Without Lifting A Finger

On the death of his grandfather, Ford Madox Brown: Upon the top was inscribed “Ford Madox Brown,” and on the bottom, “Wycliffe on His Trial Before John of Gaunt. Presented to the National Gallery by a Committee of Admirers of the Artist.” In this way the “X” of Madox Brown came exactly over the centre of the picture. It was Madox Brown’s practice to begin a painting by putting in the eyes of the central figure. This, he considered, gave him the requisite strength of tone that would be applied to the whole canvas. And indeed I believe that, once he had painted in those eyes, he never in any picture altered them, however much he might alter the picture itself. He used them as it were to work up to. Having painted in these eyes, he would begin at the top left-hand corner of the canvas, and would go on painting downward in a nearly straight line until the picture was finished. He would, of course, have made a great number of studies before commencing the picture itself. Usually there was a...

A passage re the last meeting between William Morris and Ford Madox Brown (FMF's grandfather): Morris, I suppose, was tired with his lecturing and answering of questions, for at a given period he drew from his pocket an enormous bandana handkerchief in scarlet and green. This he proceeded to spread over his face, and leaning back in his chair he seemed to compose himself to sleep after the manner of elderly gentlemen taking their naps. One of the young maidens began asking my grandfather some rather inane questions — what did Mr. Brown think of the weather, or what was Mr. Brown’s favorite picture at the Academy? For all the disciples of Mr. Morris were not equally advanced in thought. Suddenly Morris tore the handkerchief from before his face and roared out: “Don’t be such an intolerable fool, Polly!” Nobody seemed to mind this very much — nor, indeed, was the reproved disciple seriously abashed, for almost immediately afterward she asked: “Mr. Brown, do you think that Sir Frederi...

 

          [Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_(painting )] 

Work (1852–1865) is a painting by Ford Madox Brown that is generally considered to be his most important achievement. It exists in two versions. The painting attempts to portray, both literally and analytically, the totality of the Victorian social system and the transition from a rural to an urban economy. Brown began the painting in 1852 and completed it in 1865, when he set up a special exhibition to showcase it along with several of his other works. He wrote a detailed catalogue explaining the significance of the picture. The painting was commissioned by Thomas Plint , a well-known collector of Pre-Raphaelite art, who died before its completion. [1] A second version, smaller at 684 x 990 mm, was commissioned in 1859 and completed in 1863. This is now in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery . It is closely similar, though for the lady with a blue parasol the face of Maria Leathart, the commissioner's wife, replaces that of Mrs Brown in the Manchester version. [2] The...

Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was an English painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painting was Work (1852–1865). Brown spent the latter years of his life painting the Manchester Murals , depicting Mancunian history , for Manchester Town Hall . Family 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 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 illnes...