of this exhibtion.
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| Ford Madox Brown:" Pretty Baa Lambs" |
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| Ford Madox Brown: "The Hayfield" |
I will close this little piece with a mention of my favourite work by Brown the majestic "Christ washing Peter's feet" a work full of beautiful clouring and individual characterisaton which whilst thoroughly typical of Brown surely makes a little nod in the direction of Leonardo's Last Supper. Brown appears not to have been a Christian in the traditional dogmatic sense of the word but like so many Victorians who had lost their faith he retained a great reverence for the values and personality of Christ and he also tended towards a vague socialism in politics and the example of Christ humbling himself at the feet of a 'mere' fisherman clearly meant a lot to him on several levels.
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| Ford Madox Brown; "Christ washing Peter's feet" |
Brown's actual masterpiece was not included in the exhibiton because it is a series of murals in Manchester Town Hall depicting various scenes from the history of that fine city. Actually of the 12 pictures 8 are murals and 4 are properly speaking frescoes, that is painted directly onto the walls using the Gambier-Parry method which was very popular at the time and also used extensively by Lord Leighton amongst others. In these pictures Brown gives free rein to all his powers of invention in both subject matter, drawing and colouring and, after having seen this exhibition, the Town Hall is the ideal place to get a proper estimate of this powerful and always interesting artist.
