FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/fordmadoxbrownreOOford 
 
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FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 
 3 DUrorli of W &itt aitH TOorfe 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS REPRODUCTIONS 
 
 Work ! which beads the brow, and tans the flesh 
 
 Of lusty manhood, casting out its devils ! 
 
 By whose weird art transmuting poor men's evils, 
 Their bed seems down, their one dish ever fresh ' 
 
 For the Picture called 1 Work * 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 BY 
 
 FORD M. HUEFFER 
 
 LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY 
 
 896 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
THE GETTY CENflft 
 
TO 
 
 MY MOTHER 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PARENTAGE 
 1735-1821 
 
 Similarity of career of grandfather and grandson — Dr. John Brown 
 — His education — Becomes a tutor — Repartees — Repairs to 
 Edinburgh — Becomes a medical student — His success with 
 pupils— Writes Elementa Medici?icE — Quarrels with Cullen and 
 Edinburgh doctors — Ostracism — Journey to London and death 
 — Posthumous fame— Invitation of Frederick the Great — His 
 children — Madox Brown's father, Ford Brown — A purser — 
 Marries Miss Madox — Birth of a daughter, and of Ford Madox 
 Brown ............ 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS AND STUDENT LIFE 
 1821-1840 
 
 Calais — Anecdote of Beau Brummell — Migratory childhood — Pre- 
 cocious musical and artistic displays — Leanings towards a 
 naval career — Paints portrait of his father — Becomes a pupil of 
 Gregorius of Bruges at the age of fourteen — Van Hanselaer — 
 Portrait of his sister and other pictures — Becomes pupil of 
 Wappers at Antwerp (1838)— Life at Antwerp — Anecdotes- 
 Sells a picture — Head of a Page, &c. — Picture of ' Colonel 
 Kirke,' 1839— His father's illness and petulance — Madox Brown's 
 ill-health — Death of his mother— And of his father— Madox 
 Brown's circumstances — Remains at Antwerp under Wappers — 
 Paints portraits — Letters from his sister — Paints the Giaour's 
 Confession (1839)— Leaves Antwerp 
 
Vlll 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROUW 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PARIS 
 1840-1845 
 
 PAG1-. 
 
 Removal from Antwerp to Paris — Dan Casey — Mary Queen of 
 Scots — Visits England — Marriage — Exhibits at R.A. — Life in 
 Paris — Plein Air idea — Manfred on the Jungfrau — Return to 
 old style — Parisinds Sleep— Prudery of the Salon — The 
 Prisoner of Chillon — Choice of subjects — Byron — Dumas — 
 Anecdotes of Dumas — The Westminster Hall competition— 
 Adam and Eve, Harold, and the Spirit of fustice — Haydon's 
 commendation — Dyce and the competitions— Designs for King 
 Lear — Visit to England — Tudor Lodge — Society there — Si- 
 lencing of Jerrold — Declining health of Mrs. Madox Brown — 
 The Italian journey — Its influence upon Madox Brown — Letter 
 upon Italian art— Chaucer at the Court of Edward III. — The 
 German Pre-Raphaelites — Cornelius and Overbeck — Return to 
 England, and death of Mrs. Madox Brown 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIPSTONE STREET 
 1 846-1849 
 
 Unsettled life— Ideas of settling in Paris — Casey — Madox Brown 
 takes up his work again — Moves to Clipstone Street — Chaucer 
 — Wickliffc Reading his Translation of the Bible— It attracts 
 the attention of D. G. Rossetti — Rossetti's letter — Its reception 
 — Rossetti becomes Madox Brown's pupil — His dislike of 
 routine work and defection — Personal relations of the two artists 
 -Rossetti's judgment of Madox Brown's criticisms — Madox 
 Brown's of Rossetti's— W. M. Rossetti's recollections of Madox 
 Brown at that date — The Rossetti family — Madox Brown's 
 friends — Mr. Holman Hunt — Cordelia at the Bedside of Lear — 
 The Infant's Repast and smaller works — Portrait of Shake- 
 speare — Madox Brown's earnings up to this date— Madox 
 Brown's second marriage — Mrs. Madox Brown — The Pre- 
 Raphaelite Brotherhood — Madox Brown's connection with it — 
 Madox Brown's view — Mr. Holman Hunt's — Mr. F. G. 
 Stephens's — Mr. W. M. Rossetti's — Disagreement of these 
 authorities ■. 47 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER Y 
 
 NEWMAN STREET 
 1850-1851 
 
 Work during 1850 — Exhibitions — The policy of decentralisation — 
 Life at the studio— Mr. Arthur Hughes's introduction to Madox 
 Brown — Madox Brown's gloom of mind — Chaucer at the Court 
 of Edward III. — Working day and nig ht to finish it — Letters to 
 Mr. Lowes Dickinson about the progress of the picture— And its 
 treatment by R.A. — About other artists— Thomas Seddon — 
 Fenton — Rossetti— His 'perfectly divine' work — Holman Hunt 
 — Millais — The Press and the P.R. works — Madox Brown's 
 pronunciation upon them — Mulready, Maclise, and Dyce's com- 
 mendation — Review of the R.A. Exhibition — •* That animal 
 Hart ' — Frank Stone i — Goodall — Maclise — Dyce — Eastlake — 
 Landseer, &c. — Madox Brown and the North London School of 
 Drawing — W. B. Scott's account ....... 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 1852-1855 
 
 Christ Washing Peter's Feet — Portraits contained in it — Other 
 works — Important works begun— The Last of E?igland, Work, 
 and the English Autumn Afternoon — Sales — Exhibition of the 
 Pretty Baa Lambs and the Christ a?id Peter at the R.A. — Madox 
 Brown's last appearance on those walls — His reasons— Rude- 
 ness to Grant — McCracken's purchases — His enthusiasm- 
 Mutual helpfulness of the Pre-Raphaelite painters— Letter from 
 Mr. Hunt about their plans — Madox Brown's solitary and hard-, 
 working habits — Letter to Mr. Dickinson about his own and 
 brother artists' work in hand — The commencement of Work — 
 Rossetti's struggles with chaos — Work done in 1853 — Increased 
 solitariness and misanthropy — Rossetti's chaff — Letters from 
 Mr. Hunt and Seddon — Madox Brown's malady reaches a 
 climax — Takes a holiday in London — Letter to Mrs. Madox 
 Brown about plays, &c. — Work during 1854 — Disastrous sale at 
 Phillips' — Madox Brown's life during the year — Letters from 
 Seddon, in Egypt, about his own and Holman Hunt's work — 
 Hunt's unsparingness of models — Similarity in Madox Brown's 
 case — Out-of-door work in cold weather— Work during 1855 — 
 
X 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 Landscapes — Hendon, &c. — The Last of England finished — 
 Description of the picture — Its success— Excursions into the 
 country round Hendon — Anecdote of Turner .... 80 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 1856 
 
 Gloominess of Madox Brown's financial outlook — Driven to pot- 
 boiling — Works in hand — Work, Stages of Cruelty, and Crom- 
 well on his Farm — Reasons for Madox Brown's unsuccess — 
 Letter from Thomas Woolner — Madox Brown's circle — The 
 Liverpool Academy — Letter from B. G. Windus — Letter from 
 Mr. Plint about Work— Rossetti at that date — Mrs. Hueffer's 
 reminiscences — Madox Brown's diary — A visit from ' Old 
 White ' the dealer — The ' manufacture of callowtypes (sic) en- 
 larged ' — Rossetti's work in hand described — Drawing from a 
 dead body — Hunt's Christ in the Temple— Millais' Autumn 
 Leaves and the Blind Girl — Woolner's Tennyson- — Appreciation 
 of Rossetti's generosity — Royal Academy Exhibition — Hunt's 
 Scapegoat — Localising Lord John Russell — Visit to St. Ives — 
 Cromwell's county — His branding-iron ■ — Fresh subjects for 
 pictures — Out-door work — W. B.Scott's 'Table-talk' — Altera- 
 tions in Christ and Peter — Painting lilac leaves — ' Dining at 
 Hunt's '—An Academic model — Woolner's anecdotes — William 
 Morris — Christ and Peter finished — Woolner's Bacon — Suggest- 
 ing alterations— Praise of Rossetti — Christ and Peter gams Liver- 
 pool prize — Visit to Liverpool — Peter Miller — William Davis, 
 of Liverpool — Visit to Browning — Browning's anecdotes — 
 Carlyle's music, &c. — Rossetti's five minutes — First appearance 
 of gout — Mr. Plint — Commission for Work . . . .105 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 1857-1858 
 
 Work during 1858 — The Russell Place Exhibition — The American 
 Exhibition — Letter from Mr. Hunt — The Manchester Art 
 Treasures Exhibition — Mr. Frederick Shields — Visit to Oxford 
 — Madox Brown's diary, 1857 : Work upon Work — Death of 
 Thomas Seddon — Committee meeting at Ruskin's— Ruskin at 
 W.M.C. — Work — The Manchester Exhibition — Work during 
 1858— The American Exhibitions — Letter to W. M. Rossetti — 
 Chaucer gains Liverpool Prize — The Hogarth Club— The 
 Working Men's College 142 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 1859-1861 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Work during 1859 — Duplicates — Quarrel with Hogarth Club — A 
 new patron — Letters fromCarlyle — Portrait of Carlyle — Ugliness 
 of P.-R. Women — Madox Brown and Volunteers — Rossetti's 
 Shooting — Music — Work during i860 — English Boy — Irish 
 Girl, &c— Prosperity— Hospitality — Liverpool artists — Ros- 
 setti's marriage — Soup kitchen — Work during 1861 — Finances 
 of Work — Letter about artists and commissions — Founding of 
 Messrs. Morris, Marshall, Falkner & Co. — Origin of the Eirm ' — 
 Madox Brown on exhibitions — His attitude towards the R.A. 
 and Academicians — Mr. George Rae — The Amenities of Volun- 
 teering in 1 86 1 — Symposia — Letter from Rossetti — Rossetti and 
 Friends — Decease of Hogarth Club ...... 160 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 1862-1865 
 
 Work during 1862 — Work — Stained-glass Cartoons— The Cotton 
 Famine — Subjects connected with it — Exhibitions — The Inter- 
 national Exhibition — Madox Brown's pictures there— Madox 
 Brown and H.M. Commissioners — Last appearance of Madox 
 Brown's pictures in London — Death of Mrs. D. G. Rossetti — 
 Moving — Domestic matters — Work during 1863 — Completion 
 of Work — Description of the picture — The Carlyles' admiration 
 of the picture — Other designs — King Rene 's Honeymoon — Death 
 of Sir Tristram — Elijah and the Widow's So?i — The R.A. 
 Hanging Committee— Work during 1863— Ehud and Eglon — 
 Jacob and Josephs Coat — Oswald Cartoons — Piccadilly Exhibi- 
 tion — Rossetti's and Swinburne's suggestions for advertisements 
 — Private view, &c. — The Press — Results — Diary- — Friends' 
 work — ' Thomas Bullion ' — Garrick Club — Moving — Children's 
 talent— Brighter outlook 183 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 1866-1868 
 
 Work during 1866 — Jacob and Josephs Coal — Entombment —Cor- 
 delia's Portion — Bank balance — Relations between Madox 
 Brown and D. G. Rossetti — Work during 1867 — Replicas, &c. 
 
xii 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 — Romeo ana Juliet — The Traveller— Rossetti and patrons — 
 Work during 1868 — Gout — Directions to lawyer for picture- 
 cleaning — Gossip — Burne-Jones' house-warming — The ' Boat- 
 race ' — Other artists' work, &c. — Spiritualistic soiree- — Rossetti 
 and the ' Bogies' — His picture La Pia — Dinner to celebrate 
 completion of the Earthly Paradise — Thirteen at table — 
 Children's work — Gout — Fitzroy Square Evenings — Sending 
 out invitations, &c. — Letter about gout and work — Rossetti's 
 poems — Tragedy and mystery — Friends' work . . . .221 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 1869-1871 
 
 Work during 1869 — Don Juan—Jacopo Foscari — Replicas, &c. — 
 Elijah at Manchester — Controversy — Madox Brown's enemies 
 — His methods of making them — Period of depression — Want 
 of the faculty for reclame, &c. — Reappearance of patrons and 
 prosperity — Brother artists' and children's work — Rossetti's 
 poems — A mystery and tragedy — Death of the chameleon — 
 Oliver's sonnet — Work during 1870 — Replicas— Byron subjects 
 — Sarda?iapalus — The Corsair — Oliver's Mazeppa — Increased 
 hospitality — Its effect on output of work — Rossetti at ' Scalands ' 
 — Dante's Dream — Rossetti's poems — Tales, reviews, &c. — Ros- 
 setti's animals : zebu, wombat, &c. — Nonsense rhymes — Work 
 during 1871 — Replicas of Entombment, Corsair — Sardanapalus 
 - — Designs for Down Stream — Proposed subjects — Children's 
 work — Lynmouth — Gossip . . . . . . . . 245 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 1 872-1 874 
 
 Work during 1872 — Portrait of Professor and Mrs. Fawcett — Con- 
 valescent — Sardanapalus and Don Juan replicas — Rossetti's 
 illness — Madox Brown's account of it — Rossetti's recovery — 
 Holding fund — Marriage of Catherine Madox Brown — Madox 
 Brown's candidature for the Slade Professorship — Letter from 
 D. G. Rossetti to the Home Secretary — Madox Brown's ad- 
 dress to the Vice-Chancellor — Failure — Sir Francis Grant, 
 P.R.A. — Advantage of politeness — Madox Brown's view of 
 picture-buyers — Rejected pictures of the Royal Academy — 
 Whistler's Portrait of his Mother, &c. — Children's work, Oliver's 
 'Gabriel Denver' — Work during 1873 : Oil Don Juan, Jacopo 
 Foscari, Byron a?id Mary Chaworth — Completion of Cromwell 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 xiii 
 
 on his Farm (1856)— Return to Nature : Portraits, Lohengrin^ 
 Piano, Lectures — Death of William Davis — Madox Brown's 
 charitable schemes— Rossetti's remonstrance — Review of W. M. 
 Rossetti's ' Fine Art, chiefly contemporary ' — ' Gabriel Denver ' — 
 Rossetti's jocular letter — History of Charles Augustus Howell — 
 Joaquin Miller — James Smetham— ' Pre-Raphaelite 5 poets- 
 Work during 1874 271 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 1875-1878 
 
 Work during 1875 — Byron and Mary Chaworth—0\\ Cordelia! s 
 Portion — Suggested subjects, Rubens' Ride, &c. — Lectures at 
 Edinburgh and Newcastle— Madox Brown's popularity in Man- 
 chester — Town Hall decorations— Visit to Holland — Dutch 
 picture galleries and scenery — Rossetti's suggestion for a picture 
 of Chancer beating a Fra?tciscan Friar in Fleet Street — Work 
 during 1876 — Supper at E nimans— Duplicate Christ a7id Peter 
 — La Rose de V Infante — Pastel portraits — Purchase of Chaucer 
 for Sydney Gallery — Manchester fresco project — Madox 
 Brown and the new school of artists and critics — Madox 
 Browns' research — Work during 1877 — TelPs Son — Cromwell, 
 Protector of the Vaudois — Poi r trait of Himself - Descriptions — 
 Deschamps' exhibition —Nervous hysteria — Gout — Roland 
 Gilderoy— Rossetti's illness— Madox Brown with Rossetti at 
 Heme Bay — An indignant landlady — Tourgeneff — The chloral 
 question — Madox Brown's schemes to make Rossetti renounce 
 the drug — Rossetti's view of the case — The Manchester fres- 
 coes — Commission given to Madox Brown by Mr. Shields — 
 Work during 1878 — Cartoons — Duplicates, &c. — Gout . . 298 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 1 879-1881 
 
 Work during 1879: Cartoon and fresco of Baptism of Edwin — 
 Description of the picture — Smaller work : The cartoon of the 
 Romans— The Manchester scheme as a whole — Its scope, tic- 
 Criticisms and replies — Madox Brown's life at Manchestcr 
 Hard work — Letters, &c. — Madox Brown and Lord Derby — 
 Return to London — Reaction — Work during 1880: The Romans 
 
xiv 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 design and fresco, cartoon of Danes— Method of work at Man- 
 chester — Anecdote of Mr. Hall Cainc's — Plein air device — 
 Results of work — Determination to settle in Manchester — A real 
 'conspiracy' — Gossip — Mr. Shields' windows at Eaton Hall — 
 Rossetti's letters: 'The White Ship:' Mr. Hall Caine — The 
 Blake designs — A fractious pig — Midnight adventure — Work 
 during 1 88 1 : Fresco of the Expulsion of the Danes — Flemish 
 Weavers, Crabtree, and Weights and Measures cartoons — 
 Studies, Szc. — Temporary return to London — Final settlement 
 in Manchester — Illness of D. G. Rossetti — His last letter . . 326 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 1882-1885 
 
 Work during 1882 : Flemish Weavers fresco — Commencement of 
 Crabtree fresco — Death of D. G. Rossetti — Its effects on Madox 
 Brown — Efforts to help Dan Casey — French appreciation of 
 Madox Brown — Madox Brown's view of his position — Fire at 
 Sydney Art Gallery — -Work during 1883: Crabtree fresco — 
 Commission for remaining six frescoes given to Madox Brown 
 — Madox Brown 'on strike' — Increase of payment — Royal 
 Academy exhibition of Rossetti's works — Design for Rossetti's 
 gravestone — Work during 1884 : Weights a?td Measures fresco 
 — Application — Madox Brown on picture-buyers — Work during 
 1885 : Pastels — Bust of Rossetti — Purchase of Work by Man- 
 chester Corporation . . . . . . . . 352 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 1886-1887 
 
 Work during 1886 : Che 7 'ha 111 's Life Dream, Wickliffe on Trial— 
 Rossetti memorial : Letter from Madox Brown on the subject — 
 Labour Bureau — Madox Brown and the unemployed — Madox 
 Brown's attitude towards the Royal Academy and kindred 
 bodies — Work during 1887 : The decorations for the dome of 
 the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition, &c. ; folin Dalton — The 
 Boddington Group and collection — Madox Brown's relations 
 with Manchester Society — Return to London — St. Edmund's 
 Terrace 371 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 xv 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 1888-1893 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Work and sales during 1888-89 — Work during 1890: John Kay — 
 1 89 1 : The Opening of the Bridgewater Canal— 1892 : Bj'ad- 
 shaw's Defence of Manchester — Life at St. Edmund's Terrace — 
 Personal appearance, kindheartedness, &c. — Death of Dr 
 Hueffer and of Mrs. Madox Brown — Reception of the Bridge- 
 water Canal panel, &c. — Chicago Exhibition — Commission for 
 a picture to be presented to the nation — Illness and death — 
 October 6, 1893 384 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 MADOX BROWN'S WORK .... 403 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 A. Madox Brown as a Teacher, Studies, &c. . . . 425 
 
 B. A List of Madox Brown's more important works . 432 
 
 C. Catalogue of some of Madox Brown's Designs for 
 
 Stained Glass 445 
 
 INDEX 
 
 449 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 -«o« 
 
 FULL-PAGE PLATES 
 Jesus washes Peter's Feet {Painted 1852) . Frontispiece 
 
 From the picture in the National Gallery. 
 
 Portrait of the Artist {Painted 1875) . . . To face p. 1 
 
 From the picture in the possession of Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton. 
 
 Portrait of Ford Brown, sen „ 14 
 
 From the painting in the possession of Mr. H. Rathbone. 
 
 Portrait of Madox Brown's Mother, 1835 • 
 
 From the original in the possession of Mrs. Hueffer. 
 
 The Body of Harold brought before William the 
 Conqueror {Designed 1843) 
 
 Fro?n the cartoon in the possession of the South London School 
 of Art. 
 
 The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots {Painted 
 1842) . 
 
 From the picture in the possession of Mr. Henry Boddington. 
 WlCKLIFFE READING HIS TRANSLATION OF THE BlBLE 
 
 to John of Gaunt {Painted 1847) .... 49 
 
 From the picture in the possession of Mr. Wilkinson. 
 
 Portrait of Madox Brown at the Age of Twenty- 
 nine „ 67 
 
 From the original in the possessioti of Mr. W. M. Rossetti. 
 
 23 
 
 26 
 
 Chaucer at the Court of Edward III. {Painted 185 1) 
 
 From the picture in the Sydney Municipal Gallery. 
 
 71 
 
 *a 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 The Last of England {Painted 1855) . . . To face p. 100 
 
 From the picture in the Birmingham Gallery. 
 
 The Prisoner of Chillon, 1856 „ 119 
 
 Study for 'Stages of Cruelty' [Catherine Madox 
 
 Brown] . . ... . . . '. . „ 131 
 
 From the original in the possession of the writer. 
 
 The Traveller, i860 . . ; „ 161 
 
 Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1869 • • » 183 
 
 From the stained-glass cartoon in the possession of Mrs. Hueffer. 
 
 Work {Painted 1863) „ 189 
 
 From the picture m the Manchester Gallery. 
 
 Death of Sir Tristram {Painted 1864) , 200 
 
 From the picture in the possession of Mr. George Rae. 
 
 Elijah and the Widow's Son {Pai?ited 1868) . . „ 202 
 
 From the picture in the South Kensington Museum. 
 
 The Entombment {Painted 1869) ., 222 
 
 From the picture in the possession of Mr. Henry Boddington. 
 
 Cordelia's Portion {Painted 1875) 223 
 
 From the monochrome in the possession of .Mr. Francis. 
 
 Don Juan {Painted 1870) „ 246 
 
 From the picture in the possession of Miss Blind. 
 
 Mrs. Madox Brown, 1869 , 254 
 
 From the pastel in the possession of Mr. II. Rathbone. 
 
 Design for Rossetti's ' Down Stream,' 1871 . . „ 263 
 Cromwell on his Farm {Painted 1874). ... ,291 
 
 From the picture in the possession of Mr. Brockbank. 
 
 Mrs. W. M. Rossetti and Daughter, 1876 . . „ 307 
 
 From the pastel in the possession of Mr. W. M. Rossetti. 
 
 Cromwell, Protector of the Vaudois {Painted 1877) „ 313 
 
 From the picture in the possession of Mr. Brockbank. 
 
 Homer and Shakespeare, 1871-79 . . . . „ 323 
 
 From the designs for the ' Worthies ' series in Owens College, 
 Manchester. 
 
 The Baptism of Edwin {Pai?tted 1880) . . . . „ 329 
 The Romans building Manchester {Painted 1879) . „ 338 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 xix 
 
 The Expulsion of the Danes from Manchester 
 
 {Painted 1881) To face p. 348 
 
 Crabtree discovering Transit of Venus {Painted 
 
 1883) ,,360 
 
 Wickliffe on Trial {Painted 1886) .,373 
 
 John Dalton collecting Marsh Gas {Painted 1887) „ 379 
 
 Design for Miss Blind's 'Dramas in Miniature,' 
 
 1891 . „ 386 
 
 Studies, First Sketches, &c p. 430 et sea. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, 1876. From an autotype reproduction. 
 
 Design for Stained-Glass, ' The Transfiguration,; 
 1857. From the original in possession of Messrs. Powell 6° 
 Co. 
 
 One of the ' Lear ' Series. Paris, 1844. From original 
 in possession of the writer. 
 
 Sketches and Studies. Paris, 1844. From original in 
 possession of Mr. Fairfax Murray. 
 
 Studies for 'Chaucer,' 1845. From original in possession 
 of Mr. Fairfax Murray. 
 
 First Sketch for 'Chaucer,' 1845. From original in 
 possession of Mr. Fairfax Murray. 
 
 Sketches and Studies for ' Oure Ladie of Goon 
 Children,' 1846. From original in possession of Mr. 
 Fairfax Murray. 
 
 Study for Wickliffe, 1847. From original in possession 
 of Mr. Fairfax Murray. 
 
 Study, 1847. From original in possession of Mr. Fairfax 
 Murray. 
 
 First Sketch for Picture of 'Work,' 1852. From 
 original in possession of Mr. R. S. Garnett. 
 
 Study for ' Last of England,' 1852. From original in 
 possession of Mr. Fairfax Murray. 
 
 Unfinished Painting: 'Take your Son, Sir,' 1857. 
 From original in possession of Mr. Harold Rathbone. 
 
 Christ blessing little Children, 1862. From the series 
 of reproductions published by Mr. Rathbone. Reproduced 
 from a ' Firm,' or working copy of Madox Brown's cartoon. 
 
 The Archangels Uriel and Michael, 1862. From Mr. 
 Harold Rathbone' s series of reproductions of stained-glass 
 cartoons. 
 
xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 IN TEXT 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mrs. Madox Brown, 1848 61 
 
 Study for Head of Chaucer [Portrait of D. G. Rossetti], 
 
 1850 ... • . 74 
 
 The Entombment, 1867 222 
 
 Abraham and Isaac, 1867 231 
 
 Design for *Childe Harold,' 1869 265 
 
 Oliver Madox Brown, November 6, 1874 293 
 
 Illustration from the ; Brown Owl,' 1892 .... 389 
 
# 
 
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST 
 
 (Painted 1875) 
 
 (From the picture in the possession of Mr. Theodore Watts- Dunton] 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PARENTAGE 
 1735-1821 
 
 Similarity of career of grandfather and grandson — Dr. John Brown — His 
 education — Becomes a tutor — Repartees — Repairs to Edinburgh — 
 Becomes a medical student — His success with pupils — Writes 
 ' Elementa Medicines — Quarrels with Cullen and Edinburgh doctors — 
 Ostracism — Journey to London and death — Posthumous fame — 
 Invitation of Frederick the Great — His children — Madox Brown's 
 father, Ford Brown — A purser — Marries Miss Madox — Birth of a 
 daughter, and of Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 Ford Madox Brown was born in Calais in the year 
 182 1. His father, Ford Brown, a purser — or, as he 
 preferred to style himself, ' commissariat officer of 
 the British navy ' — was the son of the once famous 
 Dr. John Brown. In this descent from a doctor 
 Madox Brown is not alone in the rank of artists, and 
 he may have inherited his artistic faculties from 
 his most noted ancestor. What is more certain is, 
 that his career and temperament, if not for any here- 
 ditary reason, were by no means dissimilar to those of 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1735- 
 
 his grandfather. Both were, first and foremost, inno- 
 vators, protesting against existing traditions, having 
 both arrived at their conclusions by means of inde- 
 pendent study and experience. The Anti- Lancet 
 physician's creed having been formulated and laid 
 before academic authorities, was received with a storm 
 of disapprobation and medico-popular opprobrium, to 
 be afterwards gradually appropriated and received into 
 practice, if not by the original champions of the Esta- 
 blished, at least by the inheritors of their mantles. A 
 similar, if not identical, sentence might sum up the 
 career of his grandson. 
 
 John Brown was born at an uncertain date in the 
 winter 1735-36 in one of the twin-villages Lintlaws or 
 Preston, in the parish of Bunkle, in Berwickshire. 
 His father was a day-labourer, but withal a man of 
 great strength of character, and one who, boasting no 
 education himself, had an exceeding reverence for the 
 utility of learning. This fact led to the early tuition 
 that John Brown received at a dame school where his 
 father sent him, saying ' he would gird his belt tighter 
 to give his son John a better education.' John repaid 
 his father's sacrifice with an insatiable love of learning. 
 At the age of five he had read through the four 
 Gospels, no mean feat. But his comprehension of 
 them would not seem to have kept pace with his 
 study, for at the same age, on the death of his father, 
 he was found wandering off over the moors in search 
 of the kingdom of Heaven, whither, he was told, 
 
1 82 1 PARENTAGE 3 
 
 his father had gone. The ' wabster ' who found 
 him in this situation offered to be. and in the event 
 became, a second father to him, in so far as a step- 
 father could supply the place. That he did so in 
 a most excellent degree is proved by his continuing 
 his stepson's education on a higher grade at Dunse 
 Grammar School, where John was the pupil, and in a 
 very short time the favourite pupil, of ' the celebrated 
 Cruickshank.' 
 
 Towards the age of ten or eleven, however, he 
 was removed, and but for the intercession of his 
 master would have been bound apprentice to a 
 weaver. Cruickshank, however, urged so effectually 
 the assurance of John Brown's ultimate success as 
 a 'seceding preacher,' that the young John was 
 returned to school, where Cruickshank instructed 
 him gratis, and, three years after, appointed him his 
 usher. 
 
 His ultimate progress towards medical fame was 
 a no easy one. All chance of his succeeding as a 
 preacher was sacrificed to his unwillingness to submit 
 to a public rebuke for the heinous crime of attending 
 an Episcopal service. He became a laird's tutor, 
 but was dismissed his place — or rather manumitted 
 himself — because sufficient respect was not paid to 
 his rank, and because he supported a thesis that 
 ' Providence was unjust ' by the argument that she so 
 ' frequently made blockheads lairds! This reply being 
 returned to an insulting question from a convocation 
 
 b 2 
 
4 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1735- 
 
 of intoxicated lairds that was held in his employer's 
 house, ensured his dismissal. 
 
 He determined to leave the life of 'treading 
 another's stairs,' and, repairing to Edinburgh, earned 
 a living by translating into Latin the inaugural dis- 
 sertations of medical students. This fired him with 
 the idea of ' rolling in his own carriage,' as he put it, 
 and he became a medical student, finally making 
 himself so proficient in that branch of learning that he 
 opened a boarding-house, and, as it were, a private 
 college for medical students. His success with his 
 pupils, and his personal popularity amongst them, were 
 so trreat that in a short time ' his income was most con- 
 siderable, but his manner of living was by much too 
 liberal for his resources.' The road to fame and 
 fortune seemed ensured to him. The great Dr. 
 Cullen, whose correspondence with a hundred conti- 
 nental learned societies was of necessity carried on 
 in Latin, being himself an indifferent Latinist, made 
 ample use of the ' transcendent ' 1 classical abilities of 
 Brown, and extended his patronage to the extent of 
 promising him the then vacant chair of ' Theory of 
 Medicine.' 
 
 As a thesis for this appointment, Brown wrote his 
 once famous ' Elementa Medicinal,' but, to the horror 
 
 1 His calumniators were in the habit of saying that he had spoilt the 
 best Latinist in the world by becoming the worst doctor. At a very 
 advanced age, according to Dr. Beddoes, he could quote ' every line that 
 Horace had ever written.' 
 
1 82T PARENTAGE 5 
 
 of Dr. Cullen, the doctrines mooted therein were 
 hideously heterodox. Cullen, therefore, withdrew his 
 countenance from Brown's candidature, with fatal 
 results. 
 
 Nevertheless, Brown's popularity with his students, 
 and their number, increased daily. Whether for this 
 reason, or out of conscientious dislike to his teachings, 
 which struck at the universal panacea — the lancet — 
 and prescribed the now accepted doctrine of ' feeding ' 
 rather than ' starving a fever,' his unpopularity among 
 the physicians became greater even than his popu- 
 larity with the students. Cabals that were rife amongst 
 the Edinburgh doctors affected him very little, and his 
 mind was even less agitated by their calumnies ; but 
 the hostility which his unconciliatory manner evoked 
 reached an effectual climax in t 78 5, when the ex- 
 aminers of the Faculty of Medicine publicly announced 
 that no candidate holding or mentioning in his thesis 
 ' Brunonian ' ideas would be allowed to receive a 
 degree. 
 
 Such a stringent edict had the desired effect. 
 Edinburgh students were a class of men to whom the 
 degree was a matter of crucial importance, and they 
 abandoned perforce their popular instructor. His 
 disciples at the time numbered over 300. 
 
 Somewhat of his popularity was, without doubt, 
 due to his personality, which was remarkable for its 
 bonhomie and goodfellowship. To quote from a letter 
 of Madox Brown on the subject : — 
 
6 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1.735- 
 
 ' The tradition in the family was that Dr. Brown, 
 although engaged all his life in fierce contests of will 
 and struggles with prejudice, was in his home remark- 
 able chiefly for his lively good temper and his af- 
 fectionate care for his many children, rising by five 
 in the morning to teach his daughters Greek and 
 Latin.' 
 
 On the other hand, his attitude towards his fellow- 
 physicians was somewhat brusque and uncompromising. 
 In his ' Life of John Brown,' William Cullen Brown 
 thus animadverts on the 'Life' written by Brown's 
 ' arch-enemy ' Beddoes : — 
 
 His person, which, in consideration of the eminence of the man 
 ought to have been mentioned with decency if not with respect, is 
 likened to that of the clumsy buffoon of Cervantes; his voice is men- 
 tioned to have been croaking, and his metaphors in conversation, 
 though, according to Dr. Beddoes, vigorous, animated, and agreeable 
 to all around him, were disagreeable to him, by whom his company 
 was not desired a second time. 
 
 In any case, the fiat of expulsion went forth against 
 Dr. Brown, and, having refused 1 an invitation to 
 settle in Berlin as body-physician to Frederick the 
 Great, he came to London with the view of establish- 
 ing a practice there. He made a slow and semi- 
 triumphal progress through the North of England. 
 His convivial faculties rendered him extremely popular, 
 and the story of his ill-usage had turned warm friends 
 
 1 There is a certain mystery about this transaction. Brown was 
 certainly invited and refused. A doctor — or rather an obscure Welsh 
 quack of the same name — subsequently obtained the post by falsely 
 representing himself to be the Dr. John Brown. 
 
I82I 
 
 PARENTAGE 
 
 7 
 
 into warmer partisans. To such an extent was his 
 journey retarded by hospitality, that he at last resorted 
 to the expedient of selling his too easily digressing 
 postchaise and horses, and booking the places for 
 himself and his family on a stage-coach. Thus he 
 ultimately arrived in London. 
 
 Here, after making the acquaintance of the Court 
 of King's Bench and the Fleet Prison for insolvent 
 debtors, he contrived to lay the foundation of an 
 extensive practice, and, moreover, enrolled upwards of 
 300 new pupils. 
 
 Unfortunately apoplexy — or, as his calumniators 
 had it, an overdose of his favourite gout-medicine, 
 brandy and opium — cut short his career at its most 
 prosperous point. He was found dead in his bed on 
 the morning of October 7, 1788. His robust per- 
 sonality is preserved in the series of John Kay's 
 ' Edinburgh Portraits,' and a portrait of him was 
 etched by William Blake in 1787. In both of them 
 he appears as a somewhat burly man, with a tightly 
 buttoned coat and a substantial bob-wig. His features 
 are strongly marked and rather hard, but distinctly 
 Scotch in character. 
 
 After his death his popularity became considerable. 
 The students of Pavia put on mourning for him, 
 whilst those of Gottingen raised a riot in his honour. 
 On the Continent his name is preserved as rilhtstre 
 fondateur du systhne Brunonien, to quote the French 
 ' Dictionnaire Universelle Biographique.' 
 
8 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 Scott, in his ' Life of Napoleon,' relates that the 
 Emperor, when imprisoned at St. Helena, set himself 
 vigorously to dispute with any medical man who 
 chanced or chose in his presence to oppose Brunonian 
 ideas, invariably turning his back on anyone who 
 proved obstinate in his discussion. 
 
 A sufficient evidence of the esteem in which Brown 
 was posthumously held is afforded by the subjoined 
 letter from his son Ford to his grandson Ford 
 Madox :— 
 
 January 24, 1839. 
 
 My dear Fordy, — As I feel myself a little better, I shall try to 
 trace a few lines for you to puzzle about deciphering. Dr. Copland, 
 one of the most eminent visiting physicians, gives me advice gratis, 
 and would not hear of a second fee when he knew who I was, which 
 fortunately he discovered from my likeness to your grandfather's 
 picture, and then would hear of no further fees. He also gives your 
 Aunt Bessy advice gratis. He is a most amiable, talented man of 
 the first rank, and lectures at the London Institution, where he is 
 much esteemed, although there was a row among the youths, but 
 not among his. 
 
 In spite of this apparent triumph of his principles 
 after his death, a calumnious ' Life of Dr. John Brown' 
 was issued by Dr. Beddoes, a physician otherwise of 
 note as having been the father of the poet. Although 
 this was confuted by W. C. Brown's ' Life,' prefixed 
 to Brown's works, and an appreciative biographical 
 notice in Dr. Pettigrew's ' Physicians of Eminence,' 
 the most generally available life of Brown was, until 
 lately, that in the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' which 
 was as far as biographical matters are concerned, 
 
I82I 
 
 PARENTAGE 
 
 9 
 
 a condensation of Beddoes' work. The article on 
 'Medicine,' however, does considerable justice to 
 him, and the notice of Brown in the ' Dictionary of 
 National Biography,' by Dr. Creighton, is a ' labour 
 of love.' 
 
 Dr. John Brown left two sons, one of whom, his 
 biographer, William Cullen Brown, rose to a position 
 of considerable distinction among Scottish surgeons, 
 becoming President of the Edinburgh College of that 
 faculty. The second son was, as has been related, 
 Ford Brown, 1 the father of Ford Madox. 
 
 Although a purser's control of ship's material fre- 
 quently gave him an opportunity of amassing a con- 
 siderable fortune, Ford Brown does not seem to have 
 availed himself of the somewhat nefarious means open 
 to him of turning an honest penny. 
 
 An episode in one of Captain Chamier's naval 
 romances represents the dying ravings and revelations 
 of thieving by the fever-stricken purser's mate of the 
 'Arethusa,' of which historic vessel Ford Brown was 
 for a time purser. But the thefts of his mate would 
 tell rather against than for his privnte purse. After 
 serving through the Napoleonic wars, he retired on 
 little more than his half-pay, and married Miss 
 Caroline Madox, a representative of an ancient Kentish 
 family, claiming descent from the legendary Prince 
 Madoc of Wales. This claim, however, would 
 
 1 So called in honour of Dr. Ford, a favourite pupil and friend of 
 John Brown. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1 735-1 821 
 
 seem to have little more than a family tradition to 
 uphold it. 
 
 As far as may be judged from effigies and monu- 
 mental brasses extant in several Kentish churches, 
 his wife's forefathers would seem to have been a race 
 of sturdy and occasionally combative and rebellious 
 yeomen and small gentry, and many shades of the 
 character of the traditional '.Man of Kent' were not 
 undiscoverable in the nature of Madox Brown. 
 
 After his marriage in 1 818 Ford Brown led a 
 roving life, principally on the Continent, for economy's 
 sake, moving from town to town near Calais, or in the 
 Low Countries. 
 
 In 18 19 was born his daughter, named Elizabeth 
 Coffin, in compliment to the famous admiral who had 
 been Ford Brown's captain, and, on April 16, 1821, 
 his son Ford Madox. 
 
I82T-40 
 
 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS AND STUDENT LIFE 
 1821-1840 
 
 Calais — Anecdote of Beau Brummell — Migratory childhood — Precocious 
 musical and artistic displays — Leanings towards a naval career — 
 Paints portrait of his father — Becomes a pupil of Gregorius of Bruges 
 at the age of fourteen — Van Hanselaer — Portrait of his sister and 
 other pictures — Becomes pupil of Wappers at Antwerp (1838) — Life 
 at Antwerp — Anecdotes — Sells a picture — Head of a Page, &c. — 
 Picture of ' Colonel Kirke,' 1839 — His father's illness and petulance — 
 Madox Brown's ill-health — Death of his mother — And of his father — 
 Madox Brown's circumstances — Remains at Antwerp under Wappers 
 — Paints portraits — Letters from his sister — Paints the Giaour's 
 Confessioji (1839) — Leaves Antwerp. 
 
 Madox Brown's earliest years were passed in Calais, 
 and his first recollections were of Calais battlements 
 and Beau Brummell. 
 
 I extract the following from a necessarily unfinished 
 autobiographical sketch dictated to me by the artist on 
 the second day of the illness to which he succumbed 
 four days later : — 
 
 I remember Brummell very well (he said), a venerable old gentleman 
 with a long white beard, w 7 ho used to take a daily constitutional on 
 the walls, accompanied by a large bull-dog. It must, I should think, 
 have been very nearly at the time of his death — but my nurse used 
 to point him out to me and say in an awestruck whisper : ' C'est le 
 grand Monsieur Brummell, l'ami du roi d'Angleterre.' One day the 
 
LIFE OF FORD MA BOX BROWN 1821- 
 
 before-mentioned bull-dog ran up and greeted an approaching lady of 
 his acquaintance with so much effusion that, in jumping up at her, 
 his claws cut her silk dress into ribbons. Of course this annoyed her 
 a great deal, and she gave the poor brute a kick and called it a bad 
 name. I shall never forget the dignified manner in which poor 
 Brummell took off his hat and said : ' Madam, had you made allow- 
 ances for the poor brute and not so ill-treated him, I should have been 
 
 delighted to provide you with a new dress. As it is ' he replaced 
 
 his hat and passed on with a bow. I don't suppose the poor fellow 
 had five sous in his pocket. I remember it all very clearly — a great 
 deal more so than anything I ever saw in later days. 
 
 His childhood was passed in a series of peregrina- 
 tions from France to England. His mother's relations 
 were many, most of them established in Kent, others, 
 however, as far afield as Llangollen, in the heart of 
 wild Wales, and to these worthy people he paid many 
 visits, sometimes with, often without, his parents. 
 
 Such a life was, of course, more likely to give him 
 a ' knowledge of the world ' than to allow him to 
 receive any very settled education. A certain childish 
 facility with the violin, which his sister supplemented 
 with guitar accompaniments, made his society much 
 sought after amongst his mother's lady friends ; other- 
 wise his studies progressed little beyond the range of 
 the three ' R's.' 
 
 Towards the age of six or seven young Madox 
 Brown began to exhibit remarkable, if childish, artistic 
 faculties. Drawing was with him a passion that con- 
 tinued, and grew as he grew, and was not merely the 
 malady of paint and pencil incidental to most child- 
 hood. 
 
1840 
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 13 
 
 His own account of the matter is that, in the hotel 
 garni that his parents occupied in Calais, the walls 
 were decorated with spirited designs of the conquest 
 of Peru by Pizarro. He first copied these hangings, 
 and afterwards launched out into more adventurous 
 designs of huntsmen and dogs that he saw for him- 
 self. When he was seven years of age his father 
 procured for him an Italian drawing-master, who set 
 him to copy prints after Raphael and Correggio, and 
 some Bartolozzi engravings that were among his 
 mother's art treasures. 
 
 Ford Brown was at first opposed to his son's 
 obvious trend towards the ungentlemanly life of an 
 artist, and applied to Sir Isaac Coffin, the commodore, 
 for his influence to procure a midshipman's berth for 
 the young Ford. 
 
 At the age of thirteen, too, the life of a ' sucking 
 Nelson ' offered great attractions to the young artist, 
 who cordially disliked the routine of copying to which 
 successive private masters subjected him, and, but for 
 an estrangement of his father from his patron, it is 
 not improbable that the future painter of Work 
 would have experienced the hard lot of the midship- 
 man's mess, and have died ' a superintendent of 
 coastguards on the retired list' 
 
 Such dangers are, however, incident to most artistic 
 careers, and Ford Brown, a shrewd man, who had 
 gained little but rheumatism and half-pay during his 
 long service, was well aware of the small chance of 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 182 1- 
 
 success open to a young man unless supported by- 
 powerful interest at the Admiralty. In Belgium, more- 
 over, he saw how honours and emoluments awaited a 
 successful artist, and, sacrificing his pride of place to the 
 desire for his son's success, he removed with his family 
 to Bruges, and enrolled his fourteen-year-old son 
 among the students of the Academy under Gregorius, 
 a pupil of the great David. 
 
 It is possible that a portrait of Ford Brown, senior, 
 painted by his son in his fourteenth or fifteenth year, 
 contributed not a little to this end. For a painter of 
 that age, with very little education, the picture is a 
 remarkable one. Grown now so dark with age 1 that 
 nothing is visible but the head and hands, the decided 
 drawing and the characterisation are surprisingly 
 powerful. When the methods and abilities of his 
 instructors are considered, one is at a loss to know 
 whence he drew his inspirations. 
 
 His studies under Gregorius of Bruges, which 
 continued for a year, and under Van Hanselaer of 
 Ghent, which lasted somewhat longer, seem to have 
 done little more than temporarily extirpate any indi- 
 viduality that he may have possessed. 
 
 A portrait of his sister Eliza, in my possession, and 
 painted at the end of his seventeenth year, is singu- 
 larly bad, and save as an example of how indifferent 
 
 1 This was the case when I last saw the picture. The reproducer's 
 camera has revealed more than was then visible ; but this does not 
 render necessary any material change of opinion. 
 
Ford Brown, Senr. 
 
 (From painting in possession of Mr. H. I^athbonc. 
 
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 15 
 
 teaching may harm a pupil of strong individuality, is 
 unworthy of even the most cursory notice. Two 
 other pictures were painted in the years 1836 and 
 1837, but neither of them is now traceable. One, 
 his first composition, was life-size, and represented a 
 Blind Beggar and his Child. On his parents' visit to 
 England in 1839 it went with them, and was sold to 
 a London printseller for 7/. 175. 6d. His second 
 work, entitled Showing the Way, was given away ; a 
 study of a Head of a Flemish Fishwife was traceable 
 to a later date, being ' exchanged with five other 
 studies (of the same and slightly later periods) for the 
 large picture of Chaucer in the year 1863.' 
 
 In 1837 he also painted several portraits, for one 
 of which he received 8/., but none of them have been 
 discovered. 
 
 At the end of this period the extended reputation 
 of Gustaf, Baron Wappers, the distinguished fresco- 
 painter, induced Madox Brown's parents to migrate 
 to Antwerp that he might have the benefit of that 
 master's tuition. Accordingly, during the years 1837 
 and 1838 they made Antwerp the centre of their occa- 
 sional flights to English, Welsh, and French towns. 
 Madox Brown lived sometimes with them and some- 
 times in Bohemian lodgings in or in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Rue des Peignes. 
 
 From frequently heard reminiscences of this stage 
 of Madox Brown's life, the atmosphere and many of 
 its little details have become fixed in the writer's 
 
i 6 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1821- 
 
 mind, and their intrusion may perhaps be tole- 
 rated. 
 
 He lived en pension at the ' Hotel du Pot d'Etain,' 
 occupying a mansarde with his almost lifelong friend 
 Daniel Casey. Living was not expensive, and on his 
 weekly allowance of 20 francs he fared not at all ill. 
 
 The interests of the ' Pot d'Etain' centred largely 
 in the cuisine. Except on those evenings when their 
 purse would not admit of a visit to the opera, they 
 spent little of their time at their own rooms. 
 
 The classes at the Academy began early in the 
 morning and lasted till midday, and attendance was 
 compulsory if the prize was to be gained. Midday 
 was the dinner-hour. There were three rates of pay- 
 ment at the pension. Twenty sous a day commanded 
 lodging, the morning's coffee, dinner, and supper. 
 Fifteen meant ostensibly the same, but the dinner was 
 skilfully timed to be on the table exactly two courses 
 before the officers were released from drill-parade. 
 They were all ' quinze-sous ' pensionnaires, and, out 
 of deference to their feelings, it was arranged that 
 the soup and ragout should have disappeared from 
 the board to give place to a great bowl of potatoes 
 which formed the third course, and arrived at the 
 table just as the first officer dashed into the room. 
 Pie would unbuckle his belt, cast it and the sword 
 into the corner behind the door, and without further 
 ceremony fall to, in which example he was followed 
 by his fellow-officers. The pay of these poor fellows 
 
1840 
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 i7 
 
 was little more than a franc and a half a day, and 
 when fifteen sous had gone for board and one for the 
 indispensable Havannah, there was a very small margin 
 for other necessaries. 
 
 The artists returned to the atelier in the afternoon, 
 and worked till light failed them, Madox Brown in 
 particular being an indefatigable worker. In the 
 evening a penny purchased a great piece of hot 
 ' gallette,' or a paper cone full of roasted chestnuts, 
 whilst five sous gave admission to the theatre. 
 
 When the necessary centimes were not forthcoming 
 there remained the pension supper and an evening 
 spent in leaning out of the window smoking enormous 
 Studentenpfeifen filled with 'canaster' or 'varinas.' 
 
 Next door to the Pot d'Etain dwelt a blonde- 
 haired maiden, whom the students saw from their 
 elevated posts of observation as she returned from 
 Vespers. ' She had very pretty small feet, I 
 remember,' Madox Brown was accustomed to say ; 
 ' her face I can't remember — indeed, I don't know 
 that we ever saw it, but Casey and I plotted together 
 and made a little scheme to draw her attention to us. 
 We each bought a bunch of violets, and as she passed 
 underneath to reach her doorstep, we dropped them 
 just in front of her. But she did not deign to look 
 up ; I suppose she must have known what we were 
 up to. She stamped on one of the bunches of 
 violets, and that was how I came to know that she 
 had small feet, but I don't think I ever saw her face.' 
 
 c 
 
18 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1821- 
 
 Student life in Antwerp had points of resemblance 
 with that of the Quartier Latin, as well as of Heidel- 
 berg or Dresden. There was not much dissipation, 
 and in what there was, Madox Brown, although 
 taking an occasional share, did not participate to 
 any large extent ; a fact due as much to his passion 
 for work as to his parents' influence. 
 
 At the same time he had never any lack of the 
 convivial qualities for which his grandfather had been 
 noted. To the end of his life he was a capital raconteur, 
 telling with zest stories of a broad nature that led 
 up to a carefully considered climax. In addition to 
 ' telling a good tale,' he could ' sing a good song,' 
 and possessed a bass voice well adapted for rendering 
 such masterpieces as ' 'Tis Jolly to Hunt' 
 
 He had acquired a knowledge of violin playing 
 from a friend named Pendleton, now Vicar of Jersey, 
 and the composer of several cantatas. These various 
 faculties rendered him popular with his fellow-students, 
 and although in time both instrumental and vocal 
 powers deserted him, he retained several of their 
 favourite tales that he told in a curious Belgian- 
 French, with occasional lapses into Walloon. 
 
 During the first two years of his Antwerp life 
 he painted two pictures, one of which, a Friday of 
 the Poor, was given away, the other, Job among the 
 Ashes, after being exhibited at Ghent in 1837, being 
 sent over to England in 1839, in the hope of its 
 finding a purchaser as the Blind Beggar had done. 
 
1840 
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 19 
 
 In this, however, it failed, being finally sold in 
 Antwerp. Another work of 1837 was a Head of a 
 Page, of which Madox Brown painted a finished 
 picture, which was given away. A charcoal study 
 for it survives, entitled Domestique qui rit. It was 
 sold at the sale of Madox Brown's effects in 1894, 
 together with two studies of the same period, Elizabeth 
 at the Death-bed of the Countess of Nottingham, and 
 Flamand voyant passer le Due d ] 'A /be, the one an 
 exposition of a famous apocryphal incident, the other 
 a head typically presenting the hatred which their 
 brutal governor inspired in the Netherlanders. Both 
 are works of really remarkable vigour, the Elizabeth 
 especially being an almost violent studv of a hard- 
 featured face under the influence of sudden passion. 
 
 In January of 1839 Madox Brown's family made 
 the visit to England during which his father wrote 
 the letter quoted on p. 8, and his mother accom- 
 plished the sale of his first work. There had been 
 some thought of Madox Brown accompanying his 
 parents, but at the time his health was weak and the 
 effects of winter travelling were feared. He remained 
 working at the Academy, and painting a picture of 
 ( Colonel Kirke,' 1 concerning which his father writes 
 to him from England : — 
 
 P.S. — I forgot to tell you the principal. Colonel Kirke was the 
 monster you mean that committed all these butcheries in the reign 
 
 1 In connection with this picture, which (along with several others 
 presented by Madox Brown to his uncle by marriage, William Jones) 
 
 C 2 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 182 t- 
 
 of James II. I feel convinced your improvement keeps pace with 
 my most sanguine hopes, professionally, I mean, but you say nothing 
 about your health, which gives us a deal of anxiety. I hope it 
 improves, these complaints usually do at your time of life. 
 
 The complaints were weakness of the heart and lungs, 
 due to overgrowth. 
 
 Under cover of the same letter his mother writes : 
 
 The other four pounds is to enable you to do another picture. 
 It is not so much money makes your papa want you back, as to send you 
 of little messages and waste your time for him, for he is just as figity 
 after Eliza, he wants someone to grumble at. [The old officer was by 
 no means a Captain Reece.] He was much pleased with your letter, 
 and said immediately you should not come home until the hurricane 
 months were passed, so make your mind easy about it. Your Uncle 
 James says he can introduce you to people who will be the making 
 of you, but generally ends with how he should like Lizzy, or his wife, 
 or cottage taken. 
 
 His mother was a woman of very sweet temper, 
 who, whilst humouring and soothing her husband, 
 contrived to smooth the way for her son, sending him 
 little sums of money for a corps de reserve, lest his 
 father's mind should change as to the money matters. 
 
 At last his mother found the English climate 
 
 disappeared at the time of their owner's death, I quote the note kindly 
 afforded me by Mr. W. M. Rossetti : ' The story is that Kirke was one 
 of the officers who suppressed Monmouth's rebellion. A man (A. B.) 
 was condemned to death. His wife appealed to K. K. told her that if 
 she would pass a night with him he would save A. B. She consented 
 reluctantly. In the morning K. opened a window and pointed to A. B. 
 dangling on a gallows. I saw, towards 1873, the picture which repre- 
 sents K. and woman at window ; K. with fiendish sarcasm in his face. 
 A repulsive sort of picture, painted with some force and (of its class) 
 strong expression. Figures (which are half-figures) life sizes or little 
 less.' 
 
Portrait of Madox Brown's Mother. 1835. 
 
 (From original in possession of Mrs. Hueffer.) 
 
T840 
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 21 
 
 unbearable, and after a severe attack of congestion 
 of the lungs, from which she partially recovered, the 
 family moved to Calais, intending to remove to 
 Antwerp. 
 
 On August 27, 1839, she writes from Calais to 
 Madox Brown a letter concerning ' w r ashhandstands, 
 and an armchair for your papa in the parlour.' She 
 was destined never to see her son, dying at Calais 
 within the week. 
 
 To her constant support of him and her sym- 
 pathy with his wish for undisturbed study, Madox 
 Brown owed his invaluable three years at Antwerp. 
 The restless spirit of his father was a constant source 
 of danger during that time, but, partly by persuasion, 
 and partly by resorting to little conspiracies, she con- 
 trived to secure for her son the object he desired. 
 He had much to thank her for. 
 
 Her husband did not long survive her, and before 
 December of the same year, Ford Madox Brown and 
 his sister were keeping house alone at '174 Rue 
 Marche au Lait, in Antwerp.' 
 
 From their mother they had inherited a small 
 income arising from canal-wharf and farm property. 
 It amounted to somewhat over 200/. per annum. 
 
 There was thus no need for Madox Brown's aban- 
 doning his studies under Baron Wappers, and he con- 
 tinued working at the Academy until the end of the 
 year. 
 
 During his parents' lifetime his mother had drawn 
 
22 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1821- 
 
 around her a small circle of friends, amongst whom 
 his portraits of his father and his sister had caused 
 some little admiration for the young artist. This 
 culminated in several commissions for portraits, of 
 accepting which he was by no means so chary after 
 his father's death as he had been during his life- 
 time, when the fear of being dragged from his studies 
 had made him dislike any interruption in their 
 course. 
 
 Thus we find his sister writing in December 
 1839 :— 
 
 A Monsieur, Monsieur Brown, au Chateau d ' Houdelange, 
 par et pres d^Arton, Luxembourg. 
 
 My dear Ford, — I daresay you have expected to hear from me 
 before, but I waited to see Mr. Slingenger [sic] 1 to inquire about 
 your palto [probably paletot], as he sent it off to you because he said 
 he had a proper case to send it in. . . . Baron Wappers called over 
 your name at the Academy, and Mr. Slingenger then told him you 
 was gone into Luxembourg to paint portraits. He was surprised that 
 you had not been to tell him you was going, but he said he did not 
 care about your going to paint portraits, but he did not like a good 
 scholar to absent himself for any other reason when he had so much 
 likelihood of gaining the prize. Uncle Madox has sent us over some 
 law papers, and I have been obliged to get Mr. Whitcomb to witness 
 them. Fortunately I met him coming out of church, therefore had 
 not to go to their house. It was about the sail of a little bit of wharf 
 to Mr. Borret, because our ground went into his. Uncle Madox 
 also asked if we would like to exchange our -J T; of Crayford Farm for 
 £ of the Red Lion, because the estate is in gavelkine, and in that 
 
 1 Slingeneyer, a painter of a certain celebrity, painted The Christian 
 Martyr in the Amphitheatre Den, &c. In 1871 several of his works were 
 exhibited at South Kensington at a time when Belgian art was still 
 popular in England. 
 
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1840 
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 23 
 
 case a person as young as fifteen may sign away his property if in 
 possession. He says he wishes you could run over in the spring 
 when Trissy is at home and take his and aunty's portraits, and adds 
 that the portraits would pay the passage. 
 
 Madox Brown was then engaged on the portraits 
 of ' Monsieur Dombinsky, his lady, and his brother,' 
 for M. Dombinsky, who was a captain in the army 
 of Luxemburg. The prices paid for these works 
 amounted to thirteen pounds, being four pounds 
 apiece for the portrait of the captain and his wife, 
 and five pounds for that of his brother. 
 
 I cite three entries of the same period from a 
 little red account-book in which Madox Brown was 
 accustomed to enter particulars of the work he exe- 
 cuted, a practice he continued, using the same note- 
 book, to the last days of his life. 
 
 Given. — Portrait of Surtees or Pembroke — his name was 
 
 quite uncertain — a fiddler. ..... 1839 
 
 I find he is Pendleton, now a clergyman. . . . 1877 
 
 Given. — Portrait of a coloured gentleman, named Halli- 
 
 day, a friend of mine. ...... 1839 
 
 8/. os. od. — Portrait of a gentleman of Ghent, name 
 
 forgotten 1839 
 
 His only finished work of the year 1839 was an 
 oil painting of the Giaour s Confession, which was 
 exhibited at the Royal Academy of the year ensuing. 
 He also commenced the picture of the Execution of 
 Mary Sfoiart. 
 
 With 1839 terminated his studentship at the 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1821-40 
 
 Antwerp Academy, although he did not finally quit 
 Antwerp till towards the end of the following year. 
 
 Under the auspices of Baron Wappers he had 
 acquired the considerable knowledge that did not 
 desert him in later life, and ' which,' as the critic of the 
 ' Athenaeum ' puts it, ' distinguished him from first to last 
 from the majority of the contemporaries of his youth 
 in England, who were by no means so well trained. 
 It made him a master of all the processes of the art, 
 from etching and lithography to painting in pastels, 
 fresco, encaustic, oils and water-colours. He was 
 enabled to distinguish himself in all these directions 
 because he thoroughly understood the technique of 
 each method.' 
 
1840-45 
 
 2 5 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PARIS 
 1840-1845 
 
 Removal from Antwerp to Paris— Dan Casey — Mary Queen of Scots — 
 Visits England — Marriage— Exhibits at R.A. — Life in Paris — Plei?i 
 Air idea — Manfred on 'the Jungfrau — Return to old style — 
 ParisincCs- Sleep — Prudery of the Salon — The Prisoners of Chillon — 
 Choice of subjects — Byron — Dumas — Anecdotes of Dumas — The 
 Westminster Hall competition — Adam a?id Eve, Harold, and the 
 Spirit of fustice — Haydon's commendation — Dyce and the compe- 
 titions — Designs for King Lear — Visit to England — Tudor Lodge 
 — Society there — Silencing of Jerrold — Declining health of Mrs. 
 Madox Brown — The Italian journey — Its influence upon Madox 
 Brown — Letter upon Italian art — Chaucer at the Court of Edward 
 III. — The German Pre-Raphaelites — Cornelius and Overbeck — 
 Return to England, and death of Mrs. Madox Brown. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1840, Madox Brown 
 removed the scene of his studies from Antwerp to 
 Paris, going in company with his friend Casey. It 
 is possible that a generous, if somewhat rash, act of his 
 friend hastened their departure. 
 
 A letter of Madox Brown's sister, written a day 
 or two before that date, chronicles the event 
 which occurred at the funeral of an attached servant 
 of one of their friends. The students attended the 
 ceremony as a mark of respect, and were disgusted to 
 
26 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1840- 
 
 find that the grave-digger and his assistant were seated 
 conversing, with pipes and ale to aid them, on the 
 coffin at the edge of the grave. Casey, who was 
 Irish by descent and slightly hot-headed, without 
 any parley precipitated the offenders into the grave, 
 and in consequence was ' wanted ' by the ecclesiastical 
 police. Whether the affair was compromised, or 
 whether Casey hurried his departure in fear of the 
 consequences, I have not been able to discover ; in 
 any case, Madox Brown followed him to Paris after a 
 short interval. During that time he was painting his 
 first great historical picture, the Execution of Mary 
 Queen of Scots. 
 
 After its completion, towards the end of March, 
 Madox Brown visited England, staying with his uncle 
 Madox at Foots Cray, and his future brother-in-law, 
 Richard, afterwards Sir Richard Bromley, K.C.B., at 
 Meopham, in the county of Kent. Here he painted 
 portraits of all his relations there resident. 
 
 They are mostly quaint little medallions. It is 
 only necessary to cite, in particular, that of his Aunt 
 Madox, a rather hard-favoured lady, whose expression 
 Madox Brown had reproduced with more fidelity than 
 flattery. Another portrait, that of his cousin, Elizabeth 
 Bromley, caused an ensnaring of hearts and the subse- 
 quent early marriage, which took place the same year 
 in Paris. 
 
 During the year his last year's picture, the 
 Giaour s Confession, was exhibited at the Royal 
 
'THE EXECUTION OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS' 
 
 (Painted 1842) 
 
 (From the picture in the possession of Mr. Henry Boddington) 
 
i8 4 5 
 
 PARIS 
 
 27 
 
 Academy, 1 and at this time he entertained some idea 
 of settling in this country and becoming a portrait 
 painter. It was, however, just at this time that the 
 first notions of realistic painting began to disturb his 
 mind, and caused him to feel a desire for further study. 
 According to the prevailing idea at that date, the only 
 city that offered great inducement w r as Paris. Thither, 
 too, he was drawn by his continental sympathies and, 
 to some extent, by the desire to live an plus don 
 marchd. 
 
 The death of his sister Elizabeth had doubled his 
 small income, and to this was to be added a somewhat 
 smaller addition — the dowry of his wife. The joint 
 produce of these three sources was about 250/. a year, 
 a sum upon which it was possible to live very respect- 
 ably in Paris. Mrs. Madox Browm was somewhat 
 older than her husband, and was sufficiently handsome 
 and accomplished to move with some distinction in the 
 society of the better class of English in that city. 
 
 Madox Brown, on the other hand, was not only 
 young in as far as the date of his birth was concerned, 
 but his appearance was so juvenile as to make the 
 clergyman who officiated at his wedding ask with 
 some asperity, ' Where is the bridegroom ? ' 
 
 His penchant was rather towards the easy life of a 
 student than the more constrained one of the drawing- 
 room, to which he had, at all times, an absolute 
 disinclination. 
 
 1 No. 439 in Catalogue. 
 
28 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1840- 
 
 The students with whom, rather from circum- 
 stances of race than artistic congeniality, he was most 
 connected in the eyes of his French friends were, 
 curiously enough, the painters John Cross and Armi- 
 tage. The three were, in fact, known as the ' English 
 triumvirate.' 
 
 His more particular friends were, however, the 
 Belgians Casey, De Grouckel, and James. 
 
 Not finding a congenial master, Madox Brown did 
 not enrol himself among the pupils at any of the 
 ateliers, but spent the greater portion of his time at 
 the Louvre, where he studied ' Rembrandt and the 
 Spanish masters.' 
 
 Of these masters copies by him survive in the 
 possession of members of the family, and in the 
 gallery of Mr. Boddington. These, however, were 
 painted during the years 1841 and 1842. 
 
 Before this time he had conceived the idea of 
 painting pictures in which the real effects of light 
 should be recorded. The immediate outcome of this 
 was the picture of Manfred 011 the Jungfrau, speak- 
 ing of which, in 1865, 1 he says : — 
 
 This work, composed in 1840, when I was nineteen, and painted 
 in Paris, belongs, with the five following examples, to the period of 
 my art studentship in Belgium and Paris. In this instance, how- 
 ever, the picture has been much touched upon as recently as 1 861, so 
 that the original scheme of colour is obliterated, little more than the 
 dramatic sentiment and effect of black and white remaining. Such 
 
 1 Catalogue of the Piccadilly Exhibition. 
 
i8 4 5 
 
 PARIS 
 
 29 
 
 as it is, it was a first, though not very recognisable, attempt at outdoor 
 effect of light. . . . The work is intended for consideration merely 
 on the human and dramatic side, glaciers not having formed part of 
 my scheme of study in those days. 
 
 Another work of the same period, in which the 
 same ' not very recognisable attempt ' at realism of 
 light is made, is also a subject from ' Manfred ' — 
 Manfred in the Chamois Hunter s Hut. 
 
 This, which is a much smaller work, hardly more 
 than a large sketch, has not been retouched to nearly 
 the same extent, and affords a better idea of Madox 
 Brown's work in this stage of his art career. 
 
 That it is not particularly attractive goes without 
 saying — as far as execution goes, it is even more 
 ' painty ' than the works executed the year before 
 under the eye of Wappers. The colours are brighter, 
 and have a more tentative effect. The drawing of 
 Manfred himself is intensely dramatic, but the rest of 
 the picture is very little finished. At this point he 
 would seem, for some reason, to have dropped his 
 Promethean ideas, perhaps owing to the coldness with 
 which Casey and his other student friends received 
 them. It was then that he set to work diligently to 
 copy the Rembrandts at the Louvre. 
 
 The immediate outcome of this course of study 
 
 was the picture of Parisina s Sleep. I quote from 
 
 the 1865 Catalogue : — 
 
 Parisina in her sleep mutters a name which first gives weight 
 and direction to the suspicions already implanted in the mind of her 
 husband, the Prince Azo : 
 
3° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1840- 
 
 ' He plucked his poniard in its sheath, 
 But sheathed it ere the point was bare ; 
 Howe'er unworthy now to breathe, 
 He could not slay a thing so fair . . .' 
 
 This work, painted at Paris in 1842, offers a good example of my 
 early style, it having been only very slightly retouched since. Such 
 as it is, this style, I must observe, is neither Belgian, such as I 
 learned in the school of Baron Wappers, nor that of the Parisian 
 ateliers, the latter I always entertained the greatest aversion for. 
 Cold pedantic drawing and heavy opaque colour are impartially dis- 
 pensed to all in those huge manufactories of artists, from which, 
 however, every now and then a man of feeling or genius surges up 
 and disentangles himself. The style has rather its origin in the 
 Spanish pictures and in Rembrandt. 
 
 The subsequent history of the picture is curious. 
 
 It was rejected at the exhibition of the French 
 Salon in 1843, a polite accompanying- note stating that 
 the subject was too improper for the walls of a French 
 gallery under Louis Philippe, but neither subject nor 
 execution prevented its appearance at the exhibition 
 of the British Institution, when Victoria was Queen in 
 1845. Another design in this style that has survived 
 is that of the Prisoners of Chillon, which, although 
 lighter in its scheme of colouring, presents the same 
 dramatic intensity and power of drawing, and much 
 the same mark of Rembrandtish influence. 
 
 As far as the ' literary ' side of Madox Brown's 
 work of the period is concerned, the influence of 
 Byron is visible enough, and is not to be wondered at. 
 
 The romantic school was then at its height in 
 Paris, and the one modern English poet with whose 
 
i845 
 
 PARIS 
 
 33 
 
 works Madox Brown would either boast of or wish 
 for acquaintance was Lord Byron ; indeed, to a 
 very much later date Byron subjects occupied and 
 filled his mind, to the exclusion perhaps of all poets 
 but Shakespeare and Rossetti. Up to the time of 
 his final settlement in this country, Madox Brown 
 was essentially a foreigner as regards his know- 
 ledge of the arts, and only poets of ' European ' 
 reputation appealed, or were practically accessible, 
 to him. 
 
 In his earlier days ' Till Eulenspiegel ' had been his 
 favourite reading, as it had been that of the student 
 society to which he belonged, otherwise he would 
 appear to have read little more than the historical 
 works from which he drew his subjects. In Paris 
 Dumas was the god of his comrades' worship, and 
 Madox Brown, who, in later days and in his own art, 
 became a stern realist, worshipped Dumas with a 
 perfervid and now nearly incomprehensible worship. 
 This extended in a less degree to Victor Hugo and to 
 the minor Romanticists. 
 
 The students' talk was for ever of Dumas. The 
 myriad wildly impossible tales that have been circu- 
 lated about him found a ready credence in their circle. 
 It was said that Dumas, in order to ' raise the wind,' 
 had sailed off in his yacht to Constantinople, had 
 paraded the bazaars as a great French nobleman, had 
 ordered arsenals of most magnificent gold-inlaid, be- 
 jewelled muskets and yataghans to be sent on board 
 
32 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1840- 
 
 his yacht for inspection. Then, with his cabin full 
 of priceless weapons, he had shipped his anchor, 
 unfurled his sails, and left the harbour at midnight. 
 The plunder fetched enough to keep him forty days in 
 Paris, and the student-world said : ' A very legitimate 
 confiscation from the unspeakable Turk.' 
 
 Again, Dumas, in order to ' raise the wind,' had 
 gone to a certain costumier. ' Pay me a million 
 francs,' he was reported to have said, ' and I will sit 
 in your shop window for an hour.' That said and 
 done, the news spread. All Paris and all student 
 Paris rushed to gaze at Dumas in his capacity of 
 tailor's dummy. 1 
 
 Madox Brown, among the crowd, saw nothing but 
 the backs of a crowd of a thousand souls, and seeing 
 also that the troops were preparing to disperse the 
 crowd, departed as he had come. 
 
 The artist's admiration for Dumas led to no 
 pictorial result ; and, although he was taken to visit 
 the demigod of fiction, he remembered little of the 
 visit. It is possible that the industry called forth by 
 the announcement of the Westminster Hall competi- 
 tions put all other considerations out of his head, just 
 as it set so many to work on cartoons of enormous 
 size. 
 
 The subjects that Madox Brown selected were 
 
 1 It is, of course, scarcely necessary to state that these anecdotes have 
 little or no foundation on fact. They serve their turn well enough as 
 indicant of the type of stories of the te?7ips jadis that remained fixed in 
 Madox Brown's mind. 
 
i845 
 
 PARIS 
 
 33 
 
 those of Adam and Eve, Harold at Hastings, and 
 the Spirit of Justice. Of these, the first in point of 
 execution was the Adam and Eve, which was begun 
 in the winter of 1842 and exhibited in 1844 at West- 
 minster Hall. 1 It met with no success, and the 
 painting was destroyed in the same year ; the cartoon, 
 however, is still to be seen at the Westminster Tech- 
 nical Institute. In the following year the cartoon and 
 painting of Harold at Hastings and the cartoon and 
 water-colour sketch of the Spirit of Justice were 
 exhibited. 
 
 Of the three compositions the Adam and Eve is 
 the simplest in point of literary idea. It is evening ; 
 a mighty wind is blowing the leaves of the garden all 
 
 1 The cartoons are thus described in the Catalogue of the Frescoes : 
 
 1844. No. 7. By Ford Madox Brown, 15 feet by 13 feet. 
 
 ' After the battle, the body of Harold was found and brought to 
 William the Conqueror.' — Hume. 
 
 ' William, on the day of battle, wore round his neck the principal 
 relics of the tubful which he had guilefully caused to be placed beneath 
 the table at which he had forced Harold to swear to aid him in obtaining 
 the crown of England.' — Auguste Thierry. 
 
 No. 8. Coloured sketch of the above (encaustic painting), 4 feet 4 inches 
 by 3 feet 9 inches. 
 
 No. 84. 'And they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden 
 in the cool of the day' (marginal reading, 'in the wind'). Cartoon by 
 Ford Madox Brown, 8 feet 8 inches by 7 feet 7 inches. 
 
 1845. No. 98. 'An abstract representation of Justice,' by Ford 
 Madox Brown. 
 
 The five figures at the top are personifications of Justice, with, on the 
 right, Mercy and Erudition, and on her left, Truth and Wisdom. 
 
 The two groups in the foreground are indicative of power and 
 weakness. An unbefriended widow is seen to appeal to Justice against 
 the oppression of a perverse and powerful Baron, &c. &c. 
 
 No. 99. A coloured sketch of ditto. 
 
 No. 10. A portion of same. 
 
 D 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1840- 
 
 in one direction ; a vivid streak of sunset sky divides 
 the gloom of the foliage, and in the foreground Adam 
 and Eve sit, in attitudes of intense fear, at the foot of 
 the Tree of Knowledge. The feeling of terror sug- 
 gested is almost strong enough to present some of the 
 mysticism of Blake. 
 
 The other two designs are much more complicated. 
 Writing of the Harold, 1 in 1865, Madox Brown 
 says : 
 
 Excessive and exuberant joy is described by the old chronicles as 
 possessing the Norman host after the victory. This is shown 
 variously in the demeanour and expressions of the conquerors. 
 Harold was a more than usually large and athletic man, even among 
 Saxon heroes. Three men bear his body to the victorious Duke. 
 All that are left alive on the scene are Normans — no prisoners were 
 taken. Quarter was neither expected nor given. One ancient 
 knight, somewhat of the Polonius kind, with raised hand, seems to 
 say, k Here indeed was a man. In my young days,' &c. &c. Others 
 seem of the same mind. One of William's attendants, of the waggish 
 sort, catches a silly camp-boy by the fist and exhibits its puny pro- 
 portions alongside of the dead Harold's hand, still with the broken 
 battle-axe in its iron grasp, drawing a grim smile from the conqueror. 
 A fair- haired Norman officer, regardless of the fact that his body is 
 gashed pretty freely with wounds, twists about to get a sight of 
 Harold. The monk, who is dressing his wounds, tired out with 
 much of such work, surlily bids him be quiet. Friends join hands 
 glad to meet again after such a day. A father supports his wounded 
 son. In one corner, embraced in death-grapple, lie the bodies of a 
 Norman and Saxon, one has stabbed the other in the back, while he 
 in turn has bitten his adversary's throat like a dog. 
 
 1 In 1 86 1 the smaller design for the Harold was taken in hand 
 by Madox Brown, colour was added, and the result rechristened 
 ' Wilhelmus Conquistator.' The design remains materially the same. 
 
i845 
 
 PARIS 
 
 35 
 
 Beachy Head, which is just perceptible from the scene of the 
 battle, appears across the bay in the extreme distance. The effect 
 is after sunset. 
 
 The cartoon of the Spirit of Justice represents a 
 widow, whose husband has been murdered by a knight, 
 appealing to the Spirit of Justice, who, blind and seated 
 on high with scales and sword, is surrounded by 
 reverend counsellors. The knightly murderer, in the 
 meanwhile, stands fully armed, and, although sur- 
 rounded by followers, seems to be depressed, as if 
 realising that neither weapons nor power avail him 
 in the presence in which he stands. 
 
 The cartoons quite failed to make any impression 
 on their exhibition, and are not even mentioned in 
 the report of the Royal Commissioners. To ' Grand 
 Style' Haydon, however, they did appeal. In his 
 diary 1 he records : ' Passed the morning in West- 
 minster Hall. The only bit of fresco tit to look at is 
 by Ford Brown. It is a figure of Justice, and is 
 exquisite as far as that figure goes.' The ' Art 
 Journal,' too, singled out the Spirit of Justice for 
 singularly warm praise. 2 
 
 Madox Brown's own remarks upon the compe- 
 
 1 July 3, 1845. 
 
 2 At the Madox Brown sale of 1894 the cartoon of Harold was 
 purchased by the committee of gentlemen who had commissioned 
 Madox Brown to paint for presentation to the nation a replica of his 
 Wycliff o?i Trial. His death intervening before that picture's com- 
 pletion, the remainder of the sum subscribed was devoted to the 
 purchase of the artist's picture of Christ and Peter, and of this and 
 other cartoons for presentation to various Schools of Art. The Harold 
 is in the South London School of Art, Camberwell. 
 
 D 2 
 
3<5 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1840- 
 
 tition are frequently interesting. I quote a passage 
 from one of his lectures, that on ' Style in Art ' : — 
 
 This was (as it was told) how Dyce got his employment from 
 the Government : ' The late Prince Consort, as President of the 
 Royal Commission for Decorating the Houses of Parliament, had 
 made overtures to Cornelius to come over and paint them. Cor- 
 nelius, with that scorn of littleness which is so characteristic of the 
 historic painter abroad, replied : 
 
 ' What need have you of Cornelius to come over to paint your 
 walls when you have got Mr. Dyce ? ' ' Mr. Dyce ! Who was Mr. 
 Dyce ? ' He was found to be master of the Government School of 
 Design at Somerset House. Hopeless of his work attracting the 
 English approbation of the day, he had not even taken part in the 
 competitions then in abeyance. 
 
 Hastily he was bidden to send in a specimen of fresco to the 
 third Westminster Hall Exhibition, in order to legitimatise his 
 employment in the Houses of Parliament. 
 
 Dyce had, at that time, just completed a fresco in the palace of 
 the Archbishop at Lambeth. 
 
 He hastily copied a small portion, just large enough to meet the 
 specified terms of the competition. Competitors were up in arms, 
 and went about with pocket rules. In size, however, they could 
 detect no flaw. In that great hall the small fresco looked in super- 
 ficies, like a pocket-handkerchief, but it was not too small, even by a 
 quarter of an inch. 
 
 It was not so big as a church door, but 1 it was enough,' as 
 Mercutio said. Those who knew what Art was held their peace. 
 Babblers pronounced it quaint — it was a copy of some old work — 
 it was papistical — it was German — it was that most abhorrent 
 thing, Christian Art. How could a bishop have it in his palace ? 
 
 Alas ! now the very name of Christian Art is forgotten. The 
 outcome of all this was the fresco of the baptism of Ethelbert in the 
 House of Lords — that most refined and beautiful of all the frescoes 
 there ; also the frescoes from the ' Mort d' Arthur,' which Dyce began 
 in the Queen's robing-room of the same building. 
 
 These noble works are too much overlooked, and yet these works 
 
i845 
 
 PARIS 
 
 may claim brotherhood with all that is greatest in contemporary art, 
 and descent direct from Raphael's own progeny of masterpieces. 
 
 The only other works of importance that Madox 
 Brown executed in Paris were the outline Sketches for 
 1 6 Designs from King Lear. 
 
 Rough and ostentatiously unfinished as they are, 
 there need be little hesitation in calling them one of 
 the most, if not the most, effective and vigorous series 
 of designs for any of Shakespeare's plays. Attrac- 
 tiveness is, of course, hardly to be expected of them, 
 and would certainly have militated against the reflec- 
 tion of the barbaric spirit in the tragedy, which is their 
 chief merit. 
 
 In the summer of 1844 the Madox Browns left 
 Paris for England, with the intention of determining 
 whether the condition of Mrs. Brown's health would 
 support the climate of this country. For a time they 
 lived with the Bromleys, at Meopham, in Kent, and 
 in consequence we have this record of work done 
 during the stay : — 
 
 Given. — Portrait of Augustus Bromley. 
 Given. — Portrait of Helen Bromley. 
 Given. — Portrait of their horse. 
 
 Madox Brown had his studio at Tudor Lodge, in 
 the neighbourhood of Mornington Crescent, and here 
 he began to make a few acquaintances amongst the 
 denizens of that artist-populated district. This he 
 owed mostly to Charles Lucy, the painter of Crom- 
 wellian subjects, who remained for many years on 
 
3« 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1840- 
 
 terms of the greatest intimacy with him. The almost 
 forgotten John Cross and the late Mr. Armitage he 
 had known in Paris. Tudor Lodge was a nest of 
 studios ; of these, F. Howard had the largest, Earl 
 Compton the next, and Lucy, with whom Madox 
 Brown worked, the next, Sir John Tenniel being next 
 door to them. John Marshall, the surgeon, was also 
 a competitor, and frequented Tudor Lodge. Amongst 
 these artists Madox Brown was considered"' as an 
 authority, ' as he was up in the Belgian school and 
 Wappers,' to quote Mr. Leighton. 
 
 At Tudor Lodge he finished the cartoon of the 
 Spirit of Jtistice, but the period was not one of very 
 great industry. Much of it was spent with Mrs. Madox 
 Brown at Meopham, and it was only when a 
 reawakened sense of his artistic duties galled him 
 that Madox Brown returned to his work in the studio, 
 and even there much of his time was convivially 
 spent. Through the introduction of one of the Tudor 
 Lodge congeries he contracted a certain acquaintance 
 with Douglas Jerrold, the Cruickshanks, and the 
 group of more or less humorous writers and artists 
 who revolved around those two centres. The society 
 was not, however, over-conorenial to Madox Brown. 
 Coming directly as a foreigner into the circle, the 
 constant fire of puns and idiomatic quips rather dazed 
 than amused him. Jerrold, in particular, would seem 
 to have disturbed his equanimity with an inextinguish- 
 ably buoyant flow of talk. 
 
LONDON 
 
 39 
 
 I only remember once having heard him thoroughly extinguished 
 [he was accustomed to say], and that was when he was with myself 
 and someone else — I can't remember who it was — in a sort of low eating- 
 house or beerhouse, or something of the sort. He was in particular 
 spirits, and talking away more brilliantly than ever, so that it was quite 
 impossible for anyone else to get a word in, when, all of a sudden, a 
 drunken woman, who had been asleep with her head on the table, 
 looked up full in his face, in a muzzy, beery sort of way, and said : 
 ' You are a sanguinary fool,' and it so completely flabbergasted Jerrold 
 that he never spoke another word in that place. 
 
 This more or less pleasant life was, however, soon 
 interrupted in its course. The rapidly failing- health 
 of Mrs. Madox Brown made the prospect of wintering 
 in England an almost fatal one, and with that in view 
 Madox Brown, his wife and child, set out for Rome. 
 At that time the advantages of the Riviera and the 
 Maritime Alps were comparatively unknown in 
 England. Rome, Italy, and the warmth of the South 
 were deemed synonymous terms of health for the 
 sufferer from pulmonary diseases. The Eternal City, 
 moreover, held out incomparable attractions to the 
 artist. I have in my possession the passport which 
 Madox Brown took out at the Belgian Legation in 
 London. As far as regards its description of his 
 person, it is somewhat vaguely and inaccurately filled 
 in. The signalement reads as follows : ' M. Ford 
 Madox Brown, ne et domicilii en Angleterre, age de 
 24 ans. Cheveux, chatains ; front, ordinaire ; nez, 
 moyen ; merit on, rond ; visage, ovale ; barbe, blonde ; 
 et taille, 1 m. 71 cm.' 
 
 They left London on August 27, and, travelling 
 
4° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1840- 
 
 in their own carriage by way of Brussels, Aix, the 
 Rhine, Bale, Modena, Bologna, and Florence, reached 
 Rome at the end of the following month. 
 
 In its influence on Madox Brown's art the other- 
 wise uneventful journey was, of course, of the first 
 importance. I quote a letter addressed by him to a 
 friend who asked his advice as to what pictures 
 should have particular attention accorded to them 
 during an Italian tour. Written just twenty years 
 later than the year under consideration, it may be 
 regarded as the crystallisation of the artist's thoughts 
 upon the subject, though the haste with which it is 
 written deprives it of much of the weight that would 
 have otherwise attached to it : — 
 
 To Mr. George Rae. 
 
 January 3, 1865. 
 
 As you say, I fear there is no chance at all of my meeting you in 
 Italy this time, with all this coming on, but wish there was, I should 
 enjoy it much. It is a long time since I was in Italy, and so much so 
 that my memory could scarce be of much use to you in comparison 
 with the many valuable books that have been written of late on the 
 subject. Murray's eternal handbook, the Kugler translation, is still 
 as valuable as ever, and just recently a new history has appeared 
 which is said to be very excellent, it is by two men, an Englishman 
 named Crowe and an Italian whose name I forget, but it is something 
 like Crowe and Cavalcanti, 1 as far as I remember and any bookseller 
 could tell what it meant. I have written to ask if Mr. Rossetti might 
 have any information likely to interest you. 
 
 Venice, no doubt, is the great place for pictures (in one sense), but 
 perhaps you will not have time for that this time, and / have never 
 been there. After a lapse of eighteen (really twenty or nineteen) 
 
 1 Cavalcaselle. 
 
i8 4 5 
 
 ROME 
 
 4i 
 
 years, what remains strongest printed in my mind are the wall-paint- 
 ings of Giotto wherever they are to be found ^-restore^l, the frescoes 
 of Masaccio, in the Brancacci Chapel at Florence ; the Museum at 
 Bale, in Switzerland, where some of the very finest of Holbein's paint- 
 ings are to be seen ; the Last Supper, and other works of Leonardo, 
 at Milan, and also some wonderful heads by his pupil Luini, in which 
 they take great pride there. 
 
 The paintings of Fra Angelico, executed on the walls of his con- 
 vent in Florence ; the admirable pictures of almost every school in 
 the Pitti Palace there; of course the great works of Rafael and Michael 
 Angelo in Rome, and lastly, but not least, all the pictures by Titian 
 that can be seen everywhere. 
 
 The mighty works of Orcagna in the Camposanto at Pisa, almost 
 as early in date as Giotto's, are also well worth going out of your 
 way to see, though I have never myself seen them, except from photos, 
 and now Crowe & Co. assert that they are not by Orcagna, which 
 puts William Rossetti in a rage. 
 
 Almost the first effect of the sight of the over- 
 whelming display of the fruits of Italian religious 
 sentiment and Italian glorification of Italian poets, 
 was a desire to emulate these works, and to produce 
 a masterpiece illustrative of the glories of English 
 sentiment and English poetry. 
 
 Thus arose the conception of the triptych which 
 ultimately took the form of the gigantic picture of 
 Chaucer at the Court of Edward III. This work 
 was to have occupied the central compartment, the 
 lateral ones being filled with portraits of Shakespeare 
 and Byron — the whole forming an apotheosis of 
 English poetry. 
 
 That Madox Brown had in his mind some idea of 
 rivalling Italian works of a similar nature is, I think, 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1840- 
 
 sufficiently proved by the following passage, which I 
 quote in Keu of drawing upon my personal remem- 
 brance of his obiter dicta : — 
 
 The sketch for this picture was painted, and the picture itself 
 commenced, in the year 1845, at Rome. Circumstances, however, 
 which required my immediate return home, caused me to abandon 
 that first beginning. This present work was begun in London in 
 1847, and finished early in 185 1. During this interval, however, 
 the pictures of Wickliff, King Lear, the Infants Repast, Shake- 
 speare, Windermere, and other works not here exhibited, were 
 painted. As the sketch shows, the picture was originally designed as 
 a triptych, figures of other great English poets occupying the wings. 
 But this idea was conceived abroad at a time when I had little 
 opportunity of knowing the march of literary events at home. On 
 my coming to England, I soon found that the illustrious in poetry 
 were not all among the dead, and to avoid what must either have 
 remained incomplete, or have appeared pretentious criticism, I gave 
 up the idea indicated in the side compartments. The picture as it 
 now stands might be termed the First, or, First Fruits, of English 
 Poetry. Chaucer, along with Dante, is one of the only two supremely 
 great mediaeval poets who have come down to us, at least by name. 
 But Chaucer is at the same time as much a perfect English poet — I 
 am almost tempted to say a modern English poet — as any of the pre- 
 sent day. Spelling, and a few of the minor proprieties apart, after a 
 lapse of five hundred years, his delicate sense of naturalistic beauty 
 and his practical turn of thought, quite at variance with the iron 
 grasp of realism, the deep-toned passionate mysticism, and super- 
 sensual grace of the great Italian, comes home to us as naturally as 
 the last volume we hail with delight from the press. 1 
 
 The picture itself, as Madox Brown says, although 
 commenced at Rome, was not finished there. At his 
 setting out he intended to establish himself there 
 for some little time, after the fashion of the more or 
 
 1 From the Catalogue of the Piccadilly Exhibition, 1865. 
 
i8 4 5 
 
 ROME 
 
 43 
 
 less shifting population of artists of all nations that 
 from time immemorial has resided in that city. Cir- 
 cumstances, however, in the shape of a sudden decline 
 in the state of his wife's health intervened, and in 
 May of the next year he returned to England. 
 
 His achievements in art during that time were 
 limited to commencing the Chaucer, and the paint- 
 ing of the portraits of his wife and infant daughter 
 Lucy. Of another picture, called the Seraph 's 
 Watch, which he carried to Rome with him, I have 
 been able to discover little more than that it was a 
 specimen of what he called his foreign or pre-English 
 style. 1 
 
 Thus it will be felt that however important the 
 ultimate result of his Italian voyage might be, the 
 immediate outcome was somewhat meagre. 
 
 An interesting incident during its course was his 
 introduction to the survivors of the German Pre- 
 Raphaelite Brethren. Other than in name, this 
 body had little affinity, elective or spiritual, with the 
 Brethren of whom so much has been heard in this 
 country. Founded in the year 1810 by the German 
 painters Cornelius and Overbeck, its adherents speedily 
 became numerous in Rome, and eventually carried 
 the propaganda of the once famous ' Catholic Art ' into 
 almost every country in which the effects of art move- 
 
 1 I learn from Mr. Holman Hunt, who possesses a copy of the picture 
 executed by U. G. Rossetti, that the principal characteristic of the work 
 was its ' German' balance of composition. 
 
44 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1840- 
 
 ments are felt ; but it may be doubted whether its 
 immediate causes were more essentially artistic than 
 religious. 
 
 In its own way, and for many of the artists who 
 adhered to it, it was the outcome of a spirit of revolt 
 against their national schools ; but in the case of 
 Overbeck it was more emphatically a protest against 
 the prevailing irreligion of the art and artists of the 
 day. For him the painters who painted before 
 Raphael were ascetic religious, whose art, divinely 
 inspired, was given to the decoration of their monastic 
 cells, and the body whom Overbeck and Cornelius 
 gathered round them resolved to conform to monastic 
 customs, hiring a palace for that purpose, and clothing 
 themselves in religious garb — long robes with girdles 
 of rope. For a time they plied their art with the full 
 fervour of Catholic revivalists ; but at the date of 
 Maclox Brown's visit to Rome the Brethren, as such, 
 seemed to have died out. 
 
 His description of a visit to the studios of Over- 
 beck and Cornelius I am enabled, by the courtesy of 
 Mr. Ouilter, to quote. 
 
 From the ' Universal Review' 
 
 May 1888. 
 
 Overbeck I visited first. No introductions were necessary in 
 Rome at that time. I was very young — not, I believe, above two 
 or three-and-twenty. Overbeck was in a small studio with some 
 four or five visitors. He was habited in a black velvet dressing- 
 gown down to the ground, corded round the waist ; on his head a 
 
i8 4 5 
 
 ROME 
 
 45 
 
 velvet cap, furred, which allowed his grey curling locks to stray on 
 his shoulders. He bore exactly the appearance of some figure of the 
 fifteenth century. When he spoke to me it was with the humility of 
 a saint. Being so young at the time I noticed this the more. He 
 had some five or six cartoons on view, all of the same size, about 
 24 inches by 30, all sacred subjects. I noted that where any 
 naked flesh was shown it looked exactly like wooden dolls' or lay- 
 figures'. I heard him explain that he never drew these parts from 
 nature, on the principle of avoiding the sensuous in religious art. 
 In spite of this, nevertheless, the sentiment — as depicted in the 
 faces — was so vivid, so unlike most other art, that one felt a dis- 
 inclination to go away. One could not see enough of it. To-day, 
 more than forty years afterwards, when coming suddenly on one of 
 these designs in a print-shop window, I again experienced the same 
 sensation. Cornelius was different : short, with red hair and keen 
 eyes under. When I called at his studio he was showing his large 
 cartoon of Death on the Pale Horse. As this large canvas was 
 between him and the door I suppose I did not hear his summons to 
 enter, for he came out sharply, and said petulantly, ' Mais, eiitrez 
 done? 
 
 He was explaining his great work to some ladies, with a stick in 
 his hand and an old brown paletot as painting-coat. The studio was 
 a waste, as painting-rooms were in those days, when bric-a-brac, 
 Oriental rugs, or armour were not much thought of. 
 
 He was explaining his picture exactly as a showman would, and I 
 have remembered the lesson since. Some twenty years ago I saw 
 this cartoon again in London, and it produced on me exactly the 
 same effect it did at first. Full of action and strange character, it was 
 everything reverse of that dreadful commonplace into which Art on 
 the Continent seems to be hurrying back. 
 
 But Cornelius was no commonplace being ; with his small fiery 
 eyes and his lump on his cheek, like David's, he was the man of 
 genius, the man of the unexpected emphaticality. 
 
 Cornelius's dressing-gown, of which Madox Brown 
 speaks, was probably a survival of the monastic robe 
 above mentioned. 
 
46 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1840-45 
 
 In the meantime the health of Mrs. Madox Brown 
 began to show more and more signs of a fatal decay, 
 and, as much in accordance with her desire to die in 
 her native land as in any hope of prolonging her life, 
 Madox Brown resolved to return to England by the 
 shortest available route. 
 
 They left Rome on May 9, and, travelling by way 
 of Civita Vecchia, took ship from Leghorn to Mar- 
 seilles. 
 
 In the transit from Leghorn they met with a 
 furious storm, which nearly sent the ship to the bottom 
 and materially delayed their passage. From Mar- 
 seilles they travelled post to Paris, but whilst crossing 
 the Boulevard des Italiens, Mrs. Madox Brown seemed 
 to fall asleep in the carriage, with her head on her 
 husband's shoulder, and, on alighting at their hotel, 
 was found to be dead. Her body was conveyed to 
 England and buried in Highgate Cemetery. 
 
 The blow was a terrible one to Madox Brown. 
 For the remainder of the year he abandoned his work, 
 and I am inclined to ascribe to the effects of the loss 
 the appearance of age and misanthropy which many of 
 his friends considered as characteristic of him at that 
 period and for several years after. 
 
1846-49 
 
 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIPSTONE STREET 
 1 846-1 849 
 
 Unsettled life— Ideas of settling in Paris — Casey — Madox Brown takes 
 up his work again — Moves to Clipstone Street — Chaucer— Wickliffe 
 Reading his Translation of the Bible — It attracts the attention of 
 D. G. Rossetti — Rossetti's letter — Its reception— Rossetti becomes 
 Madox Brown's pupil — His dislike of routine work and defection — 
 Personal relations of the two artists — Rossetti's judgment of Madox 
 Brown's criticisms — Madox Brown's of Rossetti's — W. M. Rossetti's 
 recollections of Madox Brown at that date — The Rossetti family — 
 Madox Brown's friends — Mr. Holman Hunt — Cordelia at the Bed- 
 side of Lear — The Infanfs Repast and smaller works — Portrait of 
 Shakespeare — Madox Brown's earnings up to this date— Madox 
 Brown's second marriage — Mrs. Madox Brown — The Pre-Raphaelite 
 Brotherhood — Madox Brown's connection with it — Madox Brown's 
 view— Mr. Holman Hunt's— Mr. F. G. Stephens's— Mr. W. M. 
 Rossetti — Disagreement of these authorities. 
 
 During the time immediately succeeding his wife's 
 death Madox Brown lived a somewhat unsettled life, 
 moving from the house of his uncle Madox to lodgings 
 which he frequently changed. His work in conse- 
 quence suffered materially. 
 
 It is certain that he still entertained ideas of 
 returning to the Continent. In 1847 Casey, in writing 
 to him, speaks of a journey to Italy as a definite plan, 
 and in 1848 of taking apartments for him in Paris, in 
 
4 8 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1846- 
 
 the Faubourg- Broussel ; but both designs for one 
 reason or another were abandoned. In the meanwhile 
 the little coterie of artists that had drawn his thoughts 
 towards Paris was breaking up. De Grouckel, him- 
 self in Brussels, chronicles the departure of one of 
 the circle to Geneva, and of the death of another, 
 and perhaps the best beloved, James, he writes a 
 pathetic and somewhat minute account. Later, newly 
 formed and more congenial connections tied Madox 
 Brown to his native land. 
 
 In 1846, Madox Brown moved from Meopham to 
 Southend, Southend to Bromley, thence to Cheapside, 
 and it was not until the beginning of 1847 tnat ne 
 settled down in Kensington and began to set earnestly 
 to work. To quote Casey, who thenceforth sinks 
 into the character of a warm friend, outre Manche : — 
 
 Casey to Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 January 1847. 
 
 Je suis enchante de savoir que tu t'occupes, c'est le meilleur 
 remede aux tristes idees — le travail en detruit le mauvais effet et laisse 
 subsider les souvenirs. Allons, mon vieux Fordy, du courage et ne 
 fais pas comme moi ; travaille ferme ; quand je ne suis pas en train 
 de peindre je me suis mis depuis quelques jours a dessiner l'ecorche, 
 pour tachet de ne pas rester sans rien faire — et 9a ne peut que me 
 faire du bien. 
 
 The products of this renewed activity were the 
 cartoon of Oure Ladye of Good Children [ Saturday 
 Night] and a duplicate of the Portrait of Mr. 
 Bamford, the original of which had been the only 
 work of the year 1846. 
 
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1 849 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIP STONE STREET 49 
 
 The Portrait is of interest historically, as being one 
 of the works by which Madox Brown's claim to be con- 
 sidered the Father of Pre-Raphaelitism must stand or 
 fall. It may also be recorded that along with Oure 
 Ladye it was rejected by the Trafalgar Square 
 authorities in 1847. 
 
 Towards the end of the year Madox Brown moved 
 to 2o\ Clipstone Street, where he occupied a studio 
 in a range of stabling, which had been converted to 
 suit this purpose. Hither his household furniture, lay 
 figures, and the like were sent by Casey from Paris, 
 where they had remained. Thus in possession of his 
 impedimenta, he considered himself sufficiently settled 
 in life to recommence more formidable works. The 
 Chaucer at the Court of Edward III. was once more 
 taken in hand, and in addition to it a new picture, 
 Wickliffe Reading his Translation of the Bible to 
 John of Gaunt. It was begun in November of 1847 
 and finished in March, and as such may be said to 
 have been the first of his pictures in his ' English 
 style ' to see completion. 
 
 It is memorable in another way ; for, being ex- 
 hibited in the Free Exhibition 1 it drew from D. G. 
 
 1 This was an exhibition which at different places and under different 
 names fulfilled the somewhat reasonable function of letting wall-spaces to 
 any artist who liked to rent them, admission being nominally free. In 
 this case the exhibition was held at Hyde Park Corner— in the building 
 celebrated as having seen the exhibition of the Chinese junk and of other 
 Chinese works of art. I quote the criticism of the Athenceum on the 
 picture of Wickliffe. Of the few papers that noticed the picture I 
 have selected this one. Its successive notices of Madox Brown's pictures 
 
 E 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1846- 
 
 Rossetti the letter which inaugurated the friendship 
 of the two artists. 
 
 The circumstances of their actual coming together 
 are so well known as to make recapitulation an almost 
 unnecessary task, but for the sake of continuity I pro- 
 pose briefly to state them. 
 
 By permission of Mr. W. M. Rossetti I am 
 enabled to quote the letter which Rossetti addressed 
 to Madox Brown from 50 Charlotte Street, Portland 
 Place. 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 March. 
 
 Sir, — I am a student in the Antique School of the Royal 
 Academy. Since the first time I ever went to an exhibition (which 
 
 show in an interesting way the gradual decline of esteem in which 
 he was held, as, little by little, it was realised that he had identified 
 himself with the P.R.B. 
 
 ' One of the very few works of high excellence of which the collection 
 can boast is Mr. Ford Madox Brown's First Translation of the Bible 
 into English, obviously designed with a view to its execution in fresco. 
 There is so much merit in the whole composition as to excuse in some 
 degree a very badly contrived situation, in which the painter has supposed 
 Wickliffe reading his translation of the Scriptures to his protector John of 
 Gaunt, in the presence of Chaucer and Gower and his retainers. The 
 merits of the picture are, however, much more in the manner than the 
 matter — the painters views, as before said, having been directed to a 
 peculiar mode of execution. His judgment has been shown in having 
 arranged much that can be done in a material where effect is to be 
 attained rather by opposition of colour than strong contrasts of light and 
 shade, or the delicate gradations of half tint. To his intention, realised 
 in figures of half the natural size, we can well predict success, presuming 
 that the artist, in revision of his work, will be induced to make some 
 abatements of punctilious accuracy in the costumes — unfitted to the 
 severity of historical treatment — in certain particulars which are the 
 accidents of a bygone time, and when so much insisted on, subject their 
 author to the imputation of pedantry.' — Athenceum, September 9, 1848. 
 
1 849 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIP STONE STREET 
 
 was several years ago, and when I saw a picture of yours from 
 Byron's 1 Giaour ') I have always listened with avidity if your name 
 happened to be mentioned, and rushed first of all to your number in 
 the Catalogues. The Parisina, the study in the manner of the early 
 masters, Our Lady of Saturday Night, and the glorious works you 
 have exhibited, have successively raised my admiration and kept me 
 standing in the same spot for fabulous lengths of time. The outline 
 from your Abstract of Representation of Justice which appeared in 
 one of the illustrated papers, constitutes, together with an engraving 
 after that great painter Von Hoist, the sole pictorial adornment of my 
 room. And as for the Mary Queen of Scots, if ever I do anything 
 in the art it will certainly be attributable in a great degree to the 
 constant study of that work. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at 
 if, wishing to obtain some knowledge of colour (which I have as yet 
 scarcely attempted), the hope suggests itself that you may probably 
 admit pupils to profit by your invaluable assistance. If, such being 
 the case, you would do me the honour to inform me what your terms 
 would be for six months' instruction, I feel convinced that I should 
 have some chance in the art. 
 
 I remain, Sir, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Gabriel C. Rossetti. 
 
 Madox Brown's reception of the letter was at first 
 uncertain. At that date he had received little — one 
 may say no — appreciation from any quarter. His 
 pictures had experienced persistent rejection at the 
 hands of the Academicians, and the semi-official art 
 critics of the day had as consistently ignored his 
 works ; at the same time the morbidness which not 
 infrequently casts a shadow on the mind of the ignored 
 innovator was in his case accentuated by domestic 
 misfortune, and by brooding amongst unsympathetic 
 surroundings. Thus he was at first inclined to regard 
 the letter, with its effusive and unbridled praise, as the 
 
 E 2 
 
5 2 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1846- 
 
 elaborate impertinence of an Academy student. In 
 rather a dubious frame of mind he set out imme- 
 diately for the address named at the head of the 
 letter, and, sending up his name by the servant 
 who opened the door, he announced his preference 
 for awaiting his unknown correspondent in the hall 
 rather than in a room. There, on descending the 
 stairs, Rossetti found him with the letter open in his 
 hand, and the curt greeting : 
 ' What does this mean ? ' 
 
 His dubiousness of aspect was, however, speedily 
 dispelled by the reception he met with, and a 
 memorable friendship at once began. 
 
 Rossetti immediately entered Madox Brown's 
 studio, but he did not set very seriously to work upon 
 the monotonous routine prescribed for him during 
 his apprenticeship. Rossetti was not formed for 
 a diligent disciple. Madox Brown set him to work 
 upon the delineating of various pieces of still-life 
 and at copying pictures. A drawing by him of 
 medicine-bottles and the like was sold at the Madox 
 Brown sale of 1894, an d his copy of Madox Brown's 
 picture, the Seraph! s Watch, is now in the posses- 
 sion of Mr. Holman Hunt. 
 
 What Madox Brown prescribed for him was just 
 such a routine as his own experience and his own 
 theories had made him consider necessary, and Ros- 
 setti, whose mind was running upon historical pictures, 
 found the work irksome and finally gave it up. 
 
1 849 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIP STONE STREET 
 
 The two artists, however, remained firm friends 
 throughout their lives. Their relations one with 
 another are summed up thus in a note accorded me 
 by Mr. W. M. Rossetti :— 
 
 My brother, and he was not alone among painters in his opinion, 
 considered that Brown was the best of all men with whom to take 
 counsel as to the treatment and details of a picture. Brown's advice 
 in such matters was excellently practical, to the point, and free from 
 crotchets. He saw why something or other was faulty, and what 
 should be done to remedy it ; explained himself fairly and clearly, 
 and was ready to take any amount of friendly pains to set or keep a 
 brother painter in the right way. 
 
 On the other hand, writing after Rossetti's death, 
 Madox Brown says : — 
 
 ' I find now what I was scarcely conscious of 
 before, that I used to paint always with a vague 
 idea of his approbation in the distance.' Their per- 
 sonal relations were singularly intimate, a fact which 
 will appear very evidently in these pages. For the mo- 
 ment I quote Mr. W. M. Rossetti's account of Madox 
 Brown as he appeared to the brothers at that date : — 
 
 Probably I saw him first in our own house, 50 Charlotte Street, 
 Portland Place, but more particularly recollect one or two afternoons 
 when I was present with my brother at Brown's studio in Clipstone 
 Street, in the spring or summer of 1848. On one of these occasions 
 I, for the first time, met Mr. Cave Thomas. Brown spoke French 
 and Italian with great fluency, and something of Flemish, and had 
 more of the tone and associations of a foreign than an English 
 painter ; his English talk, however, was thoroughly native, not inter- 
 larded with foreign words or idioms. . . . His uniform intonation 
 and slow utterance were also a subject of remark, these being the more 
 noticeable as his discourse was full of strong opinions, telling anec- 
 dote, and lively point. He was indeed a very amusing and, when he 
 
54 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1846- 
 
 liked, an excellent talker, having a large range of subject-matter ; he 
 was also a good narrator, and would tell you the story of a novel 
 with great precision and at ample length. 
 
 Fundamentally widely different in character and 
 temperament, Madox Brown and Rossetti found a 
 common ground of attraction in their admiration for 
 all and every branch of art, 1 and their influence, the 
 one on the other, was the cause of the widening of the 
 interests of each. The deeply poetic and impulsive 
 side of Rossetti's character infused into Madox Brown's 
 more philosophic trend of thought a certain savour of 
 its own, whilst Madox Brown's more widely practical 
 sympathies tended to sober some of Rossetti's Bohe- 
 mianism. 
 
 During their thirty years' intimacy there were 
 occasional quarrels, but they were no more than 
 those fallings-out of friends which are the renewing 
 of love. 1 I recollect that my brother once said to 
 me — it may have been in 1855 — " By far the best 
 man that I know — the really good man — is Brown," 
 and I think he would have said much the same to 
 the last hour of his life.' I quote again from W. M. 
 Rossetti. 
 
 Madox Brown's connection with the Rossetti family 
 was characterised by the same unbrokenness of cor- 
 diality. 1 The family consisted of father, mother, two 
 sisters, and (Gabriel's) brother, myself. We all saw 
 
 1 D. G. R., it must be confessed, had no affection for music, to 
 which art, on the other hand, Madox Brown was unshakable in his 
 devotion. 
 
1849 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIPSTONE STREET 
 
 something of Brown from the spring of 1848, and all 
 liked him extremely. His pleasant, open manner, 
 equally manly and quiet, and his generous kindness, 
 looking after Dante's studies, impressed us all/ 
 
 That Madox Brown was equally impressed by the 
 diversely and strikingly gifted members of the family, 
 it is hardly necessary to add. They opened up an 
 entirely new field of ideas and thoughts, and at the 
 same time extended the restricted limits of his acquaint- 
 anceship. 
 
 Apart from the more or less congenial society of 
 relations and connections, this had hitherto consisted 
 of scarcely more than two other life-long friends, who 
 both survive him — Mr. Cave Thomas and Mr. Lowes 
 Dickinson, artists whose names will occur more than 
 once in the ensuing pages. 
 
 Through the medium of Rossetti, Madox Brown 
 became acquainted with the members of the younger 
 school who were to become famous as the Pre- 
 Raphaelite Brethren. The first of these, apart from 
 W. M. Rossetti, with whom he came in contact was 
 Mr. Holman Hunt, who subsequently became almost 
 as warm a friend as Rossetti. 
 
 In the meanwhile — during the winter 1848-49 — 
 Madox Brown was painting his picture of Cordelia 
 at the Bedside of Lear. Of it in 1865 he said that 
 he had always considered it as one of his chief works ; 
 and, although subsequent developments have perhaps 
 diminished its relative consequence, it must still be 
 
56 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1846- 
 
 conceded a place amongst his pictures of primary 
 importance. The moment chosen for portrayal is 
 the awakening scene of Act IV. I quote here, 
 as elsewhere where practicable, Madox Brown's own 
 description of the picture : — 
 
 Once possessed of power, the true character of the elder sisters 
 discloses itself, and Lear, ill-used, aged, and helpless, goes mad. 
 Cordelia, now Queen of France, returns with an army to rescue him. 
 Found wildly' running about the beach at Dover, he is secured, put 
 to sleep with opiates, and the physician, who is about to wake him 
 by means of music, has predicted that his reason will return with 
 consciousness. Cordelia, at the foot of the bed, awaits anxiously the 
 effect of her presence on him, and utters the touching soliloquy 
 beginning — 
 
 4 Had you not been their father, these white flakes 
 Had challenged pity of them.' 
 
 Now would she recall the moment when honesty, stiffened to pride, 
 glued to her lips the soft words of flattery expected by the old man, 
 and perhaps after all his due, from her who was the best beloved of 
 his three. So virtue, too, has its shadowed side, pride — ruining 
 itself and others. Having its origin in the old ballad, Shakespeare's 
 ' King Lear' is Roman-pagan- British nominally j mediaeval by external 
 customs and habits, and again, in a marked degree, savage and 
 remote by the moral side. With a fair excuse it might be treated in 
 Roman-British costume, but then clashing with the mediaeval institu- 
 tions and habits introduced, or as purely mediaeval. But I have 
 rather chosen to be in harmony with the mental characteristics of 
 Shakespeare's work, and have therefore adopted the costume preva- 
 lent in Europe about the sixth century, when paganism was still rife, 
 and deeds were at their darkest. The piece of Bayeux tapestry 
 introduced behind King Lear is strictly an anachronism, but the 
 costume applies in this instance, and the young men gaily riding 
 with hawk and hound contrast pathetically with the stricken old 
 man. The poor fool who got hanged for too well loving his master, 
 looks on with watery eyes. The Duke of Kent, who, though 
 
1 849 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIPS TONE STREET 
 
 banished, disguised himself in order to remain with the king, is seen 
 next the fool, having a wig on to alter his appearance. The physician, 
 with his conjuring book, was magician also in those days. 
 
 Another picture of the same date, executed, indeed, 
 concurrently with the Lear, is the Infant 's Repast, 
 representing a child supping, and an anxiously 'jealous 
 doggie.' As far as subject is concerned it may be 
 called a precursor of the Dog and Child picture of 
 the late Burton Barber and his school, but its treat- 
 ment is of course quite different. 
 
 These two were the important pictures painted 
 during 1849, but the number of smaller works attest 
 the fact that Madox Brown was by no means idle. 
 He executed a duplicate of the Seraph! s Watch, 
 painted portraits of his daughter Lucy and of Thomas 
 Seddon, began the composition with the curious name 
 of Beauty before she became acqtuiinted with the Beast, 
 and painted the View from Shorn Ridgeway as a 
 study for the background of the Chaucer upon which 
 he was still engaged. 
 
 A work of more interest than either of the latter 
 is the portrait of William Shakespeare, ' carefully col - 
 lated from the different known portraits, and more 
 than any other from the bust at Stratford. The pic- 
 ture is the attempt to supply the want of a credible 
 likeness of our national poet, as a historian recasts 
 some tale told long since in many fragments by old 
 chroniclers.' The method pursued in the work was 
 that of selecting those traits in which either the most 
 
58 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1846- 
 
 credibly authentic portraits agreed, or which seemed 
 most probably true to nature. 
 
 A considerable amount of care and foresight were 
 bestowed upon it, both as a collation and as a work 
 of art, and as the latter it is eminently satisfactory. 
 Upon the verisimilitude of the likeness, in the absence 
 of further references than are given or discoverable, 
 it would be over-rash to prefer a judgment. 
 
 This picture, with the journeys its execution en- 
 tailed, occupied the latter portion of the year 1849, and 
 was not finished until January of the year following. 
 
 It had been commissioned for reproduction by the 
 firm of Dickinson Brothers, and the sum of 50/. paid 
 for it was the highest received up to that date by its 
 artist for any work. Indeed, Madox Brown's whole 
 makings until he reached the age of thirty scarcely 
 totalled more than 200/. 
 
 Viewed in this light, his devotion to a new phase 
 of art which he had ample reason for knowing was 
 unpopular, seems none the less praiseworthy. His 
 small private means had been diminished by the 
 costly travelling entailed by his first wife's illness, 
 but a certain dogged determination, superadded to 
 the fervency and fire of the explorer of new regions, 
 upheld him in his perseverance. 
 
 During this year occurred two circumstances of 
 widely divergent, but, personally, almost equally im- 
 portant, natures. I refer to his second marriage, and 
 the rise of the society known as the Pre-Raphaelite 
 
i-8 4 9 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIPSTONE STREET 
 
 Brotherhood. The exact date of the birth of the 
 society is, I believe, uncertain ; Mr. W. M. Rossetti, 
 who, at that time, was the official chronicler of the 
 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, assigns to it September 
 1848 as a natal month. Madox Brown himself set it 
 down as having seen the light during the winter 1848-49. 
 
 To dismiss first, however, the matter calling for 
 the fewest words, I will briefly narrate the circumstances 
 connected with his marriage. During a visit in con- 
 nection with the portrait of Shakespeare to Stratford- 
 on-Avon, he became acquainted and fell in love with a 
 young girl of the name of Emma Hill, then aged only 
 fifteen. She was the daughter of a Herefordshire 
 farmer who, whether owing to the action of the Corn 
 Laws or to less remote circumstances, had so involved 
 his estate, that when suddenly carried off by apoplexy, 
 he left his widow with little more means of subsist- 
 ence than a Chancery suit, which remains to this day 
 unresolved. 
 
 In spite of her lack of means, Mrs. Hill regarded 
 Madox Brown's suit with disfavour, laying almost 
 more stress on the disreputability of his profession 
 than on her daughter's early age or his smallness of 
 fortune. Determination on the daughter's side led 
 to the inevitable harshness and the almost equally 
 inevitable elopement. After a honeymoon spent at 
 Pegwell Bay, Madox Brown settled down with his wife 
 in a tiny house at Hampstead. Here the not very 
 placable Mrs. Hill eventually joined them. 
 
6o 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1846- 
 
 For two or three years Madox Brown kept his 
 marriage a secret from all but his most intimate friends. 
 This was as much owing to the want of female society 
 amongst his friends as to his desire to educate his wife. 
 As may be imagined, her early days spent in a farm- 
 house atmosphere had endowed her with few accom- 
 plishments and very little savoir faire. One of her 
 experiences, however, that of having, while yet in her 
 cradle days, been nursed by a ghost, was probably 
 unique. 
 
 For some years afterwards Madox Brown's over- 
 night letters from his studio at Newman Street to his 
 wife at Hampstead are postscript : ' Your last letter 
 was a great improvement on the one before.' Occa- 
 sionally they contain lectures on the sums found to be 
 owing to the local tradesmen, whom Madox Brown 
 paid on his way to catch the London 'bus. 
 
 These occasional discussions as to the price of 
 fish apart (the purveyor of fish seems to have 
 been a particular offender), Madox Brown's marriage 
 may be said to have been fortunate. Mrs. Madox 
 Brown was personally attractive, and her extreme 
 patience made her an excellent sitter, to both of 
 which claims her numerous portraits in her husband's 
 pictures from Lear and Cordelia to Romeo and Juliet 
 do ample justice. 
 
 Her sweetness of temper enabled her to bear with 
 equanimity Madox Brown's arbitrary dispensations in 
 household matters, though she was not without the spirit 
 
1 849 PRINCIPALLY LN C LLP STONE STREET 61 
 
 necessary to bring" him to his knees when his inter- 
 meddlings passed beyond the bounds of reason into 
 the domains of the lady of the house. As a hostess 
 in later days she was celebrated — perhaps unrivalled. 
 
 Mrs. Madox Brown, 184s. 1 
 
 During the year 1849 Madox Brown's environ- 
 ment at the studio was by no means so tranquil. It 
 was, as I have already said, the year succeeding that 
 
 1 From the original in possession of Mr. Fairfax Murray. 
 
62 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1846- 
 
 which had seen the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite 
 Brethren ; and, although never officially attached to 
 them, his intimate connection with the individual 
 members of the body, and the weight of his consider- 
 ably greater practical experience and several years of 
 seniority, made him, to a certain extent, a prominent 
 figure of the movement. At that date, although his 
 pictures did not display all the qualities that the Pre- 
 Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed to propagandise, 
 his sympathies with the cause and its upholders were 
 of the most lively character. 
 
 At the same time, though then no more than 
 twenty-eight years of age, the buoyancy of the younger 
 men was a thing he had lived through. His years sat 
 perhaps more heavily on him then than they did in later 
 days, a fact to which he repeatedly refers in his letters 
 of twenty to thirty years later. The following pas- 
 sage, written a couple of years later by Mr. Lowes 
 Dickinson, then in Rome, contains a reminiscence of 
 Madox Brown's studio in those days : — 
 
 Lowes Dickinson to Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 ■ • 185 1. 
 
 Think of me when all your dear old faces are met together to 
 canvass the exhibition, when the P.R.B.'s are all talking at once, 
 when you and old Thomas are quietly laughing and smoking, and 
 Lucy at the door, where he has been trying to get home for an hour. 
 
 Before this reaches you, I trust you will have begun to reap the 
 harvest of your fame on the walls of the Academy. Robert writes 
 me word that your work 1 is really 'gorgeous and splendid,' and says 
 
 1 The Chaucer. 
 
1 849 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIPSTONE STREET 63 
 
 that he makes use of such terms advisedly, although at the same 
 time he has not been silent upon any of its shortcomings. As these, 
 however, are comparatively very trifling, and have only resulted from 
 the limited time allowed for your labour, I can quite believe that the 
 picture must tell, as he says, 'as a grand and successful flight of 
 British art.' I cannot grasp your hand with the warmth of delighted 
 friendship, but, believe me, I am very happy and very proud of you, 
 perhaps a little vain at having such a friend. 
 
 Before dismissing the subject of Madox Brown's 
 personal relations with the founders of the cult, I will 
 cite the following passage from the artist's dictation 
 to myself : — 
 
 Somewhere about then— I dare say it was in '48, as you say — 
 Rossetti came to me laughing, or at least more or less joking, about 
 some discovery of Hunt's. It turned out that they were the repro- 
 ductions of Orcagna's frescoes at Pisa — though, by the way, they say 
 they're not by Orcagna now. I told him it was all nonsense to laugh 
 at them, they were the finest things in the world, and he'd far better 
 go and look at them again ; and, of course, he said just what I did 
 after he'd thought about it. 
 
 As to the name Pre-Raphaelite, when they began talking about 
 the early Italian masters, I naturally told them of the German 
 P.R.'s, 1 and either it pleased them or not, I don't know, but they 
 took it. 2 I don't know, for one thing, whether they ever asked me to 
 become a P.R.B. ; I suppose they did ; but I never would have to 
 do with societies — they're bound to end in cliquishness ; besides, I 
 was a good deal older than they were. 
 
 Of course it was Rossetti who kept things going by his talking, or 
 it wouldn't have lasted as long as it did, and really he talked them 
 into founding it. 
 
 1 The name at that time was fairly familiar to the art world. 
 
 2 Madox Brown's letter of May 1851, which will be found under that 
 date, gives a more detailed account of the way in which that name was 
 borne. Cf. also Holman Hunt in the Contemporary. 
 
^>4 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1846- 
 
 The fact that these were the last comprehensible 
 words that the present writer heard Madox Brown 
 utter, whilst adding to their personal interest, may 
 perhaps rather detract from their absolute reliability ; 
 in the main, however, they agree with his representa- 
 tion of the facts at a time when memory was less of a 
 labour to him. 
 
 To Mr. Holman Hunt I am indebted for the 
 following account of the matter, which forms, to a 
 certain extent, the complement of what is set out 
 above : — 
 
 The Pre-Raphaelites, although admiring the genius 
 displayed in the works of Madox Brown, did not ask 
 or desire him to become a member of the P.R. B., 
 although, almost entirely owing to the influence 
 of Rossetti, an invitation was framed but never 
 delivered. Their reasons were: (1) That he was 
 rather too old to sympathise entirely with a movement 
 that was a little boyish in tone ; (2) that although 
 his works showed great dramatic power, they had 
 too much of the grimly grotesque to render him an 
 ally likely to do service with the general public ; 
 and (3) that his works had none of the minute 
 rendering of natural objects that the P. R.'s, as 
 young men, had determined should distinguish their 
 works. 
 
 It is, of course, a difficult matter to be certain as to 
 what were the actual facts of the case, but I am in- 
 clined to agree with Mr. Hunt, that Madox Brown 
 
1849 PRINCIPALLY IN CLIPSTONE STREET 65 
 
 was never asked to become a P.R. B. I do not think 
 that it was until quite lately that Madox Brown was 
 regarded by members of the brotherhood other than 
 the Rossettis as being intimately connected with the 
 movement. In his 1 Holman Hunt — a Memoir,' written 
 in i860, Mr. Stephens, in dealing with the movement, 
 seems to regard Madox Brown as being an outsider. 
 1 The names of men of sterling merit in art in this 
 country at that time were Turner, Mulready, Maclise, 
 Creswick, Egg, Herbert, Dyce, Anthony, and Ford 
 Madox Brown,' &c. On the other hand, in his ' Port- 
 folio ' monograph devoted to Rossetti ( 1 893), that writer 
 says : ' Naturally enough, Brown was solicited to 
 become a brother, but he, chiefly because of a crude 
 principle which for a time was adopted by the other 
 painters, declined to join the body. This principle 
 was to the effect that when a member found a model 
 whose aspect answered his idea of the subject required, 
 that model should be painted exactly, so to say, hair 
 for hair.' 
 
 On the other hand, again, Mr. William Rossetti 
 denies that such a principle was ever insisted upon by 
 the P.R.B., and cites the fact that Millais, in his portrait 
 of Rossetti in Lorenzo and Isabella, represents him as 
 being fair-haired, when, as a matter of fact, his hair was 
 almost absolutely black. Rossetti of course did the 
 same in his portrait of Christina Rossetti as the Virgin 
 Mary. 
 
 Thus, in these later days, the one fact of which 
 
 F 
 
66 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1846-49 
 
 one can be absolutely certain is that Madox Brown 
 was never officially a member of the brotherhood, 
 and that his actual connection with it was regulated 
 by the degree of his intimacies with the various 
 members. 
 
Portrait of Madox Brown at the Age of Twenty-nine 
 (From original in possession of W. M. Rossetti.) 
 
1850-51 
 
 6 7 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 NEWMAN STREET 
 1850-1851 
 
 Work during 1850 — Exhibitions — The policy of decentralisation— Life at 
 the studio— Mr. Arthur Hughes's introduction to Madox Brown — 
 Madox Brown's gloom of mind — Chancer at the Court of Edward 
 III. — Working day and night to finish it — Letters to Mr. Lowes 
 Dickinson about the progress of the picture — And its treatment by 
 R. A.— About other artists — Thomas Seddon — Fenton — Rossetti — 
 His ' perfectly divine ' work — -Holman Hunt — Millais — The Press and 
 the P.R. works — Madox Brown's pronunciation upon them — Mulready, 
 Maclise, and Dyce's commendation — Review of the R.A. Exhibition 
 — 'That animal Hart' — Frank Stone — Goodall — Maclise — Dyce — 
 Eastlake — Landseer, &c. — Madox Brown and the North London 
 School of Drawing — W. B. Scott's account. 
 
 The year 1850 was one of studies. 
 
 Those for Chaucer and for the Black Prince 
 are noticed in Madox Brown's note-book as works 
 of some little importance. The head of the Black 
 Prince makes its reappearance in the pages of Madox 
 Brown's diary for 1856, when it is worked on and sold 
 to ' Old White,' the dealer. 
 
 That of Chaucer, a carefully painted portrait of 
 Rossetti, is more worthy of passing reference as 
 one of the good portraits of the poet-artist of that 
 date. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1850- 
 
 The only other work done during the year was the 
 finishing of the portrait of Shakespeare and of a chalk 
 drawing of Christ, sold to Robert Dickinson for two 
 pounds. The remainder of the time was given to the 
 picture of Chaticer itself, a fact hardly to be wondered 
 at when one considers the enormous size and com- 
 paratively high finish of the work. 
 
 About this time Madox Brown paid more attention 
 to the matter of exhibiting than he had previously done 
 — indeed, between this year and 1865 his appearances 
 at provincial exhibitions were more frequent than at 
 any former or subsequent period. This policy of 
 ' decentralisation ' seems to have been warranted by its 
 results. In Dublin Cordelia and Lear won the atten- 
 tion of McCracken, who subsequently became the 
 first purchaser of Pre-Raphaelite won.s at a time 
 when purchasers of Pre- Raphaelite works extended 
 their patronage to Madox Brown. The same picture 
 was also hung in the exhibition of the North London 
 School of Design, as was the cartoon of Oure Ladye 
 of Good Children. The portrait of his daughter Lucy 
 was exhibited at the ' Exhibition of Sketches,' and 
 the Shakespeare at Messrs. Dickinson's rooms in Old 
 Bond Street. These essays at gaining the public 
 suffrage evoked little or no praise of any sort. 
 
 As regards Madox Brown's life during the year 
 little need be said. His studio was still in Newman 
 Street, and his life tranquil and frugal in the ex- 
 
NEWMAN STREET 
 
 69 
 
 treme. To Mr. Lowes Dickinson's letters from 
 Rome I am again indebted for the following little 
 picture : — 
 
 I shall content myself with saying, while on the subject, that I 
 hope when we do meet again we shall meet as if I had only left the 
 studio yesterday. We will imagine the Chancer yet unfinished, old 
 ' fuss and feathers ' Gough in his wonted place, three mutton chops 
 and nine penn'orth of gin on the stove beside the delicious jar of 
 birdseye (oh, in this true tobacco-loathing country, how my mouth 
 waters at the thought of it), and you, my dear boy — just as you used 
 to be, that is all— I ask for nothing more, and when that day comes, 
 which, please God, it will do shortly, I don't think there will be such 
 another happy man as me in all London town. 
 
 As a contrast, I add the following account of a first 
 visit of another artist, then a very young man. For 
 it I am indebted to the kindness of its narrator, Mr. 
 Arthur Hughes : — 
 
 I shall always remember my first sight of him some forty years 
 ago, in a vast studio he had, behind a house on the right-hand side 
 of Newman Street, a part of which Gabriel Rossetti was using. It 
 was to see Rossetti that I was taken by my friend, Alec Munro, the 
 sculptor, and greatly impressed I was by the mysterious studio all 
 darkened by the great canvas Brown was at work upon of Chaucer 
 at the Court of Edward III. (Rossetti being the model for 
 Chaucer), and which afterwards seemed to till almost the whole side 
 of the middle room of the Royal Academy in Trafalgar Square, and 
 which, to complete in time, Brown worked upon continuously the 
 last three days and nights. However, I was not allowed to see its 
 face on this occasion, but, from its depths, Brown emerged with the 
 impressive and rather severe face he seemed habitually to wear in 
 those days, and which gave place to so entirely different a one in 
 later years. His picture of the Last of England represents exactly 
 
7o LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1850- 
 
 his earlier face, where it looks out at us from the ship's stern 
 disappointed and half resentful. 
 
 On the other hand, I think it would have been very difficult to 
 find a face of happier character, and one more genially benign, than he 
 habitually carried in later life ; and, at the same time, its grand lines 
 and heroic character only seemed to increase with age. 
 
 Mr. W. M. Rossetti, on the other hand, assures 
 me that, as far as his remembrance carries him, he 
 cannot remember any of the appearance either of age 
 or misanthropy that seems to have impressed many 
 people. I should certainly be inclined myself to ascribe 
 to his countenance some very considerable shade of 
 gloom, if some half-dozen photographs, dating from 
 this year onwards to 1862, are to be credited. They 
 all exhibit the same species of frown — one betokening, 
 it is true, almost as much the hard thinker, who is 
 resolving a knotty point, as the hater of all mankind ; 
 but a person who, upon introduction, is received 
 with such a frown might perhaps not stop to 
 analyse it. 
 
 Madox Brown's preoccupation at this date was 
 very considerable, and it needed the conversation of 
 some such intimate friend as W. M. Rossetti to 
 awaken him from thoughts of a gloomy nature. 
 
 From the above letter, and from a foregoing ex- 
 tract, it will be learnt that, however strenuous were 
 Madox Brown's efforts to finish the Chaucer, it was 
 only by working night and day for some days before 
 ' sending-in day ' that he was able to accomplish his 
 task in time for the R.A. exhibition. The complication 
 
'CHAUCER AT THE COURT OF EDWARD III.' 
 
 (Painted 1851) 
 
 (From the picture in the Sydney Municipal Gallery) 
 
NEWMAN STREET 
 
 of the subject was great. It is thus explained by 
 Madox Brown : 1 — 
 
 Chaucer is supposed to be reading these pathetic lines from the 
 1 Legend of Custance ' : — 
 
 • Hire litel child lay weping on hire arm, 
 And kneling pitously to him she said, 
 Pees, litel sone, I wol do thee no harm. 
 With that hire coverchief of hire hed she braid 
 And over his litel eyen she it laid, 
 And in hire arme she lulleth it ful fast, 
 And unto the heven hire eyen up she cast.' 
 
 Edward III. is now old, Philippa being dead ; the Black Prince 
 is supposed to be in his last illness. John of Gaunt, who was 
 Chaucer's patron, is represented in full armour, to indicate that active 
 measures now devolve upon him. Pages holding his shield, &c, wait 
 for him, his horse, likewise, in the yard beneath. Edward the Black 
 Prince, now in his fortieth year, emaciated by sickness, leans on the 
 lap of his wife Joanna, surnamed the Fair Maid of Kent. There 
 had been much opposition to their union, but the Prince ultimately 
 had his own way. 
 
 To the right of the old king is Alice Perrers, a cause of scandal 
 to the Court, such as, repeating itself at intervals in history with 
 remarkable similarity from David downwards, seems to argue that the 
 untimely death of a hero may not be altogether so deplorable an 
 event. 
 
 Seated beneath are various personages suited to the time and 
 place. A troubadour from the South of France, half-jealous, half in 
 awestruck admiration ; a cardinal priest on good terms with the 
 ladies, a jester forgetting his part in rapt attention to the poet. This 
 character, I regret to say, is less mediaeval than Shakespearian. Two 
 dilettante courtiers [are] learnedly criticising, the one in the hood is 
 meant for Gower. Lastly, a youthful squire of the kind described by 
 Chaucer as never sleeping at night, ' more than doth the nightingale,' 
 so much is he always in love. 
 
 Sitting on the ground being common in these days, rushes used 
 
 1 From the Catalogue of the Piccadilly Exhibition, 1865. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1850- 
 
 to be strewn to prevent the gentlemen from spoiling their fine 
 clothes. 
 
 This picture is the first in which I endeavoured to carry out the 
 notion, long before conceived, of treating the light and shade abso- 
 lutely as it exists at any one moment instead of approximately or in 
 generalised style. Sunlight, not too bright, such as is pleasant to sit 
 in out-of-doors, is here depicted. The figures in the spandrils of the 
 arch symbolise the overthrow through Chaucer of the Saxon bard and 
 the Norman troubadour. 
 
 It may be interesting to mention that, besides that 
 of Rossetti, the work contained portraits of several 
 of the painter's circle. The page was Deverell, the 
 'beloved' young P.R. B. ; the troubadour, W. M. 
 Rossetti ; and the jester, John Marshall, the surgeon. 
 
 From a letter of Madox Brown to Mr. Lowes 
 Dickinson in Rome, bearing date March 1, I quote 
 the following details relating to the picture's pro- 
 gress : — 
 
 Ford Madox Brown to Lowes Dickinson. 
 
 My picture begins to assume a finished look ; but, as you may 
 imagine, there is yet an immensity of work to do to it, and only 
 thirty-three days more ! However, I feel more confident of getting 
 it done than I have yet. I have been out this evening to procure 
 divers little articles which still remain to be painted in, and have 
 procured a hood of chain mail from Cross, who returned last night 
 from Devonshire, also some feathers to make a fan, and some cloth 
 of gold. Some flowers, a dog, and some white velvet will complete the 
 nasty list of little things to be run after. The frame is ordered, or 
 rather bought, for it is a chance one of immense value which I got 
 for next to nothing. The draperies are all finished except some 
 bits that I must alter ; the heads are all painted in, and all finished ; 
 the hands are all finished with few exceptions. I find I get on faster 
 and faster as it comes to the close, but I fear much will not be done 
 justice to from over-anxiety to proceed quickly. As you can imagine, 
 
NEWMAN STREET 
 
 73 
 
 I am from day to day more deeply disgusted with all I do, at times 
 cursing and blaspheming, but I suppose it will never be otherwise. 
 
 On May 14 he writes of the picture as hung : — 
 
 Ford Madox Brown to Lowes Dickinson. 
 
 I myself have been pretty well martyrised. They did not hang 
 the frame of my large picture, and they turned out my Shakespear, 
 which you can imagine enraged me not a little. As to the papers, I 
 have had some fine criticisms and some violent abuse. They seem 
 to smell a rat, and begin to know that if not an actual Pre-Raphaelite 
 Brother, I am an aider and abettor of Pre-Raphaelitism, and under 
 that impression they do not seem to know how to act. Many 
 of the papers which abuse Hunt and Millais most violently pass me 
 over in utter contempt, which is hardly to be looked upon as sincere. 
 The ' Times ' seemed to have a great inclination to abuse, but to hesi- 
 tate and give it up. My picture looked well in my studio, but in the 
 Academy it is placed too high and shone all over, which hurt it ; and 
 then I find that our pictures are so totally unlike any of the others, that 
 they lose immensely from that very reason. We ought (to do them 
 justice) to exhibit them quite apart. I have heard that the Acade- 
 micians like my work very much, but, without that knowledge, I 
 could very well believe that they detest it. 
 
 The impetus of this strenuous industry at the be- 
 ginning" of the year does not seem to have slackened 
 throughout the months that succeeded. 
 
 A great deal of the work was, however, mere 
 retouching of studies and sketches for Chaucer and 
 Wickliffe. The fresco specimens of the Spirit of 
 Jitstice were destroyed this year on the artist's re- 
 moval from his studio in Newman Street. The vast 
 Chaucer having departed, there remained no need 
 for a studio of such proportions. The other pictures 
 
74 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1850- 
 
 of the year were the Pretty Baa Lambs and the never 
 finished Take your Son, Sir, which were both painted 
 at Stockwell. 
 
 A work of a different kind is the etching of the 
 
 i 1 :- ;. • ' • 
 
 Study for Head of Chaucer 1 [Portrait of D. G. Rossetti], 1850. 
 
 Parting of Cordelia and her Sisters, from the out- 
 line series designed at Paris in 1844. As an etching 
 it is scarcely a success, its noteworthiness lying in 
 the fact that it was executed for the Pre-Raphaelite 
 
 1 From original in possession of Mr. R. S. Garnett. 
 
NEWMAN STREET 
 
 75 
 
 magazine, the 'Germ.' For that now famous organ he 
 also wrote a paper on the ' Mechanique of a Historical 
 Picture.' 
 
 I shall pass lightly over the personal events of 
 1 85 1, contenting myself with quoting one or two 
 letters addressed by him to Mr. Lowes Dickinson at 
 Rome : — 
 
 Ford Madox Brown to Loives Dickinson. 
 
 March 185 1. 
 
 Poor Seddon has been attacked with a rheumatic fever, which has 
 nearly taken him off. . . . He had just began making a reproduction 
 of my large picture, which I had set him to, as I thought it would be 
 easy for me afterwards to make a fair copy out of it. His sudden 
 illness, taking me away from here, left me quite unhappy, for at first 
 it was very doubtful if he could get over it. I have taken a great 
 affection for the fellow, which I used to show chiefly by abusing him, 
 and his sudden absence . . . made me feel precious lonely for the 
 first half of this month, but I am more used to it. I saw him for the 
 first time last week, he was in bed, but eating. I believe he now 
 has three dinners every day besides lunches. He was lying in a 
 sort of ecstatic contemplation of the reform which he believed the 
 illness will have worked in his future life. Fenton is laboriously 
 employed at the figure of a lady lying on a sofa in Lucy's green 
 quilted petticoat, at one end a table with a vase of flowers, at the 
 other, a table in the distance, with a faint vase and flowers. Rossetti 
 has just thrown up a third picture, and will have nothing [in the 
 Academy], but he has a commission to illustrate Longfellow's poems 
 along with Hunt, which will bring him in some tin. His head and 
 beard grow finer every day, and he has made some designs which are 
 perfectly divine. I mean by that, finer than anything I have ever 
 seen, but paint he will not. He is too idle. You know he lives in 
 Red Lion Square along with Deverell, and purports to keep himself. 
 I had thought for some time there had been some estrangement 
 between Rossetti and his brother, and I asked Deverell, who was 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1850- 
 
 sitting to me this morning. He said no. That he believed they 
 were as good friends as ever, but that he supposed his brother did 
 not call on him oftener than he could help because he was ordered 
 peremptorily to hand over all the cash he had about him. Hunt 
 is painting a very beautiful picture from the Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona. Millais has been slightly ill. He will have three rather 
 small pictures. I have seen two begun — very admirably painted — 
 but I only saw the backgrounds. 
 
 In the meantime the formulation of Pre-Raphaelite 
 principles that had appeared the year before in the 
 luckless ' Germ ' had aroused the anti-innovating forces 
 of the country, and brought down the fulminations of 
 their wrath upon the pictures of the school. 1 
 
 1 At this date Madox Brown was not regarded as a member of the 
 School. I quote from the pages of the Atkenceum — for purposes of future 
 contrast — notices respectively treating of the Chancer and of Pre- 
 Raphaelite works in a body. 
 
 Athenceum, May 24, 185 1. — After referring to the Wickliffe as a 
 work of much pretension, the writer continues concerning the Chancer : 
 ' The composition, built up after the fashion of one of our own most 
 popular artists, contains many passages of great excellence, but there is 
 much inequality in the conception and carrying out of the several 
 characters. These discrepancies are such as to create surprise that they 
 should be the work of the same hand. There is much learning displayed 
 in the picture, but the lore is antiquarian rather than artistic. In pro- 
 ducing this the diligence of the artist is displayed rather than in attending 
 to such pictorial treatment as the picture demanded. If the theme did 
 not supply situation or material for a severe presentment, there was at 
 least enough in it to furnish a romantic if not a poetic combination. 
 There is always great risk with a number of picturesque actors, clothed 
 in variedly shaped and gaily coloured costumes, of their assuming the 
 character of a tableau theatrique. It requires great earnestness of 
 purpose and expression to avoid this. With such a demonstration of 
 resource as Mr. Brown has here made there need be no doubt that, with 
 a sober and discreet management of it, he will at no remote period 
 acquire distinction within the walls in which he has this season broken 
 ground.' 
 
 Ibid., June 7. — ' Of the Pre-Raphaelite Brethren little need now be 
 said, since what has already been said was said in vain. 
 
i8 5 i 
 
 NEWMAN STREET 
 
 77 
 
 As to the pure white ground [Madox Brown writes in May], you 
 had better adopt that at once, as I can assure you you will be forced 
 to do so ultimately, for Hunt and Millais, whose works already kill 
 everything in the exhibition for brilliancy, will in a few years force 
 everyone who will not drop behind them to use their methods. 
 Apropos of these young men, you must be strangely puzzled to know 
 what to think of them if you see many of the English papers on the 
 present exhibition. For the amount of abuse that has been lavished 
 on them has been such as to impart dignity to a name which used to 
 be looked on more as a subject of mirth than anything else. You will 
 remember that with all of us, whatever used to be thought of Rossetti's, 
 Hunt's, and Millais' talents, the words Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 
 or the letters P.R.B., used to be looked upon as the childish or 
 ridiculous part of the business. But now, I can assure you, that 
 I pronounce the words without hesitation as an ordinary term in the 
 every day of art. The term will now remain with them, and, in the 
 course of time, gain a dignity which cannot fail to attach to whatever is 
 connected with what they do. For my own opinion, I think Millais' 
 pictures, as small pictures, more wonderful than any I have yet seen, 
 and Hunt's picture is a truly noble one. This is my sincere opinion, 
 I also know that Mulready, 1 Maclise, and Dyce think most highly 
 of them ; so that, after these opinions, backed by old Linnel, who 
 told Anthony that he thought them the finest pictures in the Academy, 
 I cannot put much reliance on the invectives of Frith and such a 
 lot. As to newspapers, you know how much we value them, but I 
 think I see more than usual spleen in their effusions, and I have 
 
 ' Mr. Charles Collins is this year the most prominent among this band 
 in Convent Thoughts. There is an earnestness in this work worth a 
 thousand hypocrisies which insists on the true rendering of a buckle or 
 a belt while they allow the beauties of the human form to be lost sight of. 
 Mr. Millais exhibits his old perversity in a scene from Tennyson, 
 Mariana, and the Return of the Dove to the Ark. The last is a good 
 thought marred by its art language. The Wood?narts Daughter is of 
 the same bad school, and Mr. Hunt brings up the rearward move by a 
 scene from the Two Gentlemen of Verona? 
 
 1 Mr. Lowes Dickinson informs me that Mulready gave himself some 
 trouble over selling one of Madox Brown's pictures, the Infanfs Repast, 
 I believe. 
 
78 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1850- 
 
 no doubt but that Stone and Hart, and other disgusting muffs of 
 influence, are at the bottom of it. I have just heard from Marshall 
 that Ruskin has written a letter to the ' Times ' in defence of them. 
 He wanted to buy Millais' pictures • you will no doubt see the letter 
 in question in the supplement of the 1 Times ' of yesterday. ... I 
 suppose I must say something about the exhibition, what to look at, 
 what to praise, and what to avoid. There is a picture by that 
 animal Hart, which is very much to be avoided, and I should think 
 quite dangerous to women in a certain state. But Frank Stone is 
 more tolerable than he has been for some years. He and Goodall 
 are evidently making a grand splash for the Associateship. Maclise 
 
 is about the same as usual, very fine, but d d bad. Dyce has a 
 
 picture which would be admirable, but for his misconception of King 
 Lear and fool, which, in some measure, prevents it giving as much 
 pleasure as it might ; however, none but a fool or a critic would 
 dislike the work. Eastlake, P.R.A., is finer than usual, and makes 
 a very fine president in paint. Landseer is much better than 
 usual for those who like him. Linnel is splendid. Herbert so-so. 
 Danby very fine, but not so much as usual. Poole silly, but fine in 
 colour and poetic. Ward very good ; Egg not quite the thing ; Frith 
 beastly. Goodall excessive in all that is low and to the public taste. 
 Horsley very bad, but Cope sublime. Even the Pre-Raphaelite 
 Brothers in ecstasy with him, but, strange to say, his picture is not 
 yet sold, although he only asks 400/. for the triptych. 
 
 The only other subject of this year that calls for 
 particular attention is Madox Brown's connection with 
 the North London School of Design. The story is 
 neatly related in W. B. Scott's memoirs, and it is to 
 be presumed that, at about that time, Scott made the 
 acquaintance of Madox Brown. 
 
 Madox Brown replaced Mr. Cave Thomas as the 
 headmaster of the institution, or, as Scott puts it, ' The 
 unsuccessful F. M. Brown at this time was making a 
 herculean bid for fame and fortune by taking over the 
 
NEWMAN STREET 
 
 79 
 
 headmastership of an institution 1 that was meant to 
 run as an opposition to the Academy schools.' But 
 whether it was really a commercial speculation on the 
 part of Madox Brown, or whether it was a sincere 
 attempt to ' propagandise,' must, I think, remain a 
 problem. Scott, however, is very fond of playing 
 advocatus diaboli. 
 
 In any case, Madox Brown was not very suc- 
 cessful in the attempt. It was one in which the 
 ' Government itself subsequently failed, although it was 
 aided by several such men as I,' as Scott naively 
 puts it. 
 
 The suggestion made by the same gentleman that 
 the small number of shavings in Millais' picture of 
 the Carpenter s Shop was due to the fact that Madox 
 Brown set his class the task of drawing some half- 
 dozen of these articles, is sufficiently traversed by the 
 fact that the former artist (whose own authority I have 
 for making the statement) ' never was a pupil anywhere 
 but at Sass's 2 and the Royal Academy Schools.' 
 
 1 Founded in 1850 by Thomas Seddon and some of his friends, it 
 was meant to serve as a sort of Art Night School. The pupils were 
 plentiful, but did not pay their subscriptions very readily. The exhibition 
 got up in 1850, to which Madox Brown contributed, was intended as a 
 financial help to the institution. — Life of T. Seddon, by J. P. Seddon. 
 
 2 This was the 'drawing academy, 5 kept by F. S. Cary, which Rossetti 
 also attended. 
 
So 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1852- 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 1852-1855 
 
 Christ Washing Peter' s Feet — Portraits contained in it — Other works — ■ 
 Important works begun— The Last of England, Work, and the 
 English Antum?i Afternoon — Sales — Exhibition of the Pretty Baa 
 Lambs and the Christ and Peter at the R.A. — Madox Brown's last 
 appearance on those walls — His reasons — Rudeness to Grant — 
 McCracken's purchases — His enthusiasm — Mutual helpfulness of the 
 Pre-Raphaelite painters — Letter from Mr. Hunt about their plans — 
 Madox Brown's solitary and hardworking habits— Letter to Mr. 
 Dickinson about his own and brother artists' work in hand — The 
 commencement of Work — Rossetti's struggles with chaos — Work 
 done in 1853 — Increased solitariness and misanthropy — Rossetti's 
 chaff — Letters from Mr. Hunt and Seddon — Madox Brown's malady 
 reaches a climax — Takes a holiday in London — Letter to Mrs. Madox 
 Brown about plays, &c. — Work during 1854 — Disastrous sale at 
 Phillips' — Madox Brown's life during the year— Letters from Seddon, 
 in Egypt, about his own and Holman Hunt's work — Hunt's unsparing- 
 ness of models — Similarity in Madox Brown's case — Out-of-door work 
 in cold weather — Work during 1855 — Landscapes— Hendon, &c. — 
 The Last of England finished — Description of the picture — Its 
 success — Excursions into the country round Hendon— Anecdote of 
 Turner. 
 
 One of Madox Brown's most important works — 
 certainly his most important religious picture — was 
 begun in the later months of 185 1 , and occupied the 
 earlier portion of the succeeding year — the picture of 
 
 Christ Washing Peter s Feet. 
 
1855 WORK DURING 1852 81 
 
 Madox Brown's description of it runs as follows :- — 
 
 St. John tells us that Jesus, rising from supper, Maid aside His 
 garments,' perhaps to give more impressiveness to the lesson of 
 humility, ' and took a towel and girded Himself,' poured water into a 
 basin (in the East usually of copper or brass), ' and began to wash 
 the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the toivel whereivtth He was 
 girded.' Then Peter said, ' Lord, dost thou wash my feet?' And 
 again Peter said unto Him, ' Thou shalt never wash my feet.' The 
 purposely assumed humility of Jesus at this moment, and the intense 
 veneration implied in the words of Peter, I have endeavoured to 
 render in this composition. The very simple traditional costume of 
 Jesus and His disciples, which seems, moreover, warranted by modern 
 research, as also the traditional youthfulness of John, curly grey hair 
 of Peter, and red hair of Judas, which I should be loth to disturb 
 without having more than my own notion to give in lieu, I have 
 retained — combined with such truth of surroundings and accessories 
 as I thought most conducive to general truth, always intending, how- 
 ever, in this picture, the documentary and historic to be subordinate 
 to the supernatural and Christianic — wherefore I have retained the 
 nimbus. This, however, everyone who has considered the subject 
 must understand, appeals out from the picture to the beholder— not to 
 the other characters in the picture. Judas Iscariot is represented 
 lacing up his sandals, after his feet have been washed. 
 
 Apart from the intrinsic worth of the picture, it 
 has an historic interest of its own, in that it con- 
 tains portraits of several of the members of the P.R. 
 circle. 
 
 The head of Christ is a literal transcript of that of 
 Mr. F. G. Stephens ; of the Apostles, omitting Judas, 
 the 1st on the left is Mr. W. M. Rossetti ; the 2nd, 
 Mr. Holman Hunt ; the 4th, Mr. Hunt, sen. ; the 
 5th, C. B. Cayley ; the 6th, D. G. Rossetti, and the 
 7th, St. John, is, I believe, Miss Christina Rossetti. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1852- 
 
 Mr. William Rossetti is, however, of opinion that it 
 was Deverell, the P. R., who sat for the head. 
 
 The following remark anent a carping criticism 
 of his words, ' the purposely assumed humility of 
 Jesus,' may have an interest as indicating Madox 
 Brown's method of approaching and analysing a 
 subject: 'Of course His humility was purposely as- 
 sumed to teach a lesson ; because, if He had been in 
 the habit of washing the disciples' feet, or even if they 
 had taken it in turns to do so for each other, Peter 
 would not have been so troubled at the proposition.' 
 
 Apart from the finishing of this picture, the 
 'beginnings' of the year render 1852 epoch-making. 
 These included works of no less importance than the 
 Last of England, Work, and the English Autumn 
 Afternoon. The two former rank as among the finest 
 of Madox Brown's modern-historic period, the last is 
 perhaps his most important landscape. 
 
 The studies for Work and the Last of England 
 occuoied Madox Brown during the middle portion of 
 the year. The pen-and-ink design for the former 
 picture was begun in June, the sketch for the back- 
 ground painted a little later, and, finally, the background 
 of the picture itself was 'painted in the Heath Street, 
 July and August.' Those for the Last of England in- 
 clude the first sketch, the pencil-drawing, a chalk study 
 of the head of Madox Brown, and, finally, the picture 
 itself. As, however, both these works remained for 
 several years in an embryonic stage, I shall reserve 
 
i855 
 
 WORK DURING 1852 
 
 83 
 
 detailed mention of them until the dates of their com- 
 pletion arrive. 
 
 The English Atitumn A fternoon was *' begun from 
 my back window ' in September of the same year, and 
 was very nearly completed before the autumn tints 
 had quite departed. It was completed in the autumns 
 of the succeeding years. I quote Madox Brown's note 
 on the picture, as much for the sake of its amusing dis- 
 cursiveness as for the light thrown on it : — 
 
 This was painted in the autumns of 1852 and 1853, and finished, 
 I think, in 1854. It is a literal transcript of the scenery round 
 London, as looked at from Hampstead. The smoke is seen rising 
 half way above the fantastic shaped, small distant cumuli which 
 accompany particularly fine weather. The upper portion of the sky 
 would be blue, as seen reflected in the youth's hat, the grey mist 
 of autumn only rising a certain height. The time is 3 p.m., when 
 late in October the shadows already lie long, and the sun's rays 
 (coming from behind us in this work) are preternaturally glowing, 
 as in rivalry of the foliage. The figures are peculiarly English — they 
 are hardly lovers — mere boy and girl neighbours and friends. In no 
 other country would they be so allowed out together, save in America, 
 where (if report says true) the young ladies all carry latch-keys ; both 
 of us true inheritors from the Norsemen of Iceland, whose ladies 
 would take horse and ride for three months about the island, without 
 so much as a presumptuous question on their return from the much 
 tolerating husbands of the period. 
 
 Other works of 1852 not calling for more than the 
 mere record are a duplicate of the Pretty Baa Lambs 
 and one of Waiting. 
 
 Another couple of works, Patif s Cray Church 
 and a Chalk Portrait, are merely remarkable for 
 their extremely low prices, 2/. 8^. and 2/. 2s. 
 
 g 2 
 
8 4 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1852- 
 
 Financially, the year was the most successful 
 Maclox Brown had hitherto experienced. His picture 
 of Wickliffe, exhibited the year before at Dublin, 
 had attracted the attention of McCracken, who pur- 
 chased the sketch for the picture in October for 
 10/. 1 a?., and later in the same year the picture itself 
 for 63/., 'and a Dighton, which I sold for 8/. \os! 
 
 The soundness of Madox Brown's policy of provin- 
 cial exhibition of his pictures was further exemplified by 
 the purchase for 5/. of the sketch for the Infant s Repast, 
 which was exhibited at Bristol, and there purchased by 
 an entire stranger, Mr. Edward Stanley, in November ; 
 thus raising the total for the year to 91/. The same 
 year saw the exhibition at the Academy of the Christ 
 and Peter, and the Pretty Baa Lambs. The skying 
 of the pictures and the reception accorded them by 
 the semi-official press proved so exasperating to Madox 
 Brown as to bring about not only the scene with 
 Grant, but the decision never to exhibit again at the 
 Royal Academy. 
 
 The Pretty Baa Lambs, a picture that becomes 
 hopelessly enigmatic as soon as one attempts to 
 read a meaning into it, was singled out for quite a 
 number of animadversions. It was called ' Catholic 
 Art' — it was called blasphemous, whereas it was 
 merely a study of light and heat. As a matter of fact, 
 the picture was not singularly attractive, and at the 
 time found no admirers. Even the ' Spectator,' which 
 at that time was the Pre-Raphaelite organ, found 
 
THE ROYAL ACADEMY 
 
 8S 
 
 sufficient fault with it. The Christ and Peter it ex- 
 tolled as a great work, but its voice was the vox 
 clamantis in a howling ^desert of dispraise. The fact 
 that Madox Brown was one of the Iconoclasts was 
 now sufficiently evident on the faces of his canvases ; 
 there seemed to be no chance of his returning to 
 the flock of Academic lambs. There was also the 
 rudeness to Grant, which was to be paid back by the 
 critical hangers-on of the Academy. 1 The papers 
 which now began to temper the wind of their wrath 
 against the P.R.'s themselves did nothing of the sort 
 for the blast which overwhelmed the shorn scape- 
 goat, Madox Brown. 
 
 1 I once more quote from the Athenceum, whose accredited critic was 
 Frank Stone, A.R.A., one of the most virulent enemies of the movement. 
 The contrast between this notice and that devoted to the Chancer of 
 the previous year is sufficiently startling to afford amusement. 
 
 ' No. 463, by Mr. Ford Madox Brown, is more ambitious. This artist 
 appears to have studied at Valencia, where mulberries are plentiful as 
 blackberries, and he has closely observed the works of Joannes, where 
 purple tones are so predominant. In this picture it pervades everything 
 — the habit, the naked limbs of the Saviour, and the dress of St. Peter, 
 who either feels himself unworthy of the honour done him by his Master, 
 or by his feet's action makes us feel the water to be too hot. Certainly 
 the copper utensil which contains it seems filled with either blood or 
 raspberries undergoing the jam process. The Apostles seated at the 
 table appear to take no interest in the lavation— appearing rather bored 
 — so much has the artist rejected the conventional attitudes usual on this 
 occasion.' — Athenceum, May 22, 1852. 
 
 With regard to the rudeness to Grant — a fact vouched for to me by 
 several eyewitnesses, including Mr. Holman Hunt — it resolves itself into 
 Madox Brown's refusing to receive the congratulations of the future 
 President. The Christ and Peter was hung next the ceiling, and when 
 Grant came to offer his congratulations, Madox Brown, whose eye had 
 only just fallen on his own picture, turned his back in speechless indig- 
 nation and walked out of the building. 
 
86 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1852- 
 
 In the end it came about that Madox Brown sent 
 no more pictures to the Academy, and saw Academic 
 hands in every misfortune or cfyeck that he experienced 
 throughout the rest of his life. 
 
 Madox Brown's patron, McCracken, seems to 
 have been the only person who was entirely satisfied 
 with the turn events had taken. His letters were 
 at this date both frequent and enthusiastic. In 
 May he writes congratulating him upon the fact 
 that his picture of Christ and Peter is the pic- 
 ture of the year, and enclosing an elaborate ' tribute 
 to your genius from an intelligent gentleman, a Mr. 
 Winstanley' ; in June chronicles the admiration excited 
 in his own household by Madox Brown's works, and 
 so forth. What is, perhaps, more material, he sup- 
 ported the nascent movement to the full extent that 
 his not too well filled purse allowed, purchasing in 
 the same year Hunt's Two Gentlemen of Verona, 
 Millais' Hitg2ienots, and Madox Brown's Wickliffe, 
 and commissioning Rossetti's Annunciation. In this 
 latter purchase he was guided by the advice of Madox 
 Brown, who was cordially backed up by Mr. Holman 
 Hunt. 
 
 This hearty enthusiasm for each other's works 
 was an unvarying and pleasant characteristic of the 
 artists connected with the movement. "In the mean- 
 time they met frequently to discuss plans for the 
 future. Of these, one of the most important was 
 
i855 
 
 P.R. MEETINGS 
 
 87 
 
 that of the foundation of an Exhibiting Society that 
 should rival the Royal Academy. 
 
 In the latter part of the year Mr. Hunt writes 
 from Hastings : — 
 
 In a few days I hope to return (before the commencement of next 
 week), but as I may not be able to get to Hampstead for a day or 
 two after that, and fearing that by then you may have resolved not 
 to attend the meeting at my place, I write to endeavour to influence 
 you while you are still undecided. This preamble would lead one to 
 think that the question to be considered were one of the greatest 
 national importance, and William Rossetti's and Millais' letters lead me 
 to think that the intention in desiring your presence has been mis- 
 understood, so I must explain that it is not for the consideration of 
 the better means of defending the English coast, but simply to the end 
 that we may have tea, toast, and talk together. It is true that I wish 
 the talk to be on a particular subject, but not if you and the others 
 think it unnecessary. My notion is that, long before you, Gabriel, and 
 I are elected associates of the highly honoured and esteemed Royal 
 Academy, it will be necessary for us to consider whether we prefer 
 having our pictures hung out of sight in that institution or taking 
 measures for their better exhibition elsewhere. If you think with me, 
 then it seems to be desirable that the expediency of exhibiting to- 
 gether or apart be decided before I leave England, as my directions 
 to Mr. Combe, who will manage my business for me, must be regulated 
 by the intentions of yourself, Gabriel, and Millais. 
 
 The meeting does not seem to have produced 
 any very definite result ; for, ten days later, Rossetti, 
 in sending to Madox Brown an invitation to meet 
 Hunt, Millais, Stephens, Deverell, the Seddons, Collins, 
 and perhaps David Hannay, refers to the invita- 
 tion as not given ' with any view to exhibition pro- 
 jects, which are likely to result, I believe, in our exhibit- 
 
88 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1852- 
 
 ing nothing but our usual inconsistency.' At that date 
 meetings of the Brethren and their allies were of 
 almost daily occurrence, but to judge from the not 
 infrequent upbraidings contained in Rossetti's letters, 
 Madox Brown's attendance at these meetings was very 
 irregular. 
 
 In July he had taken lodgings in Hampstead 
 with the view of painting the background of Work. 
 This he did, working assiduously in Heath Street, 
 a proceeding which excited the admiration and 
 astonishment of idle passers-by. The weather was 
 by no means propitious, but on very rainy days 
 he worked in an unhorsed four-wheeled cab. The 
 elements, in fact, do not seem to have been at all 
 favourably inclined towards the new school. Seddon 
 writes from Dinan, complaining that the tempests have 
 interrupted his work and driven him back to Paris. 
 Incidentally he records a visit to Casey's studio, where 
 the artist is discovered engaged upon the sketch of a 
 huge cohue a la Rubens. It represented ' the Madness 
 of the Nations from the " Revelation " ; a crowd 
 below hurling down the crucifix and kings, and the 
 Angel of Peace, who has a dim resemblance to Louis 
 Napoleon, riding on the clouds with a regular host 
 of white angelic beings to re-establish Pordre! A 
 curious reminder that, corning to Madox Brown, who 
 was then engaged upon a picture that exhausted 
 eleven years in its painting ; but it is to be doubted 
 whether Casey's Triumph of Slosh brought more 
 
A SUMMARY 
 
 89 
 
 fame or fortune to its painter than did Madox Brown's 
 Apotheosis of Labour. Seddon's letters are full of 
 predictions of the triumph of the new school, but in 
 these hopes Madox Brown would not seem to have 
 shared. He had almost entirely withdrawn himself 
 from all society, and was dedicating his entire energies 
 to work. To this he was driven by the necessity for 
 economy. Hitherto his life had been sufficiently easy, 
 but the contingency of the exhaustion of his private 
 means was now by no means so remote as to be a 
 pleasant subject of contemplation, and family burdens 
 were beginning to increase. 
 
 Another, and this the last, of Madox Brown's 
 letters to Mr. Lowes Dickinson at Rome, summarises 
 the position from his own point of view : — 
 
 Ford Madox Brown to Mr, Lowes Dickinson. 
 
 October 17. 
 
 I have not been doing much good for myself or anyone else that 
 I can make out since my last report of proceedings here, and yet I 
 have been almost incessantly engaged, so that, between the two, I 
 do not feel in the best of dispositions towards things human or 
 inanimate, but, if anything, dull, and crabbed, and stupid. Which 
 phase in one's psychology does not constitute the fittest for penning 
 engaging and witty epistles as I should wish, and feel it my duty, to 
 send you after so long a delay. Accordingly, of late, my letters 
 (when forced to write at all) have been confined to the summary 
 style of news or disconnected rigmarole of such information as would 
 present itself to the endeavouring ideas after much scratching of the 
 head. I feel that, in the present case, I have been doing something 
 more (as the case requires) as well from conscious demerits on my 
 side as from the great reputation, as a letter writer, of the party 
 written to. Yet, having showed good will by writing so far, I feel I 
 
go 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAI) OX BROWN 1852- 
 
 must now give up the facetious for fear of the efforts to maintain it 
 becoming too apparently pathetic. And so I content myself with 
 the usual summing-up of follies. I have done so and so, such a one 
 has done such and such ; such another is an ass ; such another has 
 got so many commissions and has been so much abused. It might 
 be all written down in a list and the names added — for instance : — 
 
 F. Madox Brown, pictures painted and not sold 
 
 3 
 
 Lucy 
 
 55 
 
 2 
 
 Rossetti „ ,, 
 
 55 
 
 
 
 Seddon „ „ 
 
 >' 
 
 i 
 
 Millais, pictures painted and sold . 
 
 
 2 
 
 Hunt 
 
 
 1 
 
 Thomas ,, ,, ,, 
 
 
 1 
 
 Madox Brown commenced and 
 
 put by* . . .2 Got commissions . . o 
 
 Hunt 3 Hunt . . . .3 
 
 Millais . . . . .2 Millais, without end 
 
 Rossetti (* the put by is for Ros- 
 setti) .... 6 Seddon . . . .2 
 
 Lucy . . . . .0 Lucy . . 2 
 
 Got abused in the papers. . . . Everyone, including Millais and 
 Rossetti, although the latter very unjustly, seeing that he had done 
 nothing to merit it. 
 
 Got appointments — Ford Madox Brown to the Headmastership 
 of the North London School of Drawing and Modelling, vice Cave 
 Thomas, resigned in despair of ever getting his salary. . . . 
 
 With myself, the greatest change that has taken place is a removal 
 from Newman Street to Hampstead, where I now reside, and am 
 writing in a state of seclusion quite imperial, only to be equalled by 
 that of the captain of a man-of-war. Since, I have painted a little 
 picture 1 of a child asleep on its mother's knees, she working by fire 
 and lamp light. I sent two pictures to the Academy with perfect 
 unsuccess, unless of abuse. I have worked about two months at the 
 background of a picture 2 put by for next year — a twenty figure affair. 
 
 1 Waiting. 
 
 2 Work. 
 
EMIGRATION 
 
 This I painted in Heath Street here (it being 6^ feet long) on 
 a truck fitted up by myself for the occasion, to the astonish- 
 ment of all well-regulated people. But this trial, the greatest I have 
 hitherto faced, is over, and the event but to be chronicled among 
 other heroisms for the admiration of such as have the bump of 
 veneration on the top of their heads, and natures not altogether 
 owlish or vulpine. The Hampstead police I can affirm to be not 
 altogether wanting in veneration, while, on the other hand, ' wonder ' 
 appeared developed in the little boys to the extent of wondering ' if 
 he stopped there all night,' and 'how he got his victuals.' (Fact.) 
 
 Enough now of my own struggles with chaos and the devil : let 
 us turn to D. G. Rossetti and heroic acts, and whose struggles with 
 chaos, at any rate, may be said to be perpetual (seeing that his 
 room is still the same chaos as wont, from which he is, without 
 intermission, seeking to separate some blacklead pencil or penknife), 
 whatever remission his conflict with the devil may undergo. I am 
 sorry to say that, out of three or four pictures begun, he has not 
 finished any, but he has painted and sold three or four lovely 
 Dantesque water-colour drawings and written some lovely verses. 
 
 The Royal Commission has been nibbling at Cave Thomas and 
 O'Neill, also at some others, after insulting some half-dozen men all 
 much admired by themselves. 
 
 Hunt is getting on very well, and, I think, soon going to the East. 
 Woolner, alas ! is gone to the gold diggings, hoping to amass millions 
 to carry on his art. Hannay has made great progress in station and 
 employment, being now constantly employed for all the best peri- 
 odical papers. Anthony has been very successful indeed, and now is 
 in Ireland. 
 
 » 
 
 The immediate result of Madox Brown's having 
 accompanied Woolner as far as Gravesend was the 
 conception of the picture of the Last of England, 
 and during the two years that followed a feeling of 
 regret that he had not accompanied him still further 
 to the Eldorado of the whole nation, crossed his mind 
 frequently. His attempts to stave off these gloomy 
 
92 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN .1852- 
 
 thoughts by hard work did little more than increase 
 the disorder, and in the end the gloominess of mind 
 reacted upon his work. 
 
 One design for a picture that subsequently became 
 of importance apart, the year's work was limited to 
 the touching-up of studies, and even of these the num- 
 ber was somewhat meagre. 1 A somewhat curious 
 essay that he made in the latter part of the year was 
 the Lithograph drawn from the Original Study for 
 Windermere. Chromo-lithography 2 was at that date 
 by no means the vulgarised commercial process it 
 subsequently became, and at every stage of his career 
 Madox Brown took a lively, almost naive, interest 
 in the various improvements and refinements in me- 
 chanical reproductive processes. The present one 
 would not seem to have afforded him much satisfac- 
 tion. Of it only five copies were printed, and then 
 the stone was rubbed out. Subsequently four of the 
 lithographs were destroyed, the remaining one, after 
 having been coloured in body colour, being presented 
 some years subsequently to John Marshall, the sur- 
 geon. The rest of the year, was occupied with work 
 upon the picture of the Last of England, and upon 
 the study of St. Ives, which was afterwards known 
 as Cromwell on his Farm. Outside the studio things 
 seemed no more propitious. The duplicate of Wait- 
 
 1 See Appendix (list of works). 
 
 2 One of our art-papers which has undertaken the revival of litho- 
 graphy has invented the more pleasant sounding name of £ auto-litho- 
 graphy ' for the lithographs executed by the artist himself. 
 
SOLITUDE 
 
 93 
 
 ing, exhibited at the Royal Academy, attracted no 
 attention, and the year's sales were smaller than ever. 
 McCracken alone remained a faithful purchaser to 
 the extent of ■ 10/. and a Danby.' 
 
 In the meantime Madox Brown's methods of 
 living became still more solitary. Rossetti advises 
 him, if he wishes to pursue his present habits, ' to 
 get off Edgar's part in " King Lear," and when any 
 one addresses you, answer " Fe, fi, fo, fum," which 
 would be a quicker method of getting rid of every- 
 one's society.' It was at this time that he set to work 
 to write a ' Hogarthian sonnet sequence.' ' They 
 have great excellencies,' Rossetti writes, 'but they 
 also present a few obscurities, to which Browning 
 would serve as a text-book only.' 
 
 From distant climes came letters from Mr. Holman 
 Hunt, who was in Palestine ; from Woolner, in the 
 goldfields ; or from Seddon, who was in Paris with 
 ' Wappers, grown fat and unpoetical to a degree ; ' 
 and Casey, ' marvellously blooming,' and other friends 
 of Madox Brown's youth. Such letters filled Madox 
 Brown with an ungratifiable desire to travel himself, 
 perhaps to Damascus, 'a pile of luxury and delight, 
 fountain, and courtyards, and cheap servants,' that 
 Mr. Hunt wrote of. 
 
 The few friends who had time to ' get up to 
 Hampstead,' a locality more difficult of attainment 
 then than to-day, Madox Brown contrived, either 
 accidentally or of set purpose, to miss. ' You seem 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1852- 
 
 to have got quite out of reach — " pinnacled dim in the 
 intense inane," as Shelley has it,' Rossetti writes to 
 him in November. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to recover any trace 
 of the thoughts that arose in Madox Brown's mind 
 during this period of gloom. He refers to it now and 
 then in his later correspondence ; compares it, indeed, 
 to the time of religious depression in the life of Oliver 
 Cromwell that he depicted in the picture of Cromwell 
 on his Farm. During the period he must have men- 
 tally evolved the ' literary ideas ' of that picture, of 
 the Last of England, and of Work, which last alone 
 is a monumental effort in the direction of the display- 
 ing of its own philosophy. 
 
 Thus the products of this time, whether we con- 
 sider it as one of Sturm una 1 Drang, or of ' temptation 
 of the spirit,' such as Bunyan suffered, may be con- 
 sidered to justify themselves. The spectacle of a man 
 holding himself apart from his fellows, and steeping 
 himself in Carlyle and gloom, is, however, one capable 
 of being burlesqued ; the mood had, perhaps, its self- 
 conscious side, and as such it must have appeared to 
 Madox Brown's deserted companions a fit subject for 
 the squibs of Rossetti in his buoyant moods. 
 
 Thus we have Rossetti's letter of November 25, 
 with its suggestion of ' the intense inane.' 
 
 Some days before it was written, however, Madox 
 Brown had gone to town to consult John Marshall 
 concerning sundry hypochondriacal symptoms which 
 
MELANCHOLIA 
 
 95 
 
 troubled his mind. On the 19th we have him writing 
 to his wife that that distinguished surgeon had dia- 
 gnosed his case as one of mere melancholia, having 
 no connection with any of the mysterious brain or 
 internal maladies that Madox Brown's imagination 
 had conjured up. 
 
 Marshall prescribed an absolute change of scene, 
 and for some weeks after that Madox Brown led a 
 nomadic life, writing to his wife from Hendon, High- 
 gate, or Blackfriars, where Rossetti then had his rooms. 
 
 The letters are full of details of inns and waiters 
 and late 'buses missed, and the like minor mishaps. 
 Another edict of the physician enjoined frequent 
 visits to the play. 
 
 Mr. to Mrs. Madox Brown. 
 
 Seddon wants to know if he shall bring you home from Egypt a 
 black boy and buttons, and begs to be kindly remembered. He 
 saw Casey, whom [sic] he tells me was looking remarkably well and 
 prosperous. He gave him my address, as he wished to write to me. 
 At the Lyceum the other night I saw the piece mentioned in the 
 ' Times ' as the ' Bachelor of Arts,' but found it very common. 
 
 The other piece of Tom Taylor's, 'A Nice Firm,' about two 
 lawyers and their blunders, was very good indeed ; but I think 
 Charles Mathews is getting worn out, and does not play with the 
 verve he used to. 
 
 Wright played in two broad farces, and was capital, and, al- 
 though I was in no laughing mood, made me laugh outright ; but 
 he is intensely vulgar, and, next to Keeley, the best of the mimic 
 actors I know. He played in one piece in which he has a jealous 
 wife, and his efforts to avoid giving her suspicion are most ludicrous 
 and absurd, and, of course, operate against himself. 
 
 He dresses himself in most frightful fashion, and takes his best 
 
96 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1852- 
 
 clothes out with him in his lawyer's blue bag, and, of course, his wife 
 gets it and shakes the parcel out of it. Then when any of the 
 servants come in he makes signs to them if they say anything which 
 he thinks liable to misconstruction. Of course his wife asks what 
 they are making signs for. Then he bullies the fellow, and asks him 
 what the meaning of his muttering is. 
 
 ' Speak out,' he says, 1 and don't stand muttering there.' Alto- 
 gether he made the house roar with laughter. 
 
 Pray, dearest, write and let me know how Kate is, and be as 
 loving as your last letter. 
 
 I am yours entirely, dearest Emma, 
 
 Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 Let me know if you had the two sovereigns and the silk safe. 
 
 It was not until the year was almost at its end 
 that Madox Brown returned home. The change had 
 not perhaps effected an absolute cure. Some of the 
 sunshine of material prosperity was needed to drive 
 away his gloomy thoughts. A certain tendency to 
 exaggerated, almost incomprehensible, suspiciousness, 
 that hardly ever deserted him, would seem to have 
 been a legacy from that period of his life. But abso- 
 lute ' melancholia ' in its technically medical sense 
 was a thing thenceforth unknown to him. Although 
 never without a tendency to gloomy foreboding, he 
 seems afterwards to have allayed it with a strain of 
 pococurantism.' 
 
 1854 was another year of touchings-up and re- 
 paintings. The picture of Work was laid aside, that 
 of the Last of England only worked at with that 
 half-heartedness that the want of a commissioning 
 purchaser sometimes engendered. Considering the 
 
WORK DURING 1854 
 
 97 
 
 strikingly small recognition that had been, and was 
 for some years to be, accorded to him, Madox 
 Brown's output of work betokens wonderful perse- 
 verance. Although gigantic canvases like that of the 
 Chaucer no longer filled his studio, the labour neces- 
 sary for completing even the comparatively small 
 one of the Last of England should not be under-esti- 
 mated. But at this date a great f deal of the energy 
 that had carried him through such enormous works as 
 the cartoons was expended. 
 
 One circumstance in connection with the delay 
 in the completion of the Last of England should 
 not be overlooked. It needed certain atmospheric 
 effects ; it had to be ' painted out of doors in grey, 
 cold days,' and during a number of grey days rain 
 would prevent painting altogether, and during others 
 the right degree of coldness or of cloudiness was not 
 present. 
 
 A great deal of the year was given to preparing 
 work for a disastrous sale by auction which took 
 place at Phillips' in July. 
 
 At this sale the picture of the English Autumn 
 Afternoon, which had occupied three successive 
 autumns in the painting, was knocked down for nine 
 guineas. As regards the Cordelia at the Bedside of 
 Lear, the artist's note runs : ' Four months' work on 
 it at Finchley in 1854. Sold by auction at Phillips' 
 for 15/. to J. P. Seddon. Had back in exchange for 
 St. Ives and Windermere' 
 
 H 
 
98 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1852- 
 
 The year saw the finishing of the English Fire- 
 side, of the cartoon of Beauty, begun in 1849, and 
 of considerable alterations to the Windermere, as 
 well as of first sketches for the Last of England and 
 the Parting of Cordelia from her Sisters. The latter 
 picture was destined to be unpainted. The design 
 is identical with that of the etching in the ' Germ.' 
 
 At the Paris International Exhibition, of which 
 Seddon had spoken in a letter of the preceding year, 
 Madox Brown was represented by the Chaucer and 
 the English Fireside, but their exhibition led to no 
 results of any importance. 
 
 During the early days of February the Madox 
 Browns moved from Hampstead to Grove Villas, in 
 Finchley, but the change does not seem to have 
 further benefited his spirits, and his circle remained 
 as circumscribed as it before had been. 
 
 In May Rossetti writes, again upbraiding Madox 
 
 Brown for his gloom of mind : — 
 
 She sends her kind regards to you, and Emma, and Katey, both 
 of whom I hope are all right, as well as what is left of you. But the 
 intensely misanthropical state in which I found you last leads me to 
 suspect that you may have been abolished by a general vote of your 
 species. If so, I drop a tear to your memory, though your faults 
 were many, your virtues few. I find I am still (trying to be) 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 D. G. R. 
 
 And again : — 
 
 I've been long ' meaning ' Finchley, and shall turn up there (in 
 an increased ratio of seediness) one of these days and make you 
 crusty, and get crusty myself, about art, as usual. 
 
OUTDOOR WORK 
 
 99 
 
 In November Rossetti paid a somewhat prolonged 
 visit to the family at Finchley, Brown sitting to him 
 for the head of the drover in Found. About the same 
 time Woolner returned and resumed his old friendship. 
 
 By that time Seddon had reached Egypt, and his 
 letters, if not frequent, were lengthy and inter- 
 esting : — 
 
 Old Hunt came to join me yesterday, for I have spent the 
 principal part of the last two months in a tomb, just at the back of 
 the Sphinx, away from all the petty evening bustle of an hotel. 
 We began in a tent, but a week's experience showed that the tomb 
 possessed in comfort what it lost in picturesqueness. It is a spacious 
 apartment 25 feet by 14 feet and about 6 feet high. My end is 
 matted, and I recline, dine, and sleep on a sumptuous divan con- 
 sisting of a pair of iron trestles with two soft boards laid across 
 them. . . . Since Hunt came I have not quite followed your advice, 
 and have done no sketches here ; but at Jerusalem I intend to do 
 so, and leave any parts which can be done in England to finish 
 there. Poor Hunt is half bothered out of his life here in painting 
 figures ; but, between ourselves, I think he is rather exigeant in 
 expecting Arabs and Turks in this climate to sit still (standing) for 
 six or eight hours. Don't tell anyone this, not even Rossetti. I 
 think the thing is to be done easily if one were residing here and 
 with patience. I hope both you and Emma are quite well, and the 
 daughter. Remember me very kindly to them and to Rossetti, and 
 send me a letter soon to Jerusalem, care of the Consul. . . . 
 
 If Mr. Holman Hunt was unsparing of his models 
 and, presumably, of himself under the torrid Egyptian 
 sky, Madox Brown, painting in the raw air ' to ensure 
 the blue appearance that flesh assumes under such 
 circumstances,' was almost more so. Indeed, it is 
 remarkable that the artist contrived to hold his brush 
 under the circumstances, and it is lamentably certain 
 
 H 2 
 
ioo LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1852- 
 
 that he sowed the seeds of subsequent illness by his 
 conscientiousness in this direction. 
 
 For the subject of the Last of England I will 
 again quote the Catalogue of the 1865 exhibition : — 
 
 This picture is, in the strictest sense, historical. It treats of the 
 great emigration movement, which attained its culminating point in 
 1852. The educated are bound - to their country by closer ties 
 than the illiterate, whose chief consideration is food and physical 
 comfort. I have therefore, in order to present the parting scene in 
 its fullest tragic development, singled out a couple from the middle 
 classes, high enough, through education and refinement, to appre- 
 ciate all they are now giving up, and yet dignified enough in means to 
 have to put up with the discomforts and humiliations incident to a 
 vessel ' all one class.' The husband broods bitterly over blighted 
 hopes, and severance from all he has been striving for. The young 
 wife's grief is of a less cantankerous sort, probably confined to the 
 sorrow of parting with a few friends of early years. The circle of 
 her love moves with her. 
 
 The husband is shielding his wife from the sea spray with an 
 umbrella. Next them, in the background, an honest family of the 
 greengrocer kind, father (mother lost), eldest daughter and younger 
 children, make the best of things with tobacco-pipe and apples, &c, 
 &c. Still further back, a reprobate shakes his fist with curses at the 
 land of his birth, as though that were answerable for his want of 
 success ; his old mother reproves him for his foul-mouthed profanity, 
 while a boon companion, with flushed countenance, and got up in 
 nautical togs for the voyage, signifies drunken approbation. The 
 cabbages slung round the stern of the vessel indicate, to the practised 
 eye, a lengthy voyage ; but for this their introduction would be 
 objectless. A cabin-boy, too used to ' laving his native land ' to 
 see occasion for much sentiment in it, is selecting vegetables for the 
 dinner out of a boatful. 
 
 This picture, begun in 1852, was finished more than nine years 
 ago (1855). To insure the peculiar look of light all round which 
 objects have on a dull day at sea, it was painted for the most part 
 in the open air on dull days, and, when the flesh was being painted, 
 
'THE LAST OF ENGLAND' 
 
 (Painted 1855) 
 (From the picture in the Birmingham Gallery) 
 
LANDSCAPES 
 
 101 
 
 on cold days. Absolutely without regard to the art of any period or 
 country, I have tried to render this scene as it would appear. The 
 minuteness of detail which would be visible under such conditions 
 of broad daylight I have thought necessary to imitate as bringing 
 the pathos of the subject more home to the beholder. 
 
 This was the first picture of Maclox Brown's to 
 which anything approaching general praise was ac- 
 corded. Several enthusiastic appreciations of it are 
 among the artist's letters received at that date, and 
 one of his correspondents, at least, embodied his letter 
 in an article for the ' Oxford and Cambridge Maga- 
 zine.' This was Mr. Vernon Lushington. More 
 tangible appreciation, in the shape of a cheque for 
 150/., came from 'Old White, the dealer, who sold it 
 to Windus, who sold it by auction at Christie's for 
 341/. to Flint.' This must have been all the more 
 cheering to Madox Brown since, just before this sale 
 at Christie's, the prices fetched by the Pre-Raphaelite 
 work owned by McCracken had been very far from 
 encouraging. 
 
 The intermediate works of the year were the two 
 landscapes of On the Brent, near Hencion and the 
 Hayfield. 
 
 Regarding the former, little more comment is 
 needed than that of the artist himself : — 
 
 Views near London so often become ' dissolving views ' nowadays, 
 that I can hardly affirm that this most romantic little river is not now 
 arched over for ' sanitary purposes,' but ten years ago it presented 
 this appearance, and, once embowered in the wooded hollows of 
 its banks, the visitor might imagine himself a hundred miles 
 away. As to the Hayfield : It was painted at Hendon late in the 
 
io2 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1852- 
 
 summer of 1855. The stacking of the second crop of hay had 
 been much delayed by rain, which heightened the green of the 
 remaining grass, together with the brown of the hay. The conse- 
 quence was an effect of unusual beauty of colour, making the hay, 
 by contrast with the green grass, positively red or pink, under the 
 glow of twilight here represented. 
 
 During this year, and that immediately succeeding 
 it, Madox Brown lived in singularly unostentatious 
 style at Grove End, Finchley. The neighbourhood 
 was well adapted to his requirements ; not particularly 
 difficult of access from town, and at the same time so 
 far out towards the open country as to render such a 
 paradise of leafage and verdure as Hendon then pre- 
 sented to the painter within a couple of miles' easy 
 walk. If Hendon did not happen to afford the exact 
 background that he desired, an easy stroll carried him 
 well out into the home counties, where a day's painting 
 was followed by a night at an inn. 
 
 An anecdote that he occasionally related had its 
 origin on one of these expeditions, though one of 
 much earlier date. 
 
 Into the bar of an inn, where Madox Brown, after 
 the day's work, sat chatting with the host, a burly 
 elderly man entered. He had all the air of an habitud, 
 but spoke hardly at all, and then only upon indifferent 
 subjects. After a time he took his candle and retired 
 for the night. 
 
 On Madox Brown's inquiring the old gentleman's 
 name, he was informed that it was also Brown, and 
 that he was an artist, or something of the sort. 
 
< OLD BROWN' 
 
 Turning the matter over in his mind, and rumina- 
 ting over the artists of his acquaintance, Madox 
 Brown remembered a story that was current at that 
 day, that Turner had taken a house at Chelsea in 
 order to be able to survey the fireworks at Cremorne 
 Gardens without paying the shilling for entrance fee, 
 and that amongst the watermen at the inns where he 
 usually drank a glass of toddy Turner adopted the 
 pseudonym of ' Old Brown.' 1 
 
 Under these circumstances, the features of the 
 Brown who had just passed from the room began to 
 form themselves into those of the great R.A. as they 
 remained in Madox Brown's mind from the portraits 
 he had seen. On inquiring more closely into the 
 habits of his namesake, Madox Brown learnt that it 
 was the other Brown's habit to be called at the very 
 break of day, and then to make a sortie from the inn 
 with a large roll of cartridge-paper under his arm, 
 after which he disappeared from the ken of the inn- 
 keeper. With almost pardonable curiosity Madox 
 Brown determined to ascertain from personal observa- 
 tion as much as he could of the movements of the 
 other Brown. 
 
 He arose betimes, not until the other had already 
 gone out of the inn, but, tracing him circumspectly, he 
 saw him seated on the dewy ground in front of an 
 
 1 I give the story as Madox Brown told it. ' Fuggy Booth ' might be 
 nearer the mark, and the house at Chelsea may have been hired with 
 other views. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1852-55 
 
 open gateway, through which a large herd of cows 
 was being driven. 
 
 On the large sheet of paper, placed flat before 
 him on the ground, Turner was making what Madox 
 Brown styled ' extraordinary, hieroglyphic, shorthand 
 notes ' of the cows as they passed. 
 
 'What's more,' he would say, 'he was holding 
 the pencil in his fists, downwards, as if it was a dagger, 
 instead of in his fingers, as anyone else would have 
 done.' 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 1856 
 
 Gloominess of Madox Brown's financial outlook — Driven to pot-boiling — 
 Works m hand — Work, Stages of Cruelty, and Cromwell on his 
 Farm-— Reasons for Madox Brown's unsuccess — Letter from Thomas 
 Woolner — Madox Brown's circle — The Liverpool Academy — Letter 
 from B. G. Windus — Letter from Mr. Plint about Work — Rossetti at 
 that date — Mrs. Hueffer's reminiscences — Madox Brown's diary — 
 A visit from ' Old White ' the dealer — The ' manufacture of callow- 
 types (sic) enlarged' — Rossetti's work in hand described — Drawing 
 from a dead body — Hunt's Christ in the Temple — Millais' Autumn 
 Leaves and the Blind Girl — Woolner' s Temiyson — Appreciation 
 of Rossetti's generosity — Royal Academy Exhibition — Hunt's Scape- 
 goat — Localising Lord John Russell — Visit to St. Ives — Cromwell's 
 county — His branding iron — Fresh subjects for pictures — Out-door 
 work — W. B. Scott's 'Table-talk' — Alterations in Christ and Peter — 
 Painting lilac leaves — 'Dining at Hunt's' — An Academic model — 
 Woolner's anecdotes — William Morris — Christ and Peter finished — 
 Woolner's Bacon — Suggesting alterations — Praise of Rossetti — 
 Christ and Peter gains Liverpool prize — Visit to Liverpool —Peter 
 Miller— William Davis, of Liverpool — Visit to Browning — Browning's 
 anecdotes — Carlyle's Music, &c. — Rossetti's five minutes — First 
 appearance of gout — Mr. Plint— Commission for Work. 
 
 During this year and the two years immediately fol- 
 lowing it I have been able to avail myself of the diary 
 of Madox Brown. Whether unposted or subsequently 
 destroyed it remains a three-year fragment. I pro- 
 pose, therefore, after a rapid sketch of the year, to 
 cite it almost in extenso. 
 
io6 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1856 
 
 The year opened somewhat gloomily for Madox 
 Brown's professional, or, rather, financial prospects. 
 His important works being laid aside for want of 
 patrons, his only purchaser was the dealer named 
 White, whose purchases were small and disburse- 
 ments parsimonious. Of his private property there 
 remained little save a life-rent of some 30/. yearly. 
 
 Thus, with indigence, if not with absolute poverty, 
 staring him in the face, he was forced to resort to the 
 aid of the avowed ' pot-boiler.' This consisted of 
 ■ helping at Messrs. Dickinson's portrait manufactory 
 from callowtypes (sic) enlarged.' 
 
 The work was not actually degrading. Madox 
 Brown's part was to 'pull the pictures together,' 
 another artist doing the actual enlarging ; and 
 even in this species of work Madox Brown's indi- 
 viduality insisted upon recognition, if not approval, 
 as was the case with the portrait of Lord John 
 Russell, to which reference is made in the diary. 
 The portraits were mostly presentation or memorial 
 pictures, the individuals represented being either dead 
 or too busy to sit to the artist. Many of them were 
 people of considerable eminence, but that fact rendered 
 the work by no means less distasteful. At the 
 moment, however, he had no other resource. 
 
 His magnum opus, Work, was a picture calling for 
 too much labour to be set out upon uncommissioned, 
 and, having got it once on the easel, he was con- 
 strained to leave it for the time. 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 UNCOMMISSIONED 
 
 107 
 
 The same may be said of Stages of Cruelty, 
 which, being laid by in this year, was not completed 
 until 1 89 1. This may be called Madox Brown's most 
 Pre-Raphaelite work ; individuality of the present- 
 ment of the subject, minuteness of finish, and absolute 
 truth to Nature are forced to the uttermost. As will 
 be seen in the diary, an enormous amount of work was 
 expended on the painting of the lilac leaves, of which 
 there are some hundred, each one carefully reproduced 
 in the most minute detail. But the picture was 
 severe and constrained in spite of its purposely senti- 
 mental subject, and the subject militated against its 
 success among the purchasers of historic pictures. 
 Thus it remained unfinished and unsold for thirty-five 
 years, a monument of severe handling and patience. 
 In the year 1891 it was commissioned and finished, a 
 certain romance beino- to be found in the fact that the 
 head of the little girl in the picture which had been 
 commenced as a portrait of the artist's own daughter 
 was completed as that of her child. 
 
 The most important and perhaps most character- 
 istic picture of the year was that known as St. Ives, 
 or Cromwell on his Farm, which had been com- 
 menced at Hendon three years before, and which 
 has already been referred to. This, however, also 
 remained unsold. 
 
 Admirers, and still more purchasers, of Pre-Ra- 
 phaelite works were at that date few and far between, 
 and Madox Brown's work of that date was altogether 
 
io8 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1856 
 
 Pre-Raphaelite. A quality even more disastrous, 
 financially speaking, was his attitude of reserve and 
 dislike of anything savouring of rdclame. I quote 
 from a letter of Woolner's of September the follow- 
 ing apposite remarks (as will be seen, Woolner has 
 been trying to procure a commission for Madox 
 Brown) : — 
 
 My dear F. M., — ... I saw Sir Charles Nicholson this morn- 
 ing, and, Ichabod ! Ichabod ! I asked if he had decided upon who 
 should paint his portrait, and he said it was already half done. 
 Some dreadful man named Philips has the job. The enemy tri- 
 umphs once more. It appears that some friend of Nicholson's knew 
 Philips, and strongly urged him to patronise that artist as a rising 
 young man. Thus, you see, it is a mere matter of having been 
 known to Nicholson's friends ; and I am convinced, unless an artist 
 go somewhat into society, he can never get the opportunity to 
 develop himself, the more particularly with a superior man, as his 
 notions will be so much above the average comprehension. I think 
 one owes something to himself in way of personal dignity, but I also 
 think he owes something to himself and posterity, and should 
 sacrifice himself a little and conform to what he knows (to be) 
 trifling and paltry in itself for sake of the advantages he will derive 
 in being able to unfold what is in him. To unfold what is in him 
 is a man's first duty, and if he have to walk through miry ways to 
 reach his goal, the fault is with those who made the ways foul, not 
 with the traveller whose work is another kind. I am the last to find 
 fault with one who joins not in the maypole dance of fashion, still I 
 think to neglect anything that will help to bring forth the riches God 
 has given a man will not leave him altogether guiltless. And what 
 you should do is to live in London, some central place, and mix to 
 some degree in society, even though it may be disastrous to you ; 
 and in a year or two, if you looked back upon the difference 
 between the now and the past, you yourself would be more 
 astonished than any other person would be. This is the most 
 valuable lecture you have had for years. I am glad to give it to you 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 FRIENDS 
 
 in revenge for having found no holes to pick in your picture on 
 Sunday, and therefore poke points into your daily life. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Thomas Woolner. 
 
 As may be gathered from Woolner's letter, Madox 
 Brown's method of living had altered very little during 
 four or five years. He still lived in an almost un- 
 attainable suburb, and, although he did not actually 
 withdraw himself from all society, he saw hardly any- 
 body who was not immediately connected with the 
 artistic ' set ' with whom he was intimate. These 
 intimates were, first and foremost, the brothers 
 Rossetti ; in a lesser degree the Pre-Raphaelites 
 Hunt, Woolner, Millais, and Stephens. These, with 
 the addition of the brothers Seddon, Mark Anthony, 
 the Dickinsons, Cave Thomas, and the distinguished 
 surgeon, John Marshall, all of them friends of Tudor 
 Lodge days, may be said to have made up the 
 circle. 
 
 Such society, although more than adequate to 
 stave off attacks of melancholia, did not introduce him 
 into the moneyed class among which picture-buyers 
 are to be found. Nevertheless, in spite of every one's 
 advice, Madox Brown persisted in his method of 
 living ; and although, as greater prosperity came to 
 him, his circle grew and he moved to Fitzroy Square, 
 his friends remained chiefly members of the intellectual 
 classes. At no period of his life was he a ' diner- 
 out ' or a frequenter of the fashionable drawing-rooms 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 which form the Tom Tiddler's ground of so many suc- 
 cessful artists. 
 
 In September the first public recognition of 
 Madox Brown's work was accorded, when the Liver- 
 pool Academy conferred its prize upon the picture of 
 Jesus Washes Peter s Feet. This honour was the more 
 valuable as coming from a body constituted entirely of 
 artists, in which it differed from most provincial acade- 
 mies, which need, as a rule, the support of unprofes- 
 sional moneyed men in their ranks. In a letter to D. G. 
 Rossetti, which Rossetti forwarded to Madox Brown, 
 W. L. Windus, the painter of Burd Helen, says : — 
 
 I have not sent it (Burd Helen) to the Liverpool Exhibition, as 
 I heard there was an intention to write it down in the local press, 
 which, although powerless for good in matters of art, possesses 
 peculiarly the faculty of annoyance and irritation, and remarkable 
 skill in discovering and rubbing upon tender places. My being a 
 member of the Liverpool Academy, and, as such, one of the 
 awarders of the prize, precludes me from being a candidate for it ; 
 but had it been otherwise, I should not for a moment have thought 
 of contending against such a picture as either of Mr. Madox 
 Brown's. The Last of England is a noble picture, and would 
 certainly have gained the prize had he not sent the Christ and 
 Peter, or, probably, if the latter picture had not arrived at the last 
 moment and carried us away by its simple grandeur and energetic 
 colour. I am greatly delighted, as one of the few who have fought 
 the good fight (this expression has scarcely been metaphorical) for 
 Pre-Raphaelitism, by your and Mr. Holman Hunt's recognition of our 
 efforts. 
 
 We have succeeded thus far, but more by our enthusiasm in the 
 cause than by our numbers, and we require all the assistance that 
 the Pre-Raphaelite Brothers can give by sending us pictures to 
 maintain our position. You may judge how closely we are run in 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 LIVERPOOL ACADEMY 
 
 in 
 
 the contest by the fact that the loss of my vote by my absence in 
 Scotland last year was the reason of Millais' picture of the Rescue 
 not getting the prize. 
 
 The comments of the local press upon the selec- 
 tion of the Academy were even more hostile than they 
 would probably have been had the choice lighted on 
 Burd Helen ; and when, in the following year, their 
 prize was awarded to Millais' Blind Girl, the battle 
 spread further even than the local papers. 
 
 In the 'Athenaeum' it was stated that the Liver- 
 pool Academy had purchased Pre-Raphaelite works, 
 and merely awarded the prize to works of the same 
 school in order to raise the value of their own posses- 
 sions. This, it is needless to say, was a quite unfounded 
 statement. But, although the calumny was confuted 
 by letters from William Rossetti and Vernon Lushing- 
 ton, the Corporation of the city on these grounds de- 
 termined to, and did, deprive the Academy of its grant 
 from the city funds. In spite of this the Academy 
 next year awarded the prize to Madox Brown's picture 
 of Chaucer at the Cotirt of Edward III. Apart from 
 the pleasure, the solid gain, and the congratulation of 
 friends, the immediate result of the first-mentioned 
 prize was the long-desired commission for the com- 
 pletion of the picture of Work. 
 
 This commission, which came in a letter elated 
 November 17, and following a conversation of the 
 preceding day, has a certain pathetic interest attaching 
 to it. Plint, the giver of it, in addition to being one 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 of the earliest of a series of munificent patrons of 
 Madox Brown, and indeed of the group, was a man of 
 an earnest and religious turn of mind. He looked 
 upon the picture as destined to effect an important 
 moral, almost more than an artistic, revolution of 
 thought. The closing words of his letter are : ' I 
 hope we may both, in God's mercy, be spared to see 
 it happily finished,' and he awaited its conclusion with 
 anxiety, but was never destined to see it finished, 
 dying almost two years before its completion. He 
 entered very fully into the spirit of the work, and his 
 letters are full of anxious queries and suggestions 
 about its progress. I will cite one passage, interesting 
 as showing how the idea contained in it was carried 
 out : — 
 
 Nov. 24, 1856. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I have your most interesting letter. Could you 
 introduce both Carlyle and Kings ley, and change one of the four 
 fashionable young ladies into a quiet, earnest, holy -looking one, with 
 a book or two and tracts ? I want this put in, for I am much inter- 
 ested in this work myself, and know those who are. Now I wish you 
 to be fully satisfied in your own mind. Think this matter over, 
 and excuse me asking you 
 
 About the same time D. G. Rossetti was in the 
 habit of coming daily to Finchley and working in 
 Madox Brown's studio, a fact that exercised a very 
 enlivening influence on Madox Brown himself. Ros- 
 setti was at that time, and indeed for many years after, 
 a most excellent companion, with absolutely none of the 
 affected aestheticism which is popularly laid to the charge 
 
j 856 ROSSETTI 113 
 
 of members of the Brotherhood. His personality and 
 tone of mind were singularly virile, if by no means 
 wanting in idiosyncratic turns and twists. 
 
 Mrs. Hueffer, who was at the time sitting for the 
 child in the picture of Stages of Cruelty, relates that 
 whilst standing before his easel in the silence of the 
 studio he passed the time uttering over and over 
 again the words, ' Guggum, Guggum ' — a pet name for 
 Miss Sicldall. His introduction to Mrs. Hueffer was, 
 however, not calculated to give her a prejudice in his 
 favour, for she relates that whilst walking in the 
 garden she was startled by seeing a singularly hideous 
 face peering at her through the glass door of the 
 studio. This was Rossetti, whose powers of con- 
 triving amusement for a child do not seem in this 
 matter to have equalled his control of the organs of 
 his face. His recipe for the cure of nettle-stings, 
 by rubbing them with loaf-sugar, did not raise him in 
 her esteem for the moment, but his companionship, in 
 addition to the commission for the picture of Work, 
 rendered Madox Brown's outlook on life far more 
 hopeful at the end than at the beginning of the year. 
 
 Having touched upon these one or two points, 
 which the diary leaves somewhat doubtfully defined, I 
 will proceed to quote it at length. 
 
 Madox Brown 's Diary, 1 856. 
 
 'January 2jth. — . . . For want of a book I have 
 omitted entries since the 6th inst. During this time I 
 
 I 
 
ii 4 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 have worked two whole weeks at the reduction of King 
 Lear, besides one evening, also one morning, also 
 one good day at the Hayfield. On Monday, White 1 
 called, but did not like the latter — said the hay was 
 pink, and he had never seen such. He seemed doubt- 
 ful about the Lear, said he would call again in a few 
 days if I would make Kent's head and one of the 
 officers' and Cordelia's hands less red. He did not 
 seem to have his wonted dan, but ended by taking the 
 pencil King Lear for 61. 6s., minus 25 per cent, which 
 I always allow him on the price. I succeeded in 
 taking him to see Tom Seddon's picture. He liked it 
 very much but did not buy. After this he had not 
 time to go to Woolner's, as he promised me ; moreover, 
 he did not pay for the Chaucer picture, 45/. of which 
 still owing he was to have paid on receiving it from 
 Paris. 
 
 ' Tuesday. — I did what he wished to the King Lear, 
 and after called on the Rossettis, having a mind to try 
 if Maria would undertake Lucy's 2 education instead 
 of sending her to school. The room was too full to 
 talk, and Bill, 3 with a man named Clayton, jawed so 
 nauseously about Ruskin and art, that I felt quite dis- 
 gusted and said nothing. On Wednesday, as I was 
 debating what to begin, Robert Dickinson came in, 
 and proposed that I should help at the manufactory of 
 callowtypes (sic) enlarged, three days per week at 
 one guinea a day, to be done at Lowes D.'s studio. 
 
 1 The picture dealer. 2 His daughter's. :i W. M. Rossetti. 
 
1856 'OLD WHITE' 115 
 
 I said I would think it over, and in the evening called 
 on Lowes, and am to begin on Monday, to-morrow. 
 
 ' Thursday. — White came, and after much moaning 
 over my brick-dusty colour, took off King Lear for 
 20/., also the study for the head of the Black Prince, 
 which I painted in 1848 from Maitland, in sunlight 
 (indoors). The face was done in half an hour, the 
 hair and cap, from the wig of the lay figure, took, I 
 think, two days ; I afterwards worked on it about one 
 hour at Hampstead in 1852, after it had been kicking 
 about four years. For this he gave me also 61. 6s. , 
 minus quarter discount. Then he would have Ros- 
 setti's Lovers on the Battlement, which he painted in 
 two evenings at W. B. Scott's, at Newcastle. I took 
 it in lieu of a debt of 5/. 8s. At first I demurred at 
 parting with it, but White offered 10/. and insisted, 
 so I went off to Rossetti's, and told him if he had no 
 objection I would part with it, paying him over 5/. 
 and keeping the five for which I took it. He agreed, 
 nothing loth to the five pun, but generously insisted 
 that I should keep it in part paymentof the 15/. he owed 
 me, which I rejoined that I certainly would ; so I took 
 it to Old White, who requested me to call again in ten 
 minutes, which I did, but then found Barlow, the 
 engraver, there, so, after an hour's jaw, I left to dine 
 with Gabriel off a lobster. He is at work on two 
 drawings in water ; as usual, both threaten to be admir- 
 able. One is a monkish missal-painter at work on 
 his knees in his cell. A boy behind is teasing a cat 
 
 1 2 
 
u6 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1856 
 
 which has nestled itself among the folds of his habit, 
 he having been so long motionless at his work. The 
 other is a ladye and a knight praying before an 
 altar. He offers his sword, and she fixes her sleeve 
 on his basnet. Overhead, in the distance, is seen a 
 " blacke tower," and beside it a blacke knight, mounted, 
 waiting with his lance in rest for the combat. These 
 two together form an admirable picture of the world 
 of our fathers with its chief characteristics — religion, 
 art, chivalry, and love. His forte, and he seems now 
 to have found it out, is to be a lyrical painter and poet, 
 and certainly a glorious one. 
 
 ' Friday. — I called on White by appointment, but 
 he was out, so I came home and set to work to think 
 over my Christmas subject, which, along with Crom- 
 well on his Farm, I have decided are to be my works 
 for the next thirteen months. I forget whether I have 
 mentioned as yet about this subject. It occurred to 
 me on Christmas eve, as we were putting up holly in 
 the parlour (or drawing-room) for ' 
 
 At this point four pages of the diary are mutilated, 
 having been torn down the centre, so as to leave only 
 half lines. From these I have been able to gather 
 that the picture, which was never executed, was to have 
 represented Mrs. Madox Brown seated in a chair sur- 
 rounded by her children, who have just been admitted 
 through the folding-doors of the drawing-room. 
 
 There are also fragments of a description of Crom- 
 well on his Farm, but the words are too disjointed to 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 'THE PLAY' 
 
 7 
 
 be very comprehensible. The next entry after the gap 
 is on February 14. 
 
 ' To Dickinson again. Painted at the chair, bon- 
 net, and shawls. Came home and went with Emma 1 
 to the Rossettis to dine. After dinner we definitely 
 agreed about Lucy. Mrs. R. consented to take 40/. 
 per annum — a blessed thing for Lucy. 2 
 
 ' \§th % — To Lowes D.'s before ten ; the shawl and 
 part of the trenches before Sevastopol." 
 
 ' \6t/t. — The same. Painted lot of sandbags, two 
 men, and a great gun. Gabriel off with Lowes to 
 divers exhibitions. At dinner Gabriel called and 
 stopped till 2 a.m. 
 
 ' i%tk. — Somehow the day wasted, perhaps I worked 
 a little at Cromwell. After play tickets, but was too 
 late. In the evening Seddon and Fred Warren came 
 to discuss the affairs of the North London School. 
 
 As I would be glad to hit "low" the scoundrel , 
 
 I agreed to be on the committee again, if it were 
 remodelled and the school rescued from the throttling 
 grasp of Government. 
 
 1 igtk. — All day after the tickets for the Princess's 
 Theatre. In the evening went there to the dress circle 
 with Emma, and the two children, and William Ros- 
 setti ; Gabriel, who had chiefly made up the party, 
 decided that he could not go because he must go 
 
 1 Mrs. Madox Brown. 
 
 2 It is to be said that this sum was only the equivalent of the child's 
 board, Mrs. Rossetti refusing to receive any payment for her instruction. 
 
n8 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 again that night to see a certain stunner. Katty, after 
 the play, told William, who was alluding to the angels 
 in Henry VIII., " that she once saw some real angels 
 up in the sky." ' 
 
 'March $rd. — In the evening went with Emma to 
 the Strand Theatre to see Miss Herbert, a discovery 
 of D. G. Rossetti. She is lovely. 
 
 ' \th. — Came home and found Dalziel here with a 
 note from Rossetti. Wants me to do him a Prisoner 
 of Chillon on wood. I will this evening. 
 
 ' 5M. — Called on Dalziel and saw Millais' woodcuts 
 for Tennyson ; they seemed to me admirable. 
 
 ' 6th. — Took a holiday — called on Gabriel with 
 Emma. I saw a lot of his w y orks gathered there from 
 Ruskin's and others, as a bait to induce Old White to 
 come and buy his works. We started Emma back 
 and off to White's, where the plan (which I had 
 devised) took perfectly. Rossetti told him that there 
 were some drawings of his which he had finished for 
 Ruskin and others, so White said he should very much 
 wish to see them before they went, so he is to go. 
 I believe Seddon wishes me to dine with him to meet 
 Hunt and Rossetti. I half promised, but won't. He 
 has taken the member for Cardiff to see Rossetti, and 
 the altar-piece 1 turns out a fine thing for them. In 
 the evening I designed but could do absolutely nothing, 
 I kept thinking of Gilbert and his great facility. . . . 
 
 '8///. — At Lowes' again, repainting things Thomas 
 
 1 For Llandaff Cathedral. 
 
'The Prisoners of Chillon. 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 A CORPSE 
 
 119 
 
 has done, to fit them for the snow effect. The worst 
 of it is, people cannot be kept out of the studio, and so 
 everyone will know I am daubing for them, which is 
 horrid. Oh, money ! 
 
 ' 13///. — Out shopping; then to University Hospital 
 to ask John Marshall about a dead body. He got me 
 one that will just do. It was in the vault under the 
 dissecting-room. When I saw it first, what with the 
 dim light, the brown and parchment-like appearance 
 of it, and the shaven head, I took it for a wooden 
 imitation of the thing. Often as I have seen horrors, 
 I really did not remember how hideous the shell of a 
 poor creature may remain when the spirit is fled. Yet 
 we both, in our joy at the attainment of what we 
 sought, declared it to be lovely, and a splendid corpse. 
 Marshall really loves a thing of the kind. Home again 
 by five in the evening — Bill, Anthony, Rossetti, and 
 Stephens, also Seddon. All conversation seems used 
 up, no more the genial flow of soul as in youth. How 
 inferior middle-aged people seem ! 
 
 ' \\th. — To the University till half-past ten. Got 
 on quite merrily, and finished it two hours before it 
 was obligate on me. As I was going, met Marshall, 
 who could not keep away from the sweets of the 
 charnel-house. 
 
 ' i$tk. — Up late ; to w r ork about one till half-past 
 three, then to see Stephens, and Hunt, and Halliday. 
 Stephens' picture a progress evidently. Hunt's are, 
 without doubt, the finest he has done yet. The Christ 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 in the Temple is one of the grandest works of modern 
 times, and the L ant horn-maker also is a lovely little 
 work, but ill-drawn. Hunt has at length decided 
 against private exhibiting again, so that is all knocked 
 on the head after so much jaw. I don't know what to 
 do. . . . 
 
 'April wtk. — . . . . I had an interview with Windus 
 at White's, where it was decided not to send the Emi- 
 grant s x to the Royal Academy. I have seen Rossetti's 
 last drawing — Love showing Dante Beatrice dead, in a 
 Vision — the finest he has yet done. I saw Millais' 
 picture of the year, Autumn Leaves — the finest in 
 painting and colour he has yet done, but the subject 
 somewhat without purpose, and looking like portraits. 
 He was in a very excited state, bullied Inchbold in 
 earnest for looking at them disrespectfully — he, a 
 young man. Inchbold, it seems, was very cheeky ; 
 Leward in a state of awe ; Millais abusing everyone ; 
 Hunt, because he has waited his time (this was to 
 Lowes) ; Rossetti, for getting an immense reputation, 
 and having done nothing to deserve it ; and me for not 
 sending to the Royal Academy. What could anyone 
 say against the Royal Academy? (this was to Seddon). 
 His large picture is, I believe, sold to Miller for a 
 thousand guineas. I don't like it much ; the subject is 
 stupidish and the colour bad, but some of the expres- 
 sions beautiful and. lovely parts. ... The Blind Girl 
 is altogether the finest subject — a religious picture and 
 
 1 Last of Eiigland. 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 ROSSETTrS WORK 
 
 121 
 
 a glorious one. It is a pity he has so scamped the 
 execution. 1 Woolner's bust of Tennyson is fine, but 
 hard and disagreeable. Somehow there is a hitch in 
 Woolner as a sculptor. The capabilities for execution 
 do not go with his intellect. 
 
 ' Wednesday. — I finished the drawing on wood 
 of the Prisoner of Chillon ... Robert D. wished me 
 to go and see the portrait of Colonel de Bathe at 
 Bond Street, where he had some alterations to suggest ; 
 and what should I see but the picture all daubed over 
 with water-colour and pieces of newspaper stuck over 
 it to get the proper effect with gradations and focus, 
 &c. He wished me to alter it all according to his 
 plan. I saw Millais again at Leward's on Monday. 
 He showed me proofs of a dozen woodcuts he had 
 done, most of them very beautifully drawn and full of 
 beauties, but scarcely illustrations to Tennyson. He 
 proposed that he should get Moxon to give me some 
 to do, but this proposition was forgotten unfortunately. 
 I found he was adverse to going to Rossetti's. He 
 first said R. had shown him nothing for three years, 
 and he thought did not want him to go. However, 
 I got him to go to Chatham Place with me, and 
 certainly I never witnessed a mortal man more de- 
 lighted than he was with these admirable drawings, 
 the last one particularly; also the Francesco, one and 
 the two lovers, set to two notes of music, regardless of 
 rhyme or reason. He kept returning from one to the 
 
 1 This is, J suppose, a P.R.'s objection. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 other, and bursting* into such raptures as only Millais 
 can. 
 
 'Monday, 21st. — Directed Seddon nearly all the 
 morning — then out with Emma. Called on Dalziel, 
 who had sent me a cheque for 8/. Found that he 
 wished me to put a slashed sleeve on the arm of the 
 prisoner, to give him a more mediaeval look. I worked 
 at the block in consequence, but I think harmed it. 
 
 ' Wednesday , 23rd. — Painted all day at Seddon's sky 
 in the Pyramids. A rash thing, but I believe I did it 
 some good, if on drying it does not spoil itself. Alto- 
 gether, I think I have made him improve the general 
 colour of the picture. 
 
 - Thursday, — To the Crystal Palace with 
 
 Emma. Met, by appointment, Tom Seddon and 
 Gabriel, and well looked at the tracings from Giotto, 
 which, as I had seen the works in Italy, seemed to me 
 very bad. However, they are glorious pictures. The 
 kiss of Judas, the Virgin Mary, and the dead Christ 
 strike me as the most complete in expression. 
 
 4 Saturday, 26th. — To-day I have 
 
 bought ten penny cakes of water-colour, and have 
 been all day and this evening colouring the pencil- 
 drawing of Cromwell. It does not look well in its 
 present state. 
 
 'Monday. — With J. Millais to the Royal Academy. 
 He said he supposed the reason of Hunt's success was 
 that before doing anything whatever he always held a 
 sort of little council with himself, in accordance with 
 
MISS SIDDALL 
 
 123 
 
 which he acted. This is very true, I believe. Millais 
 is, on the contrary, the creature of impulse. 
 
 ' Wednesday, May \/^th. — Miss Siddall came here 
 and stayed the night, and next day to Miss Siddall's, 
 where, going along, met with Gabriel, who came think- 
 ing to find her here. It appears (from some freak or 
 notion in his head that Emma sets Miss Siddall against 
 him) he did not speak one word to Emma, either how 
 d'ye do or good-bye. I did not notice this, but on 
 Emma's telling me about it next day, I thought it would 
 not do to put up with this, so wrote to him asking for 
 an explanation, which is yet not come to hand. I put 
 this down, not from any wish to be always giving the 
 unpleasant side of him, but because I think him, as I 
 hope it sufficiently appears in this diary, so great an 
 artist that anything tending to give a correct insight 
 into his character is, as it were, public property, and 
 should not be withheld, but I will give some of the 
 bright side here on this page to balance with. 
 
 ' No one ever perhaps showed such a vehement dis- 
 position to proclaim any real merit if he thinks he 
 discovers it in an unknown or rising artist. A picture 
 in the Suffolk Street (exhibition) of a butcher boy, by 
 I forget whom, struck him as good, and he not only 
 tried to get Ruskin and Boyce to purchase it, but got 
 Dallas to give it a good notice in the "Times," and would 
 have done the Lord knows what for the man had it 
 been in his power. The picture sold, owing, most 
 likely, to his disinterested praise of it to Dallas. Again, 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 the picture by Windus now in the Royal Academy. 
 He forced Ruskin to go with him to see it instanter, 
 because he had not noticed it in his pamphlet, and 
 extorted the promise of a postscript on its behalf. He 
 would have made Boyce purchase it, but it proved to 
 be sold. I could narrate a hundred instances of the 
 most noble and disinterested conduct towards his 
 art-rivals, 1 which places him far above (others) in his 
 greatness of soul, and yet he will, on the most trivial 
 occasion, hate and backbite anyone who gives him 
 offence. The dislike he has taken to Emma is most 
 absurd, and all on the grounds that she puts Miss 
 Siddall up to being discontented with him, which she 
 does not, for poor Miss Sid. complains enough of his 
 absurd goings on not to require that sort of thing. In 
 short, Emma was his very good friend till this sort of 
 brutish conduct the other night, w T hich it is difficult to 
 overlook. Woolner was here to-night, and has brought 
 me one of the two side groups of his Wordsworth 
 sketch : The Father Curbing the Passions of the Boy. 
 It is admirable, as a design for sculpture, beyond most 
 modern works. 
 
 ■ Simday. — Gabriel sent a letter of apology, and in 
 the evening came with Miss Siddall. 
 
 ' Monday. — Worked two hours at Lord, 2 and then 
 took it home in a cab. Left Emma at Miss Sid.'s, 
 
 1 An instance of this is to be found in Mr. Skelton's Table Talk of 
 Shirley. In one of Rossetti's letters there published we find him enthusi- 
 astic in praise of Madox Brown's exhibition. 
 
 2 A portrait of Lord John Russell. 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 ROYAL ACADEMY 
 
 and off solus to the Royal Academy. Went over it 
 all, catalogue in hand, from No. i to the end. Very 
 little good but three historical works, and they not 
 very good — Leighton, 1 Cross, and Thomas. Hunt 2 
 and Millais 3 unrivalled except by Hook, 4 who, for 
 colour and indescribable charm, is pre-eminent, even 
 to hugging him in one's arms. A perfect poem 
 is each of his little pictures. Millais' looks ten times 
 better than in his room, owing to contrast with sur- 
 rounding badness. Hunt's Scapegoat requires to be 
 seen to be believed in. Only then can it be under- 
 stood how, by the might of genius, out of an old goat, 
 and some saline incrustations, can be made one of the 
 most tragic and impressive works in the annals of art. 
 In pictorial composition the work sins, however, the 
 goat being right in the middle of the canvas, and the 
 two sides repeating each other too much, which is 
 always painful, and gives a studied appearance, a de- 
 fect arising from the lack of study. The background 
 also is, at present, hard in colour, and eats up the fore- 
 ground. Millais' Blind Girl looked splendid. There 
 is a little landscape by Davis, of Liverpool, of some 
 leafless trees and some ducks, which is perfection. I 
 do not remember ever having seen such an English 
 landscape ; it is far too good to be understood, and is 
 on the floor. Supped at Guggum's. Gabriel has given 
 
 1 The late President's Triumph of Music. 
 
 2 The Scapegoat. 3 Sir Isnmbras at the Ford. 
 4 Brambles in the Way, Welcome Bonny Boat, &c. 
 
i 2 6 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1856 
 
 three guineas for a superb Indian opera cloak, and they 
 are for the Princess's, to sport her and it on Satur- 
 day. 
 
 ' Saturday. — Out with Emma shopping ; spent lot 
 of tin. Met Robert Dickinson, in a way about Lord 
 John, because I had made him sitting in a room. 
 Everyone asks why and where he is sitting ? and that 
 it ought to be a generalised place. I told him I could 
 not paint such, I never could. Came home and felt 
 ill. Read Macaulay. I love Dutch William. 
 
 'Sunday. — Emma went to church with Lucy, looking 
 like an angel in her new bonnet. I worked again at 
 Cromwell, and in the evening to Woolner's, where 
 I met Patmore and Allingham (intellect keen and 
 cutting). . . . 
 
 ' Thursday, July ^th. — Started for Huntingdon at 
 two, to see the Cromwell localities. Saw the entry of 
 his baptism when he was a small squalling, baby and 
 helpless. Lunched on bread and cheese and ale, and 
 a pleasant walk to St. Ives through the field near the 
 Ouse, on a lovely afternoon. Met a man lounging 
 near the Ouse who was intelligent and obliging, and 
 took me to the divers localities in the place. Slepe 
 Hall has been pulled down, alas ! but the farm where 
 his men used to reside, most likely, exists — at least a 
 house, or rather two, stand there, of modern build, 
 with a noble buttressed barn of the period. There is 
 also another " Cromwell " barn still older, but not so 
 likely to have been his. This gentleman told me 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 CROMWELL'S COUNTRY 
 
 127 
 
 his former partner was the farmer who still used 
 Cromwell's branding iron to brand his sheep. He 
 
 made me a drawing of it ; it is thus : (J). This being 
 
 used with hot pitch, is it possible that the iron might 
 have lasted 200 years ? Carlyle is evidently mistaken 
 about the Cromwell fields, which he places to the 
 south-east of the town, between it and the Ouse. 
 This gentleman, who was well versed in the topo- 
 graphy of the place, said that this part never belonged 
 to Slepe Manor at all. Before Cromwell's time, and 
 even to the present moment (they) were and are 
 the property of another family. Slepe Manor, the 
 fields which Oliver had, went round from Slepe Hall, 
 which was on the N.E. of the town, and so right 
 round to the N. bank of the river. I slept at the Com- 
 mercial Inn, and next morning went to the farm and 
 explored the land, but found that Huntingdon could 
 not by any possibility be seen from St. Ives, and 
 now certainly not on account of the growth of trees. 
 Carlyle speaks much of the willow and alder ; in 
 reality, but for a good many of the former the scenery 
 is much like any other, although more level than usual 
 in England. However, to destroy this levelling ten- 
 dency there is right between Cromwell's farm and 
 Huntingdon a good-sized slope or hillock, which they 
 term the Hough, which tends much to counteract the 
 impression of flatness. The view of St. Ives from the 
 Hough is very sweet and pictorial. The river, with 
 
i28 LIFE OF FORD MA BOX BROWN 1856 
 
 the picturesque old bridge (with house amidway on it), 
 combine, with the church and a large factory shaft, to 
 form a scene such as Turner has so often depicted 
 with satisfaction to himself and others, of old E no-land 
 and new England combined. Behind all is the fen 
 country stretching away into blue mist with Dutch- 
 like suavity and breadth. 
 
 ' I went to the farm, but the gentleman was away, 
 and the stupid servant knew nothing, but sent me to 
 a woman in the next house, who took me through the 
 dungyarcl to find her husband ; but after bawling for 
 him in vain, left me to wait for him. As nothing of 
 him appeared except some inarticulate human grunt- 
 ing from an outhouse outside of which two old sows 
 were running about in a terribly perturbed state, 
 uttering fearful squalls, which were replied to by un- 
 utterable squeakings from within, I made bold to open 
 the door, when out rushed, furious as an old boar, my 
 man. A most hideous looking fellow he was — all 
 boils, like Job, and very bloody, with a knife in his 
 mouth. He was, it would seem, slaughtering young 
 pigs, and I had disturbed him at his art, for which he 
 would appear to be an enthusiast. I left him and 
 strolled over the ground, and secured a slight sketch 
 of the barn, and then off by rail to Cambridge. 
 There, wandered much about, but found my money 
 running short, and the sight of so much wealth and 
 comfort made me sulky by comparison. So I took no 
 guide nor asked any questions, but came home. 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 NEW SUBJECTS 
 
 129 
 
 ' Thursday \ June igtk. — Out to Old White's, who had 
 sent for the sketch to see and show to Windus. The 
 result was, that instead of buying it, he strongly recom- 
 mended me not to paint it. Nothing that I do seems 
 to please him now. I came home and debated what I 
 was to do. By Friday night I settled upon two fresh 
 subjects. One — in the garden, a young lady seated 
 on the wall working, and a youth's head just visible on 
 the far side, to be called Stolen Pleasures are Sweet} 
 The other — in my conservatory, with the beautiful vine 
 in it — three figures — to be called How it was. A 
 youth, quite a boy, home from the Crimea, with but 
 one arm, narrating to a poor young widow " how it 
 was," and a young girl, his sister, hugging him. 
 
 'Saturday, 21st. — After some bother and delays, 
 began by three and worked till eight at the garden 
 one ; painted eight bricks and some leaves. 
 
 'Monday, 23rd. — Up at nine, to work by eleven, 
 having fitted up my tent in the garden, for I find one 
 thing very necessary when painting out of doors, and 
 that is to shade off the too great light that falls on 
 one's work, orherwise, when brought indoors, it looks 
 flat and colourless, the colours showing more bright in 
 the open air. Painted lilac leaves till four o'clock 
 dinner, then toothache on the sofa till six, then work 
 till seven, and toothache drove me in. 
 
 ' 28M. — W. B. Scott called. Talked about the 
 heat making one feel like in Paradise ; then about the 
 
 1 Afterwards Stages of Cruelty. 
 
 K 
 
13° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1856 
 
 changes that had come over him in twenty years, 
 since the time when he believed in the efficacy of 
 reason, the perfectibility of woman, and Mary Wool- 
 stonecraft. In the evening Woolner called, and told 
 me about poor Howe reduced to beggary literally. . . . 
 
 '29///. — Cogitated over my Christ and Peter ; 
 decided on nothing. 
 
 ' 2>otk. — I made a list of what days then remained 
 till the Liverpool Academy on a piece of paper, and 
 allowing time to finish the leaves, which must be done 
 (otherwise they would fade), I decided that I had 
 time to clothe the Christ, then that His legs were of 
 no use, then that it was a pity to scrape them out as 
 they were good ; so I cut them out, the picture being 
 already lined, glued in a piece of canvas, and puttied 
 it up. 
 
 ' Jttly 6th. — To church with Lucy ; then worked at 
 Peter's green mantle, improving the colour, for since 
 1 85 1-2 I have improved at that, but Hunt, and 
 Woolner, and William came in and stopped me. 
 They two went off to Browning's, and Hunt stayed 
 
 and told me about the B- of Jerusalem, who seems 
 
 to be one of the meanest scoundrels not yet in h ; 
 
 then about his sale of the Scapegoat to White for 
 450 guineas at three months' date. . . . Painted at 
 Peter's cloak till dinner ; then the leaves. At eight 
 last night I set to work on the proof of Dalziel's 
 Prisoner of Chillon, and worked till three at it. 
 
 ' gth. — Finished Peter's cloak ; then scraped the 
 
Study for "Stages of Cruelty." 1856. 
 (Catherine Madox Brown.) 
 {From original in possession of the writer.) 
 
1856 LILAC LEAVES 131 
 
 leaves with razor and set them to rights from feeling 
 indoors, then out at them again. 
 
 ' \oth. — Set the lay figure among the leaves, to 
 paint those which touch the figure, and went on 
 with it. 
 
 ' nth. — Bad toothache at nio-ht. Be^an work. 
 Found the lay figure would wet, as it rained, and if 
 required for many days might be much deteriorated, 
 so made a substitute out of a child's chair and some 
 old cushions, with the head of the lay figure. This 
 does quite as well, and remains on the wall. 
 
 ' 18M. — The leaves again. 
 
 'Saturday, \gtk. — A great deal of trouble in 
 arranging the leaves at the side of the head, pinning 
 on fresh ones where they are blighted, and placing the 
 branches where they are pressed to one side. 
 
 'Sunday, 20th. — Church with Lucy; worked at 
 designing the two lovers from self and Lucy in a 
 glass, Lucy being atop of the piano. 
 
 ' 2\th. — The leaves again; a bad day's work. I 
 don't know why, but I feel restless and unhappy. 
 Christina Rossetti called ; she is reading Carlyle with 
 her mother. Tom Seddon called with his little picture 
 to show me. This evening wrote Hunt, who has 
 been sent away to Hastings with Syrian fever. Poor 
 fellow ! he works too hard. 
 
 'Monday, — Seddon took me away to Hunt's, 
 to go boating, by agreement ; but dinner was laid, and 
 Hunt made no mention of the boat, and Seddon was 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX FROWN 1856 
 
 afraid to remind him. Saw Hunt's Lanthorn Maker, 
 which is lovely colour and one of the best he has 
 painted, but, like much he has done of late, very 
 quaint in drawing" and composition, but admirably 
 
 painted. was there, looking most syren-like. 
 
 Hunt went off to put her on board the boat to go 
 home to Chelsea, and I with him, not understanding 
 the dinner was served. When we came back Halli- 
 day and Seddon had begun, as it appears Hunt makes 
 a rule of running out for something just as dinner has 
 been waiting ten minutes, much to Halliday's disgust. 
 
 '291/1. — Finished Peter \ in the evening fetched a 
 model. 
 
 4 2ptk. — The brute of a model — a huge Acade- 
 mician, with a beard and muscles all over, like all 
 Academy models — was too stiff to take any pose but 
 the Apollo Belvidere. Sent him off after seeing how 
 Seddon's Arab shirt {guild) looked on him as Christ 
 kneeling. 
 
 ' August yd. — Painted from eleven to eight at the 
 shirt, as before. I now find I have made the legs 
 under it too long from the knee downwards, having 
 begun it without drawing them in from Nature. I 
 
 have only got 220/. in all now, that is if does not 
 
 cheat me out of part of the 44/. owing to me, and 
 including 10/. owing to me by Gabriel. ... I trust 
 fortune will favour me in the affair of the Liverpool 
 prize, or I fear it will go hard with Emma and the 
 chicks. 
 
1856 THOMAS WOOLNER 133 
 
 ' $th. — I spent the whole day thinking of the gene- 
 ral colour of the picture, and trying it with patches of 
 ribbon, &c. Very much disgusted. Painted the gulla 
 green, and scraped out the part of the body where the 
 body of the dress comes. Seddon brought me his 
 little picture finished. It is really very beautiful. 
 Then Tommy Woolner entered, and we spent the 
 evening smoking, tea-ing, chatting, and supping. It 
 seems that all hope of the 300-guinea portrait is not 
 used up yet, but it wanes. The man, it appears, 
 dislikes Pre-Raphaelites and smells a rat. Tommy 
 Woolner entertained us with many highly wrought 
 anecdotes, one of which I had witnessed myself, 
 although he did not seem to remember, and I had an 
 opportunity of testing the quantity of colouring matter 
 superadded, which seems to be considerable. To 
 another, I declare, he superadded comments which I 
 remember myself having made at a former hearing of 
 the narration as part of the tale as it was told to him. 
 
 \ August o.\th. — Yesterday Rossetti brought his 
 ardent admirer Morris, of Oxford, who bought my little 
 Hay field for 40/. He has also brought Browning 
 round, who, it appears, is a great admirer of me. This 
 was kind of Gabby. I have been all this time hard 
 at the Christ and Peter. It must be done by next 
 Saturday, as I promised. I have sent to Liverpool 
 five pictures : The Last of England, Mother and 
 Child, small King Lear, sketch of Cordelia, and the 
 Brent. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 * September 1st. — This morning I have finished 
 sending off the Christ and Peter. It was completed on 
 Saturday. Packed it Sunday night, and, it being wet, 
 covered it with calico, which I bought for it. " Bought, 
 my dear sir ! " as Old White says. I nailed it up tight, 
 and pasted paper over the edges to keep out the dust, 
 so careful am I ! Since the 24th I have been hard at 
 the Christ and Peter day and night too, quite ex- 
 hausted, and obliged to take wine to keep me up. 
 Two days I was interrupted by going to Woolner's to 
 see his statue of Bacon, which was very fine in design, 
 but looked too short. The first time I hinted to him 
 pretty plainly what I thought, and got him to alter it 
 slightly ; but, fearing he would not sufficiently, I pro- 
 posed to Gabriel that we should go together, and 
 insist upon the head being made smaller and the 
 body longer. Rossetti said he would come, but I must 
 be spokesman, as he funked it. 1 However, while I 
 was looking at the statue and thinking how to begin, 
 Rossetti, who, by the way, had all along before sworn 
 the statue was perfect, blurts out, " I say, that chap's 
 too short, I certainly think." In this delicate way he 
 broke the ice, and we began in earnest. At last 
 
 1 As a confirmation of Madox Brown's statement that it was his own 
 courage that was mainly to be relied on, I subjoin Rossetti's letter on 
 the subject : — - 
 
 My dear Brown, — I'll come to you to-morrow at two, or rather 
 before (if practicable), to go to Woolner's. If I am prevented, can't 
 help, but I expect to come. I believe some siege ought to be laid to 
 Tommaso, as you say, but I shall be merely your supporter, as I rather 
 funk the job. 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 WOOLNER'S 'BACON' 
 
 '35 
 
 Woolner was convinced, and agreed that it was better 
 to lose some of the individuality and truth than to 
 risk offending the prejudices of the multitude, who 
 certainly never consider Bacon in the light of a dwarf. 
 To-day I have been to see it again, and it is all right. 
 Then we went together to the National Gallery and 
 saw the new pictures. Two Virgins and Children 
 are delicious, the Perugini is fine in tone and truth- 
 ful as out-door effects, but absurdly drawn, as usual. 
 
 ' Zth. — All this last week I have been gloriously 
 idle, doing scarcely anything but touch up one or two 
 photos and make calls. Gabriel got Elliot, a parson, 
 who writes on the " Daily News," and the editor to come 
 and see my pictures, and has been at the trouble of 
 writing a long article on them for that journal. It is to 
 be in to-morrow (Saturday). I called on him, and found 
 him at it, and was so ungrateful as to poke fun at his 
 self-inflicted labours, so that he could not go on with 
 it for fooling, and came home and dined with us, after 
 which no writing was possible for repletion. On Sun- 
 day, while I was out, Gabriel called with his friend and 
 client, Miss Heaton, of Leeds. But they were gone 
 before I came back. Really Gabriello seems bent upon 
 making my fortune at one blow. Never did fellow, I 
 think, so bestir himself for a rival before ; it is very 
 good and very great to act so. Ever since he felt he 
 had hurt me some little time ago he has done nothing 
 but keep on making amends to me, one after another. 
 As Carlyle says of Mirabeau, how much easier it is to 
 
136 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 note the flaws in a circle than to grasp the whole 
 sweep of its circumference ! 
 
 ' 1 \ th. — Before getting up, a letter to say I had the 
 prize. Out with a bad cold to tell White and the 
 Rossettis. 
 
 ' \ 2th. — White called to see my English Autumn 
 Afternoon. Rossetti here ; I in bed, sweating, but got 
 up at the call of duty and Old White. Asked him 180 
 guineas. He nearly bought it for 150, but not quite. 
 We showed him some unfinished sketches of poor 
 Deverel, which he bought for 9 guineas the ten. 
 
 ' 1 $th. — Out of bed again with a bad cold to meet 
 White at Woolner's (Woolner away with Scott). 
 White was very pleased, and wants to have the three 
 medallions of Tennyson, Browning, and Carlyle. 
 
 ' 227id. — Went to see if Hunt would go to Liver- 
 pool with me, as there seems no chance of Gabriel. 
 Found he had just started for Manchester and Liver- 
 pool. It rained, and I stayed and dined with Marti- 
 neau, who played to me. He is self-taught, and does 
 not even know the notes by name. 
 
 ' '23rd. — Made up my mind to go and try my luck 
 at Liverpool. Kissed Emma and started to go by 
 9 o'clock train. Found it was an 8 o'clock one ; so 
 slept at a coffee-shop, and then next morning missed 
 the fast train, so did not get to Liverpool till 3. Read 
 Emerson's " English Traits" all the way, and found it 
 a most surprising trait of Americanism and a delightful 
 book. On arriving I went first to the Exhibition, then 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 LIVERPOOL 
 
 i37 
 
 to Miller's office and got Hunt's address ; met him at 
 his hotel, and to the Exhibition again, and left him 
 going to dine with Miller. Then I went across the 
 Mersey and whiled away the time till dusk. On 
 returning I found a note from some person unknown, 
 asking me to Miller's. I went there, and was most 
 cordially received. Hunt spoke up well for Woolner. 
 Miller insisted that I should take up with him, but on 
 going off with Hunt to sup at his hotel we talked so 
 long about dreams and other things that the boots put 
 out the gas and locked us in, so I was obliged to take 
 the first empty room. 
 
 '25^. — . . . Went with Miller to see the pictures of 
 a certain ... a lawyer and a money-lender, who buys 
 largely. Found him a regular brute and his pictures 
 daubs. Went then with Windus and Pelham home to 
 Miller's, and talked and smoked with him till 12. 
 This Miller is a jolly, kind old man, with streaming 
 white hair, fine features, and a beautiful keen eye like 
 Mulready's ; a rich brogue, a pipe of Cavendish, and a 
 smart rejoinder, with a pleasant word for every man, 
 woman, and child he meets, are characteristics of him. 
 ... His house is full of pictures, even to the kitchen. 
 Many pictures he has at all his friends' houses, and his 
 house at Bute is also filled with his inferior ones. 
 Many splendid Linnells, a fine Turner, a good Con- 
 stable, and works by a French artist, Dellefant (?) are 
 among the most marked of his collection, plus a host 
 of good pictures by Liverpool artists- -Davis, Tonge, 
 
138 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1856 
 
 and Windus chiefly. ... I was very ill there, chiefly 
 through having fed all the time on salt meat, ham, and 
 pork pies; and last night, to crown it all, Miller gave us 
 a huge round of salt beef. Now, on the subject of 
 Miller's dinners, I may notice that his hospitality is 
 somewhat peculiar of its kind. His dinner, which is 
 at 6, is of one joint and vegetable, without pudding, 
 bottled beer for drink — I never saw any wine. His 
 wife dines at another table with, I suppose, his daugh- 
 ters when at home. After dinner he instantly hurries 
 you off to tea and then back again to smoke. He 
 calls it a meat tea, and boasts that few people who 
 have ever dined with him come back again. 
 
 ' 26th. — ... In the evening a party of artists was 
 at Miller's, and I met Davis, who brought a little 
 sketch from Nature, very beautiful. Miller asked me 
 as a favour to purchase it, which I could not refuse 
 him, though it put me in the awkward position of 
 patronising a man I think far too well of to attempt 
 the like with. This Davis, who has been one of the 
 most unlucky artists in England (now about forty, with 
 a wife and family), is a man with a fine-shaped head 
 and well-cut features, and his manners are not without 
 a certain modest dignity, though crushed by disappoint- 
 ment. Miller is the only man who buys his pictures. 
 Very sad ; we must hope his turn will come. Miller 
 bought my little picture of Emma and the boy for 84/., 1 
 
 1 This was, perhaps, the never-finished picture of Take your Son, 
 Sir. 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 BROWNING 
 
 i39 
 
 and a commission looms in the distance from a Mr. 
 Langdale. 
 
 ' 28t/z. — Home by rail. 
 
 '30th. — Went and laid out a lot of money for Emma 
 and the chicks. Gave Emma a 4/. dress for having 
 sold her and the child. 
 
 ' October 7th. — Dined with Bill Rossetti, and after- 
 wards to Browning, where was a woman with a large 
 nose. Hope I may never meet her again. Browning's 
 conversational powers very great. He told some good 
 stories, one about the bygone days of Drury Lane. 
 One was the advice that a very experienced stage- 
 carpenter of about fifty years' standing gave to a 
 young man who wished for an engagement there, but 
 had not, it was objected, voice enough. This was to 
 get a pot of XXXX and put it on the stage beside 
 him, and, having the boards all to himself, he was first 
 to drink and then to shout with all his might ; then to 
 drink again, and so on ; which the aspirant literally 
 did, remaining, of course, a muff as he had begun. 
 However, I spoil that one. Browning said that one 
 evening he was at Carlyle's, and that sage teacher, 
 after abusing Mozart, Beethoven, and modern music 
 generally, set Mrs. Carlyle to show Browning what 
 was the right sort of music ; which was some Scotch 
 tune on an old piano, with such bass as pleased, or 
 rather, as Browning said, did not please Providence. 
 An Italian sinner, who belonged to that highest order 
 of criminality which requires that some very exalted 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1856 
 
 dignitary of the Church be resorted to before absolu- 
 tion be obtained for atrocities too heinous for the 
 cleansing powers of the ordinary priest — Browning 
 likened to a spider who, having fallen into a bottle of 
 ink, gets out and crawls and sprawls a blot over the 
 whole of God's laws. 
 
 ' 8tk — Painted at William from 8 at night till 12. 
 Gabriel came in, and, William wishing to go early, 
 Gabriel proposed that he should wait five minutes, and 
 they would go together. William being got to sleep on 
 the sofa, Gabriel commenced telling me he intended 
 to get married at once to Guggum, and then off to 
 Algeria ! and so poor William's five minutes lasted till 
 half past 3 a.m. 
 
 ' A T ovember gtk. — As I was painting at Woolner's 
 brother (for Stages of Cruelty) my wrist gradually 
 became so painful that I was obliged to leave off after 
 three hours of the worst painting I ever did in my life. 
 On Monday, after a day and a half of agony, I went 
 to show it to Marshall, who ordered leeches, &c, and 
 said it was rheumatic inflammation on an old sprain. 
 At Finchley, I remember that, whilst putting the Last 
 of England in its frame, I made something crack in 
 the back of my hand as I was breaking a piece of 
 wood in two. . . . This has kept me till the day before 
 yesterday, when I got some of the last lilac-leaves of 
 this year and painted them under the lay figure's arm 
 and worked on them yesterday. I have become fear- 
 fully idle, one stoppage after another having operated 
 
i8 5 6 
 
 COMMISSIONS 
 
 141 
 
 in a most prejudicial manner on a constitution already 
 deficient in energy. 
 
 'Wednesday. — Mr. Plint called here, inveigled here 
 by Gabriel. He did not fancy landscape, nor bite at 
 the Baa-Lambs, and the Christ picture was large 
 and had no woman in it ; for the same reason the 
 Cromwell was unsatisfactory. At length he com- 
 missioned me for something for 100 guineas, but on 
 seeing the sketch and background of the large Work 
 begun at Hampstead, he almost agreed to have it gone 
 on with for 400 guineas, but said he would write. How 
 I hope he will ! This is, perhaps, the only thing that 
 can snatch me from the state of apathy into which I 
 have fallen. . . . Rossetti has been here nearly a fort- 
 night, coming about 12 and working or not working 
 at his drawing on wood for Moxon, of St. Cecilia. It 
 is jolly quaint, but very lovely. Also Plint, who has 
 already paid Gabriel down 100 out of a 400-guinea 
 commission, gave him here, on seeing it, an order for 
 a 40-guinea drawing of it. We have been to the 
 theatre twice, and altogether very extravagant.' 
 
142 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1857- 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 1857-1858 
 
 Work during 1858 — The Russell Place Exhibition — The American 
 Exhibition — Letter from Mr. Hunt— The Manchester Art Treasures 
 Exhibition — Mr. Frederick Shields— Visit to Oxford — Madox Brown's 
 diary, 1857 : Work upon Work — Death of Thomas Seddon — 
 Committee meeting at Ruskin's — Ruskin at W. M.C. — Work — 
 The Manchester Exhibition — Work during 1858— The American 
 Exhibitions — Letter to W. M, Rossetti — Chancer gains Liverpool 
 Prize — The Hogarth Club — The Working Men's College. 
 
 As an immediate result of the commission for the 
 picture of Work, the number of pictures painted in 
 1857 sensibly diminished. The only one commenced 
 (or rather, recommenced *) was that of Take your 
 Son, Sir, which was destined to remain unfinished. 
 This is the picture, the double enlarging of the canvas 
 for which is mentioned in the diary for March 16. 
 For Messrs. Powell & Co. he made the first design of 
 a class of work to which he subsequently devoted 
 much time — a coloured cartoon of the Transfigura- 
 tion, for execution in stained glass. 
 
 With these exceptions, the rest of Madox Brown's 
 time was devoted to organising the private — or semi- 
 private — exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite work which had 
 
 1 It was commenced in 1852. 
 
i8 5 8 
 
 RUSSELL PLACE 
 
 H3 
 
 its being in Russell Place. To it most of the Pre- 
 Raphaelites contributed, and several other artists were 
 represented. 
 
 The idea of the exhibition was the comparatively 
 simple one of attracting purchasers amongst possible 
 visitors, rather than of relying on the sums paid for 
 admission. As far as Madox Brown was concerned, 
 the exhibition was scarcely a financial success, and so 
 late as the following year we find him lamenting that 
 certain of the subscribers had not yet paid up their ten 
 pound shares. 
 
 Madox Brown's own works contributed to the 
 exhibition included the pictures of the Last of 
 England., and the first sketch for it ; the English 
 Autumn Afternoon ; the Beauty, and the Parting 
 of Cordelia from her Sisters ; the landscapes, Carry- 
 ing Corn, the Brent, and the H ay fie Id \ and the 
 pen-and-ink drawing for the Prisoner of Chillon, 
 the drawing of which was chronicled in the last 
 chapter, besides a pencil drawing of Nolly as an 
 Infant for Take your Son, Sir. 
 
 The worry and trouble of getting the exhibition 
 ready were by no means inconsiderable ; the corre- 
 spondence with picture owners alone is portentous 
 even in its remains. Mr. Miller, of Liverpool, who, 
 on account of the numerousness of his pictures, could 
 afford to lend and yet have no gaps on his walls, was 
 not only a complaisant furnisher of pictures, but also 
 an indefatigable recruiting sergeant. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1857- 
 
 Mr. Peter Miller to Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 Being confined to the house by a cold, I am unable to make the 
 exertions I otherwise would to secure the pictures you mention, but 
 I have sent to Mr. Heywood, Mr. Luard's friend, to inquire as to his, 
 and written to Mrs. Wilson, asking her for the loan of Mr. Hunt's 
 Haunted Manor. How to get Mr. Watson's 1 little picture referred 
 to by you, I do not well know, as I do not think it is now in Liver- 
 pool ; but if I do not, the little girl will be a good substitute. You 
 do not say whether you wish me to send your own beautiful Wife 
 and Child, and I will probably defer sending off the Hunt, if procured, 
 and Millais' Wedding Cards and Broken Fountain (or whatever 
 he calls it) until I hear from you again. . . . One thing I advise you, 
 and that is to hang nothing whatever but what is first rate, and passed 
 as such by your select committee. You may thus make your little 
 exhibition extremely attractive — it will be the reverse of the Royal 
 Academy both in quantity and quality. We have not yet got Ruskin's 
 pamphlet down here, but see that he is this year as severe as he was 
 laudatory last on the works of Millais. 
 
 The exhibition, from its private nature, was not — 
 nor indeed was it intended to be — a rival to that of 
 the Royal Academy. Nevertheless, the idea 2 of some 
 exhibition directly and ostensibly in opposition to that 
 of the Academy was vigorously discussed at nearly 
 every meeting of the Pre-Raphaelites. At the same 
 time, Madox Brown and others of their number still 
 meditated putting down their names for election to 
 the ranks of that august body. 
 
 Another exhibition, which was fruitful of little more 
 
 1 J. D. Watson, a ' figure painter' of considerable merit of a more or 
 less melodramatic order, for whom Madox Brown had a certain admi- 
 ration. 
 
 2 The suggestion was originally made by Mr. Ruskin. 
 
i8 5 8 
 
 EXHIBITIONS 
 
 than vexation and worry, was that held later in the 
 year at New York. Madox Brown for a time enter- 
 tained ideas of going with the pictures sent to 
 America, where he was to have acted as hanger, 
 but for various reasons the scheme was dropped. It 
 was at best a somewhat impracticable one, and his 
 friends from the first endeavoured to dissuade him 
 from it. Madox Brown also entertained ideas that 
 intrigues were working against him, and he abandoned 
 the scheme, which at one time had included that of a 
 permanent residence in the New World.' 
 
 ' I am really very glad,' Mr. Holman Hunt writes, 
 ' that you have given up the task of hanging the pic- 
 tures in America. It would have lost you much time, 
 and an artist in the unavoidable troubles of life has 
 quite enough interruption to his work. I often think 
 of the game of success as dependent on production^ 
 regular production, as much as on any other card, and 
 in your case as requiring it particularly at this time. 
 I say this because I think that another may occasion- 
 ally see the position of a man in whom he is interested 
 better than himself.' A little later, namely, in Sep- 
 tember, the same friendly monitor writes, strongly 
 urging and advising Madox Brown to visit the Art 
 Treasures Exhibition at Manchester, saying that any 
 artist who missed it would certainly regret the fact for 
 the rest of his life. 
 
 For some inscrutable reason Madox Brown, who 
 accordingly paid the visit to Manchester, seems to 
 
 L 
 
i 4 6 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1857- 
 
 have thought very badly of the wonderful collection 
 that was there exhibited. This unfavourable view of 
 the exhibition as a whole may have been due to the 
 fact that the Christ and Peter was ill-hung, or still 
 more probably to some entirely temporal matter, such 
 as a prosy companion or the ' cheating of the waiters.' 
 
 In any case the Christ and Peter was sold out of 
 the exhibition for the somewhat small sum of 200/., 
 the purchaser being Mr. Flint. An interesting fact 
 with regard to its sojourn there is that it drew the 
 attention of the artist's later very — I am almost 
 tempted to say most — intimate friend, Mr. Frederick 
 Shields. 
 
 I quote from a lecture delivered by that artist to 
 
 the Manchester Literary Club. After referring to the 
 
 Cordelia at the Bedside of Lear, he goes on : — 
 
 Year after year passed by with its annual show of pictures, but no 
 work by this man's hand crossed my sight till 1857 ; then, at the Art 
 Treasures Exhibition in Manchester, enthusiastic in admiration of 
 such works as I there saw, for the first time, by the so-called Pre- 
 Raphaelites — the Claudio and Isabella, the Hireling Shepherd, and 
 the Return of the Dove to the Ark, I was attracted to the work 
 hung at the very roof, with a justice such as was meted out to Dyce's 
 noble cartoon of the Conversion of the Gentiles, which formed, as 
 Madox Brown remarked, the background to the umbrella-stand, and 
 fares little better at the Kensington Museum. . . . Well then, I say, 
 hung at the very roof was a picture of such power that, unobserved 
 as it was by the mass who judge a picture by its position on the wall, 
 it held me riveted— large and simple in the composition of its 
 masses as Giotto, brilliant and forcible, yet true and refined in its 
 colour and lighting, and wonderful for irs grasp of human character 
 and passion. The subject was manifest, Christ Washing Peter's 
 Feet. 
 
t8 5 8 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 147 
 
 But by whom ? The catalogue replied : ' Ford Madox Brown.' 
 So he had found me again, and seized and held me amid the myriad 
 of competitors for admiration ; and, ere I saw the last of it, the pic- 
 ture had brought me to seal my first impression that, among all the 
 English pictures of sacred subjects there, this only was worthy to 
 rank with the great Italians on the walls of the opposite galleries. 
 
 Another visit of interest that Madox Brown paid 
 during" the same year was that to Oxford, where he 
 made the acquaintance of Rossetti's admirers, William 
 Morris and Burne-Jones, as well as of Swinburne. 
 The distemper paintings that have now sunk into the 
 walls of the debating hall of the Union Club were 
 then in the course of painting. 
 
 Unfortunately Madox Brown, whose want of appli- 
 cation is most fully displayed in the remissness with 
 which his diary was kept, has there left no trace, 
 other than a mere record of the visit. The only tan- 
 gible vestige that I have secured is a letter bearing 
 •date November 1, written with a somewhat Bacchic 
 hand at 1 a.m. : — 
 
 Ford Madox Brown to Emma Madox Brown. 
 
 November 1. 
 
 Dearest Emma, — I write at this late hour, past one, so that the 
 letter may go by the post to-morrow morning. I am quite well, and 
 will come home by 10 or n to-morrow night. We are very jolly 
 liere, and they much want me to do one of the works, but as it would 
 not pay, I think there is small chance of my consent being obtained. 
 The Oxford Museum is very fine, which Woodward is building. 1 
 have been up ladders this morning eighty feet high, making me feel 
 quite giddy. 
 
 Neither William nor Hunt have come, but there are lots of good 
 
 l 2 
 
i 4 8 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1857- 
 
 fellows of all sorts here. God bless you, dearest, and kiss Lucy and 
 the brats for me if this come first to hand. 
 
 In later years Madox Brown was wont to relate 
 weird tales of how they worked at Oxford. If they 
 may be believed, the daily fare was roast beef, plum 
 puddings, one to each man, and old ale. Enormous 
 sums were spent on the mere colours for the paint- 
 ings that have now disappeared beneath the dust. 
 Rossetti, after upsetting from the top of a ladder a 
 painter's pot full of priceless lapis lazuli ground into 
 real ultramarine, was said to have said : ' Oh, that's 
 nothing, we often do that.' 
 
 I insert here the remaining fragment of Madox 
 Brown's diary : — 
 
 Continued from November 1856. 
 
 'March 16, 1857. — Since last entry Plint gave me 
 the commission for the picture of Work, and I sent 
 it to be lined by his directions. Then I began upon 
 the naked baby from Arthur, made a drawing of it, 
 then painted it on the enlarged canvas on which I 
 had painted a study of Emma's head one evening in 
 Newman Street. I have now sent it to be enlarged 
 a second time, having made an error. After this 
 Emma was taken ill again, and had to go to Hastings 
 for five weeks, during which I did little more than 
 make a cartoon for a stained-glass window of the 
 Transfigtiration, for Powell, of Temple Street, for 
 which I charged sixteen guineas. Then I finished 
 
i8 5 8 
 
 THOMAS SEDDON 
 
 149 
 
 William Rossetti's portrait, did a good bit at the 
 design for Plint's picture, which, however, is not yet 
 done, and these last four or five weeks I have been 
 at work on the picture itself, drawing in the figures 
 in pencil without nature. Tuesday last I went into 
 Gray's Inn Lane to look for Irish people, and after 
 some prowling about, found a poor woman and baby 
 in Holborn. Next day she brought me a young man, 
 and in six days I painted these three into the picture, 
 pretty satisfactorily, although I can scarce make sure 
 of what I am about as yet. .For two days I painted 
 at the head of the man mixing mortar, from the 
 young Irishman, and to-day I painted in the man 
 leaning against the tree, but I see to-night it has been 
 done too quickly to be good. 
 
 ' Yesterday, a young distiller, who buys pictures, 
 called to see the Christ and Peter: sent by Halliday, 
 who is therefore a brick. I devoutly wish this dis- 
 tiller may distil my picture until nothing remains but 
 the pure spirit in the shape of a cheque for 262/. \os. 
 He promises to call again with his wife, and if he 
 buys, I make a vow to purchase Nolly a perambulator 
 and myself a glass-house with a revolving Moor, and 
 two chairs for the parlour, item, a table-cloth for my 
 new table, which, by-the-bye, I have designed among 
 other works. 
 
 ' Since my last entry poor Tom Seddon's death has 
 occurred, which was rather a startler to me, I must 
 say. It makes one think of spirit-land with a ven- 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1857- 
 
 geance when suddenly informed of the death of an 
 old and dear friend. Poor Tom Seddon ! I suppose 
 plenty of history will be made about him, so it is 
 scarcely worth while for me to say much now, par- 
 ticularly as what I am now writing wants the 
 freshness and force of incidents noted down diurnally, 
 while at the same time it is too hasty and careless 
 to be readable history. I went to a meeting of the 
 sub-committee about the testimonial (to Seddon) at 
 Ruskin's. He noticed my absence from the previous 
 one with regret. 
 
 ' Ruskin was playful and childish, and the tea-table 
 overcharged with cakes and sweets, as if for a 
 juvenile party. After this, about an hour later, wine 
 and cake were again produced, of which he again 
 partook largely, reaching out with his thin paw and 
 swiftly absorbing three or four pieces of cake in 
 succession. At home he looks young and romp- 
 ish, but his power and eloquence as a speaker were 
 Homeric. 
 
 ' Old Miller was here, and dined with me. While 
 here I took him to Lowes Dickinson's party and to 
 see Woolner's statue of Bacon. 
 
 ' By-the-bye, the Tennyson is finished, and is a 
 very noble work, and I hope will do Tommy good. 
 No one deserves it more. Miss Siddall has been 
 here for three days. She is, I fear, dying. 
 
 * Sunday, ijtk. — Worked again at the man against 
 the tree, and all day with Gabriel, who is so unhappy 
 
i8 5 8 
 
 A GRAND SECRET 
 
 about Miss Siddall that I could not leave him. In 
 the evening I went to fetch Emma from Miss Sid.'s 
 at Hampstead. 
 
 4 Tuesday. — Wasted the greater part of the day in 
 writing to old Miller, then to Hampstead with Emma 
 to see Miss Siddall. Coming back I bought a very 
 dirty old wideawake off the head of a man we met, and 
 went home and painted it. . . . At night went with 
 Gabriel to the Working Men's College. There was a 
 public meeting, and we heard Professor Maurice and 
 Ruskin spouting. Ruskin was as eloquent as ever, 
 and as wildly popular with the men. He flattered 
 Rossetti hugely, and spoke of Munro in conjunction 
 with Baron Marochetti, as the two noble sculptors of 
 England whom all the aristocracy patronised. 
 
 'March 21st. — To see Old White, having come 
 down to that again. Met Windus there ; he and 
 White had some grand secret between them about 
 me. After he left Old White showed me the study 
 of heads which I sold at the Winter Exhibition for 
 ten guineas, and which he had bought at the Pocock 
 sale for 61. I forgot to ask if that was what was to 
 please me so. Thence to John Sedclon's, to see his 
 Government Office drawing for the competition ; 
 called on Thomas ; then to Hampstead to Miss 
 Siddall's, where we dined. Came away, leaving 
 Emma, and sent baby from here to her. 
 
 ' 22nd. — Up at ten to work at Christ's Head after 
 some time spent in cogitating. 
 
152 LIFE OF FORD MA BOX BROWN 1857- 
 
 ' January 17, 1858. — I must now endeavour to fill 
 up this hiatus after some fashion or I shall never be 
 able to proceed satisfactorily, the thought of having 
 to do it having prevented me all this while. 
 
 ' After last date I finished the Christ's Head with 
 much difficulty, as usual, but it seemed to be successful, 
 for it was much liked at Lowes Dickinson's conver- 
 sazione, where I sent it. There I was introduced to 
 Professor Maurice, who promised to sit for the 
 Work picture. About this time I painted in the 
 swell from Martineau and his horse, also the little 
 girl on her pony. Then, till July 13 (when our poor 
 little Arthur sickened and died in one painful week), 
 I was occupied on four things — first, the little water- 
 colour view of Hampstead from studio window (four 
 weeks) ; secondly, got up the collection of Pre- 
 Raphaelite works in Russell Place during the month 
 of June. On this I must have wasted at least four 
 weeks. All that came of it was that Ruskin's father 
 bought the charcoal of Beauty for ten guineas. 
 Thirdly, painted the body, arm, and leg of the man 
 mixing mortar in the Work picture, also painted 
 the dog, loose earth, lanthorn, and the pony of the 
 little girl, and drew in poor little Arthur's head for 
 the baby, and began painting it the day he was taken 
 ill, and had to rub out what I had done. After poor 
 baby's death I was very hard up, the Russell Street 
 Exhibition, which I paid for at first all out of my own 
 pocket (42/.), came back to me but slowly (and at 
 
i8 5 8 
 
 AMERICAN EXHIBITION 
 
 i53 
 
 this date some of them have never paid their shares), 
 and I was obliged to ask Plint 1 for the money to 
 bury him. 
 
 ' But I painted in the young working man, the 
 hero of the picture, all but his legs. Also, while 
 Emma was ill, I painted at some old studies. One 
 head of a humpback I painted in 1836, when I 
 was fifteen. This is not altered. Then one day I 
 looked up a slight sketch I once made for a Chau- 
 cer, also an old study for Mary Stuart, and other 
 rubbish. 
 
 ' During this time Plint offered me 200/. for Christ 
 and Peter, still at Manchester, which, to avoid poverty 
 closing in on me fast on all sides, I was fain to accept 
 in the shape of guineas. 
 
 4 All this while the American Exhibition had been 
 going on. I was to have gone over to hang the 
 
 pictures ; however, the scoundrel put a stop to 
 
 that, and all I had was the trouble of going to select 
 the daubs. 
 
 ' At the end of August a letter came from Plint, 
 enclosing 38/., without stating why. However, I took 
 it, and started off to Manchester as a great relief, with 
 Emma and Lucy, and stayed there a week, for we 
 were all of us getting terribly hipped. But it was the 
 first week in October by then. . . . 
 
 1 This means that Madox Brown asked for an advance of the 
 money which Mr. Plint was paying, in monthly instalments of 25/., for 
 the picture of Work. 
 
54 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1857- 
 
 ' After Manchester, Hunt held out some prospect 
 of Fairbairn's coming to buy the lilac-leaves picture. 
 I set to at it, and painted the convolvulus out in the 
 open air, composed and drew in the child, painted in 
 the love-lies-bleeding, worked at the lover's head and 
 then at the girl, in all I suppose three weeks. 
 
 ' Then I worked at the legs of the hero in the laro-e 
 picture and the figure of the man with the hod, chiefly 
 in the open air from a navvy I had met in the streets. 
 
 ' Since about the third week in November I have 
 been making a copy of Christ and Peter in water-colours. 
 This I finished yesterday, also four designs for chairs. 
 
 ' To-morrow seriously to work. . . . Two other 
 things of importance require some mention, a visit to the 
 Union Club, Oxford, and one to Carlyle, in company 
 with Woolner. Total of hours' work for 1857 — 2,626. 
 
 'January 27, 1858. — All last week spent in trying 
 to compose Carlyle and Maurice. I called on Rossetti 
 to see about Maurice, and saw Woodward's Crown 
 Office. I think it the most exquisite piece of archi- 
 tecture I have seen in England. Then on with him 
 to Jones'. Saw there Fanny, their model. 
 
 ' I called on Maurice and arranged with him for 
 Monday. Flint has commissioned Jones for another 
 picture for 350 guineas, and bought Topsy's (Morris) 
 Tristram and Isult. 
 
 ' Saturday. — Spent a great portion of the day in 
 contriving a rail for Maurice to lean against, and to 
 the play with Emma and Lucy. 
 
i8 5 8 
 
 LAST OF THE DIARY 
 
 155 
 
 ' Sunday. — Had to work at the rail, and Monday 
 and yesterday had short sittings from Maurice, and 
 made an outline cartoon of him. Saw Miss Sterling, 
 John Sterling's daughter, and she is a jolly girl, and 
 would do to paint. 
 
 ' At Manchester (to give one recording line to it) 
 all that I remember is that an old English picture with 
 Richard II. in it was the only really beautiful work of 
 the old masters, and Hunt and Millais 1 the only fine 
 among- the new. Hunt, in fact, made the exhibition. 
 The music was jolly, and the waiters tried very hard 
 to cheat. 
 
 'Sunday, 31^/. — Coloured at one of my lithographs 
 of Windermere to give John Marshall. At night 
 drew in Maurice into the picture. But, drawn exactly 
 from himself, it looks ridiculously stumpy, and the 
 head enormous. I must either falsify it or make the 
 navvy's head bigger. Out to see about a photographer 
 for Maurice. To-night letters and accounts. 
 
 'February \st. — Bothering all the morning about 
 some frames that came home wrong size. Coloured 
 
 1 Whilst correcting these sheets for the press I receive the news that 
 the great P.R.B. and P.R.A. is no more. In this Diary Madox Brown 
 speaks occasionally with some acrimony of Millais, and although the latter 
 made no objections to my publishing these remarks, I now feel some com- 
 punction about doing so. But, since Madox Brown also speaks with the 
 admiration which he really felt for Millais' work, it would be impolitic to 
 suppress the one without the other. The fact is the two artists were at 
 that time very intimate, and that being so, Madox Brown allowed himself 
 to ' slang' his friend's work in private, but would certainly have belauded 
 it in all public places and balanced judgments. 
 
i 5 6 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1857- 
 
 at the lithograph. Cough still bad. Could not go 
 this evening to Munro's.' Cetera desunt. 
 
 For the sake of convenience I have grouped together 
 with the diary for 1857 the fragment concerning the 
 months of January and February of the year following. 
 
 In this year, as in the one preceding, titles of new 
 works are conspicuous by their absence. Work 
 continued to swallow up its painter's daylight hours, 
 and exhibition projects his leisure. Otherwise there 
 were a few old studies retouched, and others, such 
 as the landscape of Southend, finished. At the 
 suggestion of its purchaser, Mr. Flint, some altera- 
 tions were made in the Christ and Peter. In the 
 latter part of the year the same gentleman com- 
 missioned Madox Brown to paint a companion to the 
 small water-colour of the Prisoner of Chilloit, a little 
 work that he had purchased the same year. The 
 subject of this, however, was not settled. 
 
 The amount of work bestowed on the picture of 
 Work this year was as considerable as in 1857. To 
 what an extent it filled its painter's thoughts is very 
 visible in the diary. To fall in line with Madox Brown's 
 methods everything must be— and accordingly was — 
 where possible, painted from Nature. Workmen in pits 
 .must be painted in pits, and pits must be dug out or 
 sought ; mortar must be turned again and again to get 
 the requisite soiling of a spade. Of each implement 
 studies must be made in just the right shade or just 
 
i8 5 8 
 
 AMERICAN EXHIBITION 
 
 '57 
 
 the requisite glare of sunlight. Thus it is scarcely to 
 be wondered at that lists of pictures and bank balances 
 fell away before this almost ceaseless work. The picture 
 was paid for by instalments during its painting — 25/. a 
 month until 400/. was paid ; but the sixteen months 
 passed away, as did nearly four times that time, and 
 the picture remained unfinished. As far as its finances 
 were concerned it was, as the sequel will prove, a very 
 white elephant among pictures. 
 
 In the exhibitions of the year Madox Brown's 
 pictures met with varying success. Those sent to the 
 land of the almighty dollar brought back no more 
 than thirty guineas, the price of the Hampstead from 
 my Window, which was purchased at Philadelphia. 
 Otherwise the experience of the New World was 
 productive of much vexation ; rain-storms destroyed 
 water-colours, and porters contrived to lacerate pictures 
 in oils, as happened to the cartoon of Oure Ladye 
 and the King Lear at Boston, Finally, the pictures 
 were returned too late for various English exhibitions, 
 and owners who had lent them remonstrated. Madox 
 Brown wrote an angry letter to W. M. Rossetti, who 
 was officially connected with the American exhibitions. 
 Mr. Rossetti's answer was calm, and extorted an 
 apologetic response, which I insert rather as expli- 
 catory of Ford Madox Brown's character than as 
 displaying any new facts of importance : — 
 
 My dear William, — I very much fear, from the long and serious 
 toned answer you have so kindly given me, that much more irritation 
 
158 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1857- 
 
 must have shown in my letter than I was aware of, or at all intended. 
 I suppose being disappointed in getting the pictures for the periods 
 I most required them, and then at length getting the King Zm/'back 
 with part of the stretcher torn away and a great bump in the centre of 
 the canvas put me in a fluster, and I wrote off without well weighing 
 what I put down. But whatever comes of it all (although I may feel 
 little disposed to have anything more to do with America in future), 
 yet I feel it my duty in the present instance to make the best of it all, 
 and rather smooth things down than lead the way in recriminations 
 at what can't be helped. 
 
 The 50/. prize of the Liverpool Academy was this 
 year again awarded him for the picture of Chaucer 
 at the Court of Edward III. 
 
 Towards April, and indeed earlier in the year, the 
 question of an exhibition in opposition to that of the 
 Royal Academy once more became a burning- one, 
 and a number of meetings led to the founding of 
 the Hogarth Club, which united the functions of a 
 social resort and of an exhibiting society. It was, of 
 course, in the full sense of the word, tentative. The 
 exact originator of the scheme it would be an almost 
 impossible task to discover, but that Maclox Brown 
 took an important part in organising and finding 
 members for it may be safely advanced. Especially 
 when things went wrong was there a tendency among 
 members of the club to assign to him the chief place 
 among its founders. In its embryonic stages it was dis- 
 cussed by its members at their various dwellings, in- 
 cluding those of William Morris and Burne-Jones, 
 whose names had now become household words 
 amongst Madox Brown's friends. 
 
i8 5 8 
 
 WORKING MEN'S COLLEGE 
 
 159 
 
 The membership of the club was fairly wide, in- 
 cluding, with the Pre-Raphaelites and their disciples, 
 many of the Liverpool artists, such as William Davis, 
 Bond, and Windus, and picture-buyers like Mr. Miller 
 and Mr. Plint. 
 
 Later in the same year the first exhibition was 
 held, Madox Brown being represented by the dupli- 
 cate of Christ and Peter, the sketches Out of Tow7i 
 and St. Ives, the landscape Southend, and the cartoon 
 of the Transfiguration* 
 
 Towards November, Madox Brown took over 
 Rossetti's class at the Working Men's College. 1 Ros- 
 setti found the work or the responsibility too tiresome : 
 ' I have been asked on all sides,' he writes, ' whether I 
 could find a substitute, and, on Ruskin's last asking 
 me, I mentioned you as barely possible, and he wished 
 I would find out whether you would come. Of course 
 my class is a perfectly independent one there, neither 
 R. nor anyone but myself being heard of in it, and 
 the same exactly would be the case with you.' 
 
 The Hogarth Club was the cause of a great falling 
 off of interest in the correspondence of Rossetti and 
 Madox Brown. The poet's letters are nearly all re- 
 quests for loans of colours or model-properties, and 
 end tantalisingly, ' We will discuss such and such at 
 the Hogarth on Friday.' 
 
 1 To Mr. J. P. Emslie I am indebted for the interesting account of 
 Madox Brown's connection with the Working jMen's College which will 
 be found in Appendix A. Madox Brown taught at the college during the 
 latter part of 1858, the whole of 1859, and the greater part of i860. 
 
i6o 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1859- 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 1859-1861. 
 
 Work during 1859— Duplicates — Quarrel with Hogarth Club — A new 
 Patron — Letters from Carlyle— Portrait of Carlyle — Ugliness of P.-R. 
 Women — Madox Brown and Volunteers — Rossetti's Shooting — Music 
 — Work during i860— English Boy — Irish Girl, &c. — Prosperity — 
 Hospitality— Liverpool Artists — Rossetti's Marriage —Soup Kitchen 
 — Work during 1861 — Finances of Work — Letter about Artists and 
 Commissions — Founding of Messrs. Morris, Marshall, Falkner & Co. 
 — Origin of the ''Firm'' — Madox Brown on Exhibitions — His attitude 
 towards the R.A. and Academicians — Mr. George Rae — The 
 Amenities of Volunteering in 1861 — Symposia — Letter from Rossetti 
 — Rossetti and Friends — Decease of Hogarth Club. 
 
 During 1859 there was much touching up of pictures 
 that had found purchasers or had changed hands. 
 These included the Pretty Baa-Lambs, a duplicate 
 of Christ and Peter, the Last of England, and 
 the Wickliffe, &c. Besides these an autumn land- 
 scape of Walton-on-tke-Naze, and a characteristic and 
 poetic drawing for Victor Hugo's ' Traveller,' which, 
 with a translation of the poem, also by Madox Brown, 
 was published in 'Once a Week' in August of the 
 year. 
 
 Chalk heads, particularly those of the artist's 
 daughter Cathy and Miss Louie Jones, occupied a 
 certain amount of time, and the same may be said of 
 
i86i 
 
 'ARTS AND CRAFTS' 
 
 designs for furniture. In this Madox Brown was 
 quite as much the herald of a new ' movement ' as he 
 had been in the case of the Pre-Raphaelites. He 
 had designed his own furniture long before the firm 
 of Morris & Co. was thought of, and subsequently 
 he designed a great many household articles for his 
 friends. That his designs were, to a certain extent, 
 in demand, I am led to believe by the fact that, in 
 the year preceding (1858), Mr. Holman Hunt, in a 
 letter, mentions incidentally a number of articles of 
 furniture for which he would be glad to receive 
 sketches. The table made to his own design is 
 mentioned by Madox Brown in the diary, and is 
 a characteristically substantial piece of furniture, with 
 a top in shape like a vertical section of a barrel, and 
 with pierced lockers beneath. 
 
 These designs for furniture led to Madox Brown's 
 first open rupture with the Hogarth Club, to the 
 summer exhibition of which he this year sent them, 
 with the idea of rendering the exhibition a sort of 
 precursor of those of ' arts and crafts ' that are now a 
 sufficiently familiar feature of art-life. 
 
 The committee of the club, probably regarding the 
 designs as not specimens of fine art proper, rather 
 than as defective examples of their kind, rejected 
 them, whereupon Madox Brown immediately resigned 
 his membership, as he had before done his seat on the 
 committee. As a matter of fact, the membership of 
 the club was a somewhat heterogeneous one. The 
 
162 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1859- 
 
 more distinguished members, however cordial friends, 
 were all of too marked individuality to run together in 
 the reins of definite rules and regulations without the 
 natural result of factions and dissensions. 
 
 Some of the members were for rendering- the club 
 a close preserve for artists of a certain kind ; others, 
 and Madox Brown amongst them, for a more catholic 
 interpretation of the membership qualification. This 
 naturally resulted in a great deal of black-balling and a 
 certain amount of friction. The points of discussion 
 multiplied themselves indefinitely over such subjects 
 as the desirability of billiard-rooms or of Sunday open- 
 ing, and in the end, at the beginning of 1862, the club 
 died a quiet death. 
 
 Madox Brown, in the case of the rejection of his 
 works, was induced by the representations of the 
 committee to withdraw his resignation and to return 
 his pictures for exhibition, but the ultimate result of his 
 experience with the club was a determination to have 
 nothing to do with societies in the future. 
 
 In the meantime a new purchaser, who was destined 
 to become the possessor of several of Madox Brown's 
 finest works, had made his appearance. I refer to the 
 late Mr. Leathart, 1 of Newcastle, who in July pur- 
 
 1 In connection with the sale of Christ and Peter, D. G. R. says : — 
 i I am really glad to hear of Leathart's buying the Christ and Peter, 
 not only for the immediate sale, but because I think it shows a steadiness 
 in him viewed as a victim to Art in the future. Who knows that he may 
 not even pair with Plint as a twin lamb on the altar of sacrifice ! He 
 already courts the unsparing knife of the Druid Jones.' Although flippantly 
 phrased, this extract is sufficiently appreciative of Mr. Leathart's very 
 excellent selective faculties in the matter of picture-buying. 
 
i86 
 
 CARL YLE 
 
 163 
 
 chased the Pi'etty Baa-Lambs, in August the duplicate 
 of Christ and Peter, and in November commissioned 
 Madox Brown to execute a smaller replica oi Work. 
 The large picture was beginning to show signs of 
 repaying the care that had been bestowed upon it. 
 
 The year before Carlyle had promised to sit for a 
 photograph, which was to be used as the basis of the 
 portrait of himself in the picture, and Madox Brown's 
 reminding him of the fact produced the following 
 characteristic replies : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — I think it a pity you had not put (or should not still 
 put) some other man than me into your Great Picture. It is certain 
 you could hardly have found among the sons of Adam, at present, 
 any individual who is less in a condition to help you forward with it 
 or take interest in it, active or passive. I was never in my days so 
 overwhelmed and buried miles deep in the belly of an ugly Enter- 
 prise ; too heavy in sad truth for the strength I have left, as, even 
 now, Jonah in the Whale's Belly is but a type of me in these sad 
 months and years. 
 
 I very well remember your amiable request, and the promise I 
 made you, to ' sit for some photographs.' That promise I will keep ; 
 and to that we must restrict ourselves, hand of Necessity compelling. 
 Any afternoon I will attend here, at your studio, or where you 
 appoint me, and give your man one hour to get what photographs 
 he will or can of me. If here, the hour must be $\ p.m. (my usual 
 hour of quitting work, or, to speak justly, the chamber of work) ; if 
 at any other place, attainable on horseback, it will be altogether 
 equally convenient to me ; and the hour may be such as enables me 
 to arrive (at a rate of 5 miles per hour we will say !) 
 
 Yours in great haste, 
 
 T. Carlyle. 
 
 And following : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — I propose coming to Mr. Thompson's Photographic 
 Establishment on Thursday (day after to-morrow) as the first part of 
 
 m 2 
 
164 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1859- 
 
 my afternoon's walk — if you will meet me then and have the job in 
 readiness for my appearance there. I set forth at 3^ p.m. ; if we 
 give half-an-hour for the journey we may appoint 4 p.m. as the hour 
 for beginning business. If the day is actually rainy— that is to say, 
 rain without interval — I shall understand it will not do, but that I 
 must return on the morrow. You will have to tell me, however, 
 where the place specially is. I vaguely understand it to be at or in 
 what they call 'the Brompton Boilers,' but I never was within the 
 circuit of that establishment ; and should like to know what door, 
 8zc, and whether simply asking for ' Mr. Thompson, Photographer,' 
 will suffice. Please, a word upon this in the course of to-morrow 
 (Wednesday) ; and for the rest, consider settled as above on my part, 
 the hour 4, the <S:c, <S:c. 
 
 I remain, yours sincerely, 
 
 T. Carlyle. 
 
 With regard to the resulting portrait in the picture 
 of Work a great deal has been said, the general 
 opinion being that the portrait is a caricature, or at 
 least verges upon that method of portrayal. Without 
 being at this moment concerned to defend it, I propose 
 to say a few words on the subject before passing on. 
 
 A few days before the letter above quoted arrived, 
 Madox Brown wrote to ask Mr. Holman Hunt's help 
 in the matter of soliciting Carlyle's sitting. In the 
 course of a lengthy reply, setting forth the difficulties 
 that lay in the way, Mr. Hunt says : — 
 
 Apart from this, would not you stand more chance of getting 
 him if you designed him with his face in a more dignified state of 
 composure ? I should not like it to be painted with my mouth wide 
 open in horrid grimace — neither would you, I think. And really 
 such fitful contortions in a human face seem to me very painful when 
 for hours, years, and ages they remain the same — as in a picture. 
 
 Madox Brown, however, was not to be moved 
 
1861 UGLY FACES 165 
 
 from what seemed to him to be the dramatic truth of 
 the picture as he had conceived it ; and as Carlyle's 
 face had appeared to him in a moment of animation 
 he painted it. The picture was not to be, and should 
 not be regarded as, a work of generalisation or allegory, 
 but as an actual moment, caught and recorded. 
 
 On the other hand, in a letter full of Carlyleana, 
 written to Madox Brown in the year 1866, Mr. T. 
 Dixon 1 says : — 
 
 Well, lastly, I saw Mr. C. [Carlyle] lately, and, strange to tell, he 
 had that singular expression that you have given to him in your 
 picture of Work. I never liked it ; in fact, it used to haunt me, 
 and since I have seen it in reality I feel sad withal. 
 
 — an unwilling, if not ungrateful tribute to the truth 
 of the portrait. 2 A rather amusing passage anent 
 the ugliness of heads in pictures of the Pre-Raphaelite 
 school is the following from a letter of a patron : — 
 
 Our pictures seem to come out badly in the Reviews this year, 
 and it is owing to nothing but the ugly female faces in the bulk of 
 the Pre-Raphaelite works. Rossetti has much to answer for for this, 
 for he has constantly red hair and the same type of face in his models. 
 I feel sure that this is the great obstacle to the popularity of the 
 Pre-Raphaelite works. I consider you are not liable to this charge, 
 but those who follow Rossetti are. Stanhope has spoiled his pic- 
 tures by this defect. Even the ' Saturday Review ' and Ruskin have 
 
 1 Thomas Dixon was the working-man friend of Carlyle to whom 
 4 Time and Tide by Wear and Tyne ' was addressed. 
 
 2 The result of Carlyle's sittings seems to have been a considerable 
 alteration of his head. Witness, D. G. R., June 22, 1859: 'Your new 
 Carlyle is - a vast improvement, I think. The whole picture seems 
 growing together into thorough satisfactoriness.' 
 
i66 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1859- 
 
 turned against the Pre-Raphaelite pictures this year, and so has the 
 ' Times,' and on this ground I do indeed hope that Jones will not get 
 into it, or Morris and Prinsep in the work they have for me. I am 
 sure you will get two or three pretty models for the young ladies in 
 my picture, and don't have red hair, please ! ! 
 
 Towards the end of September, Madox Brown 
 visited Mr. Miller, and from there went to the W. 
 B. Scott's at Newcastle. Of the road-haps thither- 
 ward I have discovered no trace, but, whilst returning 
 by sea from Newcastle, Madox Brown was nearly 
 wrecked, the engines of the steamer breaking down, 
 and the ship drifting almost at the mercy of the 
 elements, to arrive three days late in the Thames. 
 
 Late in the year — in November — Madox Brown 
 joi-ned the Volunteers, the Artists' Company of which 
 was raised and organised by Mr. Cave Thomas at 
 about that time. Although he never achieved any 
 distinction in his amateur military capacity, Madox 
 Brown remained in the company for several years 
 and attended the drills with some regularity, whilst he 
 induced several of his friends, including D. G. Rossetti, 
 to be of the number. 
 
 His own account of their exploits in the use of the 
 rifle was somewhat as follows : His own first shot 
 was not registered on the target, but injured his dog, 
 which was viewing the attempt at some yards to the 
 right. Rossetti's, however, was marvellously success- 
 ful, the bullet striking the very centre of the bull's- 
 eye, on the- spot where the foot of the compass 
 was placed to describe the circle. The instructing 
 
i86i 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 167 
 
 sergeant was in ecstasies, imagining that Rossetti was 
 a Queen's Prize-man in embryo ; but, ' From that day 
 to this,' Madox Brown was accustomed to say, ' D. G. R. 
 never hit the target again.' 
 
 Madox Brown, by dint of practising with Morris 
 tubes in his own back garden, succeeded in becoming 
 a marksman of some distinction at and below 500 yards 
 range. Beyond that, however, he does not seem to 
 have had any certainty of aim. 
 
 Further distraction was afforded him by his devo- 
 tion to music, in which pursuit the Madox Browns 
 were aided and abetted by many of their friends. 
 At that date Madox Brown, whose admiration for 
 German music was of later growth, still * sang a very 
 good song ' of an old English kind. 
 
 Recollections of a somewhat later day allowed the 
 artist's daughter Cathy, whose performances on the 
 piano were both precocious and considerable, to fur- 
 nish the writer with a sufficiently vivid sketch of the 
 horrors of being set on the piano-stool to accompany 
 either Madox Brown's solo, ' 'Tis jolly to hunt,' or a 
 duet of the 'La ci darem' order, in which Mr. and 
 Mrs. Madox Brown took part. If mistake marred 
 the concord, it would be : — 
 
 ' My dear, you are wrong ; ' or, ' Ford, that note is 
 F sharp' — to end in a huff, at which Mr. Madox 
 Brown would leave the room by one door and Mrs. 
 Madox Brown by the other. Upon this a meeting 
 and reconciliation in the hall of necessity ensued, and 
 
i68 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1859- 
 
 a return to the room to discover that the mistake was 
 due to the unfortunate accompanist. . . . 
 
 The year 1 860 saw the beginning, on Madox 
 Brown's part, of a slight return to the domain of new 
 works of importance ; one, indeed, of the works 
 executed in this year was, up to a comparatively late 
 period, one of the painter's most popular works, so far 
 as popularity can be said to have been vouchsafed to 
 Madox Brown. 
 
 I refer to the picture of the English Boy, which, 
 with the slightly smaller companion work, the Irish 
 Girl, was painted for Mr. Plint towards the end of 
 i860. 
 
 The English Boy, a work of the highest finish, 
 represents the artist's son Oliver, then about six years 
 of age, in the full flush of boyish health. The extreme 
 care with which it is painted, the vividness of the 
 colour, and the redness of the flesh tints, render it one 
 of the most representative, whilst the brightness of 
 expression makes it one of the most agreeable of 
 Madox Brown's smaller works of this period. Not 
 quite so bright in colour, nor so careful in execution, 
 the smaller picture, the Irish Girl, remains an 
 eminently pleasing little portrait of a dark-haired, 
 dark-eyed, red-cheeked, and red-lipped Irish girl 
 of about the same age. The model was a little 
 orange-girl from rhe sister-isle, whom Madox Brown 
 came across during his search for Irish models for 
 Work. A number of works were retouched and 
 
t86i 
 
 A NEW PATRON 
 
 169 
 
 worked over, including the reduced duplicate of the 
 Last of England, whilst a certain amount of work was 
 devoted to the unfinished Stages of Cruelty and Take 
 your Son, Sir. 
 
 At about this time Madox Brown began to fight 
 shy of exhibitions. At the Hogarth Club he was 
 unrepresented, though, by the representations of 
 William Rossetti, he was induced to return to the 
 committee of the club. He contributed to the Liver- 
 pool Exhibition, and, by special invitation, to the Edin- 
 burgh Exhibition, where the favourable notice of the 
 Press was accorded to the pictures of the Last of 
 England and the Lear, and induced him subse- 
 quently to repeat his contributions to the exhibitions. 
 All idea of sending pictures to the Royal Academy he 
 had, however, abandoned. 
 
 In the meantime a new patron had made his 
 appearance in the shape of Major — now Colonel — 
 G ilium, a Crimean officer, and an amateur artist, who 
 for some time took lessons in painting from Madox 
 Brown. His acquisitions included the reduced du- 
 plicate of the Last of England, the Hay field, and 
 Walton-011-the-Naze, whilst, in spite of the com- 
 mercial panic of the year before, the purchasers in the 
 North of England continued to give commissions for 
 varying sums. 
 
 Thus Madox Brown's worldly position began to 
 seem moderately assured, or, at least, to be reasonably 
 maintainable by means of the utmost hard work. At 
 
170 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1859- 
 
 the same time, the expenses of his household had 
 materially increased with the growth of his children. 
 
 In accord with this access of prosperity, Madox 
 Brown's scale of hospitality increased, and an occa- 
 sional party began to have a place amongst the fixtures 
 of the year. These gatherings, although perhaps not 
 as widely attended as later ones in Fitzroy Square, 
 were not wanting in their attractions. Of one of them 
 in particular, the fame spread at any rate as far as 
 Liverpool. ' I heard of your party,' William Davis 
 writes, 4 and what a splendid treat to those who had 
 the pleasure of enjoying it ! Excuse my mention 
 of it.' 
 
 Certainly, Maclox Brown's faculty of taking an 
 interest — or finding one — in almost every subject 
 rendered him an excellent host in any but the most 
 unsympathetic society, and his chosen friends were 
 almost all men of individual interest of an intellec- 
 tual order. 
 
 In the letter quoted, Davis gives a short sketch of 
 the position of art and the doings of artists in Liver- 
 pool, which I may be forgiven for quoting, as being a 
 slight light on a phase of art history and on a set of 
 men in whom Madox Brown took a special interest, 
 and of whom very little is generally known : — 
 
 With regard to our Academy, I can say it is intended to have another 
 exhibition, because Mr. Booker, the landlord, has agreed to take the 
 rooms off our hands at short notice. This he at first refused. As 
 it is, we may go on as long as there are funds ; some think that per- 
 
i86i 
 
 LIVERPOOL ACADEMY 
 
 171 
 
 haps a favourable change may occur, and that it may go on longer, 
 but it is very doubtful, I think. 
 
 The opposition fellows are going to have an exhibition d hi 
 Manchester on a small scale, some time about April, intending to 
 collect together all the pictures to be had in Cheshire and Lancashire 
 private collections, and sent a circular to Mr. Miller, soliciting him in 
 vain. However, it is possible they may succeed in getting up an 
 attractive affair. They are fearfully wideawake ; we have no chance 
 with them in that respect. 
 
 Windus is painting his picture over at Rockferry, at Mr. Lee's. 
 No one knows the subject, but one head which I saw was admirable. 
 Campbell is progressing with his picture. He has all his figures 
 almost finished, and I think, when it is finished up as highly as he 
 is capable of doing, it will do him credit. 
 
 Bond has sold some pictures to a Mr. Rochet, of Preston. I 
 think that's the name. P. P. Marshall, of London, whom you may 
 know something of, introduced him. 
 
 You always send me good news, but I never have any to send 
 you, for this Liverpool is a barren desert as respects Art news, but 
 your letter has been very cheering, and I will be very glad to stir 
 myself and get the picture done [this last in allusion to one of several 
 small commissions that Madox Brown had been enabled to secure 
 for Davis, for whose work he entertained an especial and very com- 
 prehensible admiration]. I saw Alfred Hunt's picture the other 
 day, and I like it much. It is a view of Snowdon, the top enveloped 
 in a mist and part illumined with sunshine. It is very clever, but I 
 think I almost prefer his water-colour drawings. 
 
 On May 23 Rossetti was married to Miss Siddall, 
 
 after a period of extreme anxiety about her health, and 
 
 meetings were subsequently frequent : — 
 
 Dear Brown, — Lizzie and I propose to meet Georgie and Ned 
 [Mrs. and Mr. Burne-Jones] at 2 p.m. to-morrow at the Zoological 
 Gardens — place of meeting the Wombat's Lair, &c. 
 
 The only other point worthy of mention in the 
 occurrences of the year was the starting by the Madox 
 
172 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1859- 
 
 Browns of a soup-kitchen in their own house during 
 the winter months of exceptional distress. The treat- 
 ment and solution of problems connected with the relief 
 of distress were subjects to which, at various periods 
 of his life, Madox Brown devoted much attention. In 
 later years he was more inclined to regard the matter 
 as one too far-reaching to be solved by such means 
 as individual or even organised charity. But these 
 more 'advanced theories had no effect upon his purse- 
 strings, and his tendency to give monetary, as well as 
 monitory, assistance to all and sundry askers mate- 
 rially straitened his circumstances and occupied his 
 time. 
 
 The year 1861 saw the finishing of two important 
 early works — the cartoon of Harold, now called 
 Wilhelmus Conquest at or, and that of Oure Ladye 
 of Saturday Night [or, Of Good Children]. The 
 colour was now added to them at the instance of 
 Mr. Flint, and upon that gentleman's death the com- 
 mission was taken over by the late Mr. Leathart. 
 The Oure Ladye of Good Children was the picture 
 that had undergone such maltreatment during its 
 Transatlantic voyages ; having experienced the full 
 force of a rainstorm of tropical violence that ' came 
 on without any warning at Washington Depot' 
 
 Besides these, there were the usual amount of 
 retouchings before sales, and one duplicate, that of 
 the head of the artist's daughter, Lucy, the original 
 of which was painted in Paris, circa 1844. 
 
1861 FINANCIAL 173 
 
 As a matter of fact, it was only by dint of these 
 retouchings and replicas that Madox Brown contrived 
 to support himself during the painting of works de- 
 manding, so much time and labour as the picture of 
 Woi'k. A mere consideration of the time consumed 
 and the price paid will amply show this. 
 
 Work was a picture the painting of which extended 
 over eleven years, and which, either in the stage of 
 studies or in itself, was hardly ever out of the painter's 
 hand for any length of time between the years 1856 
 and 1863. The price stipulated for it was 400/., and 
 although, in the event, the sum paid for its copyright 
 was considerably in excess of the first sum, it is suffi- 
 ciently evident that 400/. was quite insufficient to 
 compensate for the time spent on the picture, and 
 certainly to reward or maintain its artist. 
 
 It therefore seems obvious that only by at least 
 such work as the smaller replica of Work, which 
 occupied a share of four years, and was sold for 312/., 
 and still more by the restoring and colouring of such 
 works as the Oure Lartye, which occupied three 
 weeks, and was recompensed with 180 guineas, or 
 the duplicate portrait of his daughter, which took 
 only four days and fetched 40 guineas, that life was 
 to be supported. 
 
 These facts seem to have been brought home to 
 Mr. Plint, for in the beginning of March, impatient 
 to gain possession of Work, he gave Madox Brown 
 a new commission, which substantially took the place 
 
74 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1859- 
 
 of these extraneous modes of subsistence. The terms 
 of Madox Brown's proposal were that Mr. Plint 
 should give Madox Brown a new commission for 
 400 guineas, payable by monthly instalments of 
 40 guineas, and that during the continuance of the 
 payments Madox Brown should work exclusively 
 upon the picture of Work. The extra payment 
 was to be compensated by a replica — the proposal 
 was for the Wilhelmus — which was to be finished 
 at Madox Brown's leisure. To this proposal Mr. 
 Plint acceded, writing, however, a somewhat tart 
 letter upon the subject of the dilatoriness of artists, 
 from which he was certainly a sufferer. To this 
 letter Madox Brown penned a reply, which I insert : 
 
 Ford Madox Brozun to Mr. Plint. 
 
 April 23. 
 
 My dear Sir, — . . . As an answer to what you say respecting the 
 shortcomings of artists as compared with dealers (and I can only 
 answer for my own) I will imagine a case. For instance, that you 
 should have commissioned Holman Hunt for his picture of Christ 
 in the Temple six years ago, and paid him 400 guineas for it in two 
 years, expecting, as he did, that the picture would be done in that 
 time. Now, supposing it had taken him six years, as in fact it did, 
 would you have gained by hurrying it, and do you really think your 
 present bargain with Gambart better ? I don't know what the bargain 
 is, nor will I mention the sum report makes it out to be, nor the time 
 which report declares you are to wait for the picture. I only put it 
 to you conscientiously, would it not have been a better bargain to 
 have paid the artist 400 guineas four years ago for the picture and 
 the copyright, and then to have waited while he was making the 
 picture what it is ? 
 
 I trust you will not misunderstand this as intrusively commenting 
 
i86i 
 
 LECTURING A PATRON 
 
 T 75 
 
 on your affairs. I only point to it as a parallei to my own case. As 
 to the new commission for 400 guineas which you have given me to 
 facilitate the speedy completion of Work, I do not think it at all to 
 your prejudice. 
 
 Seeing that all my pictures are by far the greatest bargains you 
 have ever made (as I believe you will find one day), I am certainly 
 gratified by it, chiefly considering the spirit in which I believe you 
 do it (for I can well understand that, just after buying the Christ in 
 the Temple, you must not be much in a mood for fresh purchases). 
 I certainly am desirous of finishing the Work picture off. But, 
 had you not done so, the result would have been that I should have 
 had to set to work at other pictures which are as good as sold, if 
 done. In fact, binding myself, as I do, voluntarily to you in this 
 matter, may cause me to lose other commissions. Oure Ladye is 
 still in hand, and I do not fancy you would wish to hurry it. In fact, 
 I never can either shorten or lengthen the duration of any work, 
 however much I may desire it. 
 
 With respect to other artists, I will write to Morten. I certainly 
 thought you had that picture before. 
 
 Morris I have spoken to. His picture is now in my house, and 
 at my suggestion he has so altered it that it is quite a fresh work. 
 There is still a figure in the foreground to be scraped out and another 
 put in its place. 
 
 It is this sort of work which makes it so difficult for a real artist 
 to say when a painting will be finished. I take as much interest in 
 Morris's picture turning out good as though it were my own, for, 
 though it was not commissioned at my recommendation, I have 
 repeatedly since told you that Morris is a man of genius. 
 
 This rough-and-ready reply does not seem to 
 have irritated Mr. Plint to any appreciable degree, 
 and it will probably remain a problem whether it 
 is more politic to approach a patron cap in hand, or 
 to adopt a somewhat high and overbearing tone 
 towards him. 
 
 It remains a fact that Madox Brown, although the 
 
i 7 6 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1859- 
 
 most courteous and genial of men under ordinary 
 circumstances, repeatedly damaged his prospects by 
 resenting over-hastily and answering unguardedly 
 slights that were frequently imagined. 
 
 To dismiss the subject of the commercial trans- 
 actions that took place in connection with Work. 
 In July of this year Mr. Flint died suddenly, leaving 
 his affairs in a slightly involved condition. Under 
 these circumstances his trustees thought fit to 
 repudiate the second 400/. commission. In conse- 
 quence, Work proceeded by slow stages towards 
 its completion, which did not occur until August 
 1863. 
 
 Even then, although virtually out of his pos- 
 session, it did not cease to be fruitful of annoy- 
 ance to Madox Brown. He endeavoured in vain 
 to find a purchaser on behalf of the trustees of the 
 Flint estate ; the picture then fell into the hands 
 of dealers, commission agents, and auctioneers, and 
 at last passed out of Madox Brown's ken alto- 
 gether. It would be easy to dilate at some length 
 on the vicissitudes that it underwent ; it is sufficient 
 to say that it now finds a' permanent resting-place 
 on the walls of Manchester Fine Art Gallery, and 
 that its painter had the gratification of seeing it 
 there. 
 
 In the meantime an event of no little importance 
 had taken place, which opened a new field for Madox 
 Brown's inventive genius. I refer, of course, to the 
 
i86i 
 
 'THE FIRM' 
 
 177 
 
 founding of the ' Firm ' which received the name of 
 ' Morris, Marshall, Falkner, & Co.' 
 
 As to who was the actual originator of the ' Firm ' 
 there is some little doubt, and the matter is, perhaps, 
 of small importance. To Mr. Watts-Dunton I am 
 indebted for the information that Rossetti 1 laid claim 
 to having made the generating proposal in a company 
 including himself and Messrs. Morris, P. P. Marshall, 
 Falkner, Burne-Jones, Webb, and Madox Brown. It 
 was to the effect that with a view to starting a sort of 
 co-operative agency for supplying artistic furniture 
 and surroundings primarily to themselves, but also to 
 the general public, each of those present should lay 
 down a stipulated sum. The idea was at first pro- 
 posed and received in a semi-jocular manner, but upon 
 further consideration the scheme took shape and 
 became practicable. The rules of incorporation were, 
 briefly : that each member should contribute designs 
 for the various articles of use and ornament for which 
 demand arose, and should be paid for his work in the 
 usual course of events, before the profits, if any, were 
 shared. 
 
 With the general history of the Firm the present 
 writer is not further concerned. As has already been 
 said, it opened up an almost entirely new field for 
 Madox . Brown's energies, that of the cartoon for 
 stained glass. Although three years before he had 
 
 1 Mr. William Rossetti informs me that the suggestion was made to 
 D, G. R. by Mr. P. P. Marshall. 
 
 N 
 
178 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1859- 
 
 designed a single window for Powell & Co., that work 
 did not lead to more, whereas the designs for Morris 
 & Co. must have exceeded 150, and were many of 
 them works of considerable importance. 1 . . . 
 
 In 1 86 1 Madox Brown's dislike to exhibiting was 
 in nowise altered, although he was actually repre- 
 sented at three exhibitions — that of the Hogarth Club, 
 of the Royal Society, and at Edinburgh. 
 
 In this connection frequent remonstrances were 
 addressed to Madox Brown by members of his circle. 
 
 The answer to one of these I print, although it 
 remained unsent, and consequently to a certain extent 
 repented of. It represents Madox Brown's feelings 
 in a somewhat exaggerated way, and puts the position 
 in a light which was possibly only partly justified : — 
 
 Madox Brozvn to . 
 
 My dear , — Thanks for your kind solicitude. You know 
 
 I said I had not made up my mind, 2 nor have yet ; however, all I 
 can promise you is that I never in the least important circum- 
 stance act without much consideration, and systematic care and cir- 
 cumspection, and I generally find it answers. This is a maxim with 
 most business men, and in business matters we should take them 
 for our guide. 
 
 The whole drift of your advice has been, for some years, 
 something to the effect that it is best and necessary to put oneself 
 somewhat in the power of Academicians, and keep to the beaten track. 
 
 1 A list of Madox Brown's designs for Morris & Co. will be found at 
 the end of the book. 
 
 2 The matter under discussion was whether or no Madox Brown should 
 allow himself to be represented at the International Exhibition of 1862. 
 
i86i 
 
 THE ROYAL ACADEMY 
 
 ■79 
 
 Now, I have never found anything but disaster from the Acade- 
 micians, and the beaten track has been to me barren as well as 
 beaten : and, although provisionless, suffer me therefore to make my 
 own tracks. Your friends are not my friends, nor is it necessary 
 they should be. 
 
 It is quite unimportant what Egg 1 thinks of my works, but it 
 is very important that neither he nor anyone else should have the 
 chance of hanging them ill again, which is a ruinous thing. 
 
 Did Anthony's two pictures come late also, or was his picture late 
 at the Academy this year ? 
 
 What good came of your earnest wish that I should be one of 
 the candidates ? Would it not have been more profitable (from a 
 business point of view) to have informed everyone that the last thing 
 in the world I would do would be to join them than to let it be known 
 that I would and they wouldn't ? 
 
 Can you assure me that , 2 who is one of the chief men, is 
 
 an enthusiastic friend of mine, and will see justice done in spite of all 
 hangers ? Three or four friends of this sort, the ones to hang one's 
 pictures high, the others to send them back after asking for them, 
 would ruin a poor artist whose reputation is always of the most 
 gossamer sort. 
 
 The long and short of this rigmarole, you see, is that I am very 
 pig-headed, and never take anyone's advice now ; but I like my 
 friends, and old friends (like yourself) best, and men of genius best 
 of all, so I trust to be ever friends with you though I won't take your 
 advice. 
 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 F. M. B. 
 
 1 This passage refers to a fact stated in the letter to which this is the 
 answer. Since the year 1852, when the picture of Christ ajtd Peter had 
 been 1 skied,' Madox Brown had refrained from sending to the Royal 
 Academy Exhibitions. The Academician referred to had been on the 
 Hanging Committee, and had acknowledged himself responsible for this 
 treatment, pleading the picture's late arrival, and the fact that, although 
 substantially an admirer of Madox Brown, he did not extend his approval 
 to this particular work. 
 
 2 A gentleman of influence who had repudiated a commission given 
 to Madox Brown. 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1859- 
 
 If somewhat violent in its tone, the letter is, per- 
 haps, not absolutely unnatural. It must be remembered 
 that Madox Brown's rencontres with Academicians 
 were generally unfortunate. I have already quoted 
 the vulgar critique upon the Christ and Peter 
 which appeared in the 'Athenaeum,' whose accredited 
 critic in those days was Frank Stone, A. R.A. ; 
 and when the past masters of the day descend 
 to weapons of critical Billingsgate, it is only to be 
 expected that the younger generation will deal some- 
 what over-hard knocks on the door, or even imagine 
 themselves victims of an ill-feeling that does not 
 exist in the exactly suspected form. 
 
 In the course of the year the death of Mr. Flint, 
 with its disagreeable attendant circumstances, was to 
 a certain extent compensated by the appearance of a 
 new purchaser, Mr. George Rae, who, in the course 
 of time, became not only a source of income, but a 
 warm personal friend of the artist. 
 
 His first purchase was, on November 23, the land- 
 scape of the English Autumn Afternoon. During the 
 same month Mr. Leathart purchased the Wilhelmus, 
 the commission for which Mr. Plint's trustees had 
 repudiated. 
 
 Madox Brown's life during the year was as un- 
 eventful as of yore. The company in which he most 
 particularly mixed was that of the members of the 
 1 Firm.' Visits to the Morrises at Upton on the part 
 of all the members of the family were not infrequent, 
 
i86i 
 
 SMALL MATTERS 
 
 181 
 
 and the visits were returned, formally and informally. 
 A picture of the amenities of volunteering and of 
 divers other small matters is presented in the follow- 
 ing letter to Mrs. Madox Brown, who was recruiting 
 from an illness at Ramsgate : — 
 
 Mr. to Mrs. Madox Brown, 
 
 Cathy has been at Mrs. Stund's this afternoon, and was at the 
 Joneses Saturday, while I was gone to Leatherhead with my corps. 
 At Leatherhead we had the most lovely weather, and the scenery also 
 was magnificent, but I did not get home here till past two. Morris 
 got here about an hour before, and was waiting for me (asleep on the 
 rug). He had been there also ; we were both much tired. W. B. 
 Scott was in London, also his wife, I believe. He slept here Friday 
 night and dines on Wednesday. Of course Hunt came yesterday to 
 find us all out, but left a line asking me to dine to-day, but I have 
 other things to do. I have been working hard all day and got the 
 picture done all but the robins, so to-morrow I mean to write and 
 ask people to see it. I have written to Old White, but he has not 
 turned up. God bless you, dearest. I am very sleepy, and must go to 
 bed, having been very late three nights running. Just struck twelve. 
 
 That these symposia were not of the most quiet 
 description, the following extract from a letter of 
 D. G. Rossetti's may suffice to show : — 
 
 Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 I could not mention about Lizzie's leaving before Mr. Rae. She 
 tells me she felt unwell after you left yesterday, and finding the noise 
 rather too much for her left before your return lest she should be 
 feeling worse. Many thanks, all of you, for care of her during her 
 illness. . I hope if she comes again she may be better and give you 
 less trouble. I write this word, since her departure must have sur- 
 prised you, as her return did me. 
 
182 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1859-61 
 
 A bevy of names, some of which are interesting, 
 occur in an invitation of Rossetti's of the same year : — 
 
 The same to the same. 
 
 Dear Brown,— A few blokes and coves are coming at 8 or so 
 on Friday evening to participate in oysters and obloquy. Will you 
 identify yourself with them and their habits ? The names of them 
 may probably be Gilchrist, 1 Rose, 2 Sandys, Meredith, Val [Prinsep], 
 W. M. and D. G. Rossetti. 
 
 The only other fact that remains to be chronicled 
 in 1 86 1 is the tranquil decease of the Hogarth Club, 
 which, to the relief of nearly everybody concerned, 
 dissolved on December 29. 
 
 1 The author of the Life of Etty and William Blake, who died three 
 days later. 
 
 2 J. A. Rose, a picture buyer. 
 
The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. 1869. 
 [From the stained-glass cartoon in possession of (Mrs. Huejjer.) 
 
1862-65 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 1862-1865 
 
 Work during 1862 — Work — Stained-glass Cartoons — The Cotton Famine 
 — Subjects connected with it — Exhibitions — The International Ex- 
 hibition — Madox Brown's Pictures there — Madox Brown and H.M. 
 Commissioners — Last appearance of Madox Brown's Pictures in 
 London— Death of Mrs. D. G. Rossetti — Moving — Domestic Matters 
 — Work during 1863 — Completion of Work — Description of the 
 Picture — The Carlyles' admiration of the Picture — Other Designs — 
 King Renews Honeymoon — Death of Sir Tristram — Elijah and the 
 Widow's Son— The R.A. Hanging Committee — Work during 1863 — 
 Ehud and Eglo?i — Jacob and Joseph's Coat — Oswald Cartoons — 
 Piccadilly Exhibition — Rossetti's and Swinburne's suggestions for 
 Advertisements — Private View, &c. — The Press — Results — Diary — 
 Friends' Work — ' Thomas Bullion ' — Garrick Club — Moving — Chil- 
 dren's Talent — Brighter Outlook. 
 
 During 1862 the two Works draped alonor A 
 very considerable portion of the latter part of the year 
 was devoted to them — twice, indeed, in July and in 
 October, he writes to Mr. Leathart that for some weeks 
 he has been engaged on them alone. 
 
 Otherwise, the year was devoted to the production 
 of designs for the ' Firm.' These included sixteen for 
 stained glass, amongst which were the beautiful Christ 
 Blessing Little Children, the Nativity, and an Adam 
 and Eve, and several designs for furniture. 
 
 As far as sales went, the year was disastrous, as 
 indeed it was for almost all artists, and Madox Brown 
 
i8 4 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1862- 
 
 was not the only one who did not sell any picture of 
 importance. 
 
 To a large extent this was caused by the Cotton 
 Famine that was at that time desolating Lancashire 
 weavers' homes and paralysing almost every branch 
 of industry and trade in that county. 
 
 The fearful misery endured at this time seems 
 to have made a considerable impression on Madox 
 Brown. Besides contributing sums of money and the 
 picture known as Mauvais Sujet to the Mansion 
 House Relief Fund, which was opened in the fall of 
 the year, he was active in inducing his artist and other 
 friends to do the same. Amongst the pictures that he 
 intended to paint, but for want of commissions was 
 compelled to renounce, was one representing the 
 arrival of the first bale of cotton at the end of the 
 famine. The weavers, assembled in enormous num- 
 bers, struggled to have a hand in pushing the railway 
 truck on which it was placed, and the bystanding men 
 and women by one impulse began to sing the ' Old 
 Hundredth.' 
 
 Curiously enough, another unpainted picture that 
 he contemplated for several years had in its subject a 
 certain connection with the war in the United States, 
 namely, John Brown Assisting the Escape of Rtcnaway 
 Slaves. It is a matter for some regret that neither of 
 these subjects, both of which must have been singu- 
 larly congenial, was destined to be executed. The 
 episode from the cotton famine would, indeed, have 
 
1865 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION 185 
 
 seen the light on the walls of the Manchester Town 
 Hall, had not the subject seemed wanting in dignity 
 to the Committee who superintended the frescoes in 
 that building. 
 
 It was replaced by the somewhat unfortunate and 
 singularly unpaintable subject of the opening of the 
 Bridgewater Canal. 
 
 In the absence of more legitimate purchasers 
 Madox Brown was again forced to fall back upon 
 painting for the firm of Dickinson Bros. 
 
 However convenient the work might be as a means 
 of supplementing a none too easy livelihood, the re- 
 marks that the public of peers and general officers, 
 whose portraits he worked at, seem to have remained 
 a source of some annoyance to him, though his work, 
 to judge from its continuance, seems to have satisfied 
 his employers themselves. 
 
 To turn from his own works themselves to their 
 appearances at exhibitions. The only pictures of his 
 that claimed places were, at Liverpool the Willie Im us, 
 and at the International Exhibition the King Lear, 
 the English Autumn Afternoon, and the Last of 
 England. 
 
 A certain amount of surprise may be excited by 
 the fact that, after the somewhat decided letter on the 
 subject, quoted on p. 179, Madox Brown was repre- 
 sented there at all. It was, indeed, only at the par- 
 ticular request of the owners of the pictures, and after 
 a definite promise of good placing from the authorities 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1862- 
 
 responsible, that Madox Brown once again entrusted 
 his works to ' Academic ' hands. This, however, did 
 not happen until Madox Brown had several times de- 
 sired ' Her Majesty's Commissioners ' to expunge his 
 name from the catalogue, a request without doubt 
 sincere, for it was with the utmost reluctance that he 
 finally consented to the re-insertion. 
 
 Madox Brown to Mr. George Rae. 
 
 I have heard the light is altogether very bad for pictures, and 
 that the hanging will be in most cases inevitably worse. In fact, it 
 will be a scramble they say out of which only the very lucky can 
 hope to come well. 
 
 But men seem trying every nerve to get their pictures in, only 
 for the honour of having their names in the catalogue. ... If you 
 feel you could not endure to see the picture ill-placed, then I would 
 by all means make the condition [that the picture should be hung on 
 the line] ; and if it lead to the picture's never going, I should not 
 grieve, having been all along most doubtful about sending. How- 
 ever, the other two owners, Mr. Leathart and Major Gillum, both 
 added their strong dissent to yours as to the course I was pursuing, 
 and, you three gentlemen being just now more important to me than 
 the rest of the British public, I at once felt which was the right 
 course to adopt. . . . 
 
 The upshot of the rather cavalier treatment of the 
 Commissioners is narrated in the sequel of May 9. 
 
 The same to the same. 
 
 I am happy to tell you that the Autumn Aftei'twoii has a first- 
 rate place, as well as the other two I have sent. I have not myself 
 been to see, having been prevented on the artists' private view 
 day, but I hear on all hands that all three are on the line and as 
 well placed as anything there. 
 
i86 5 
 
 LONDON EXHIBITIONS 
 
 187 
 
 I fancy that they begin to see I am not one who will put up with 
 ill-usage without complaint. 
 
 Davis has also a capital place — as good as any one ; his picture 
 and mine, I understand, are favourably noticed in the Catalogue 
 Raisonne 1 published by the Commissioners. 
 
 The resulting profit of all this worry was extremely 
 small. Had the pictures exhibited been the artist's 
 own property, they might possibly have been sold 
 from the walls. Or had their owners had any occasion 
 to part with them whilst the memory of the exhibition 
 itself was fresh in the public mind, their prices 
 might have been slightly enhanced, and that fact 
 might have reflected beneficially upon the artist's 
 reputation in a country which, rightly or wrongly, 
 judges things by their commercial value. Neither 
 of these contingencies arose, and, Madox Brown 
 having no powerful backers in the Press of the 
 day, gained practically nothing from a few favour- 
 able, a few unfavourable, and a number of merely 
 negative criticisms hidden away in the lengthy columns 
 in which the exhibition was criticised in the papers. 
 
 It was his last appearance in any official exhibition 
 in London, and, with the exception of the exhibition of 
 his own works in 1865, it was the last time that any 
 work of his of adequate importance was exhibited in 
 London until his last years. 
 
 At the time of life at which he had arrived, and 
 
 1 This catalogue was drawn up by F. T. Palgrave, but was withdrawn 
 on account of the attacks it contained on Baron Marochetti, the sculptor. 
 
i88 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1862- 
 
 with his not inconsiderable artistic position, as well as 
 in consideration of the high standpoint from which he 
 had hitherto negotiated such matters, it was scarcely 
 to be expected from him that he should undergo the 
 annual humiliation of a more than possible rejection at 
 the hands of the Academicians. 
 
 Otherwise the year was uneventful ; the death of 
 Mrs. D. G. Rossetti had prostrated the poet-artist with 
 grief, and a good deal of Madox Brown's time was 
 spent in rendering the service of companionship. The 
 only other event of the slightest importance was the 
 removal which took place in the early part of October 
 from Fortess to Grove Terrace. I transcribe a letter 
 from Mr. to Mrs. Madox Brown, which is of interest 
 only as exemplifying the artist's quaint if somewhat 
 fussy attention to household matters. Mrs. Madox 
 Brown had gone to Ramsgate to recruit her health 
 before the arduous operation of moving. 
 
 Mr. to Mrs. Madox Brown. 
 
 My dearest Love . . . , — Here the house is in a muddle, but 
 work is doing, and I am glad you are out of the way of the bother, 
 and, I hope, enjoying yourself. The servants, I think, get on better 
 at the sort of thing they are at with only one head to direct them. 
 We are having new tick to all the beds and mattresses, so will go 
 into the other house with them all as good as new. . '. . 
 
 I have been working away well and quietly, but have a boil 
 coming on which makes me feverish; also yesterday I felt a headache 
 again, which made me leave off work about half-past 4 and go to sleep 
 on the sofa till dark. But going to the Firm seemed to do it good. 
 Ask Nolly if he lost my new stick, for it has disappeared. I want the 
 
It 
 
2 
 o 
 '5- 
 
 £ 
 
 o 
 
1 865 WORK 189 
 
 measure of his tunic, as I have a suit making up for his return, out 
 of my old uniform. Length of back, length of sleeves, and width of 
 tunic right round the chest, and round the hips will suffice. Tell 
 the kids that Ellen caught a fine young starling yesterday, which we 
 now have in a cage, and we shall rear it, I fancy. It flew against 
 her dress and so she took it. The other dick is well. 
 
 With which chronicle of small beer the year may come 
 to an end. 
 
 August of 1863 saw the completion of the large 
 Work. 
 
 With regard to the great picture itself I here tran- 
 scribe Madox Brown's own descriptive comment. It 
 would be a difficult, if not an absolutely impossible, 
 matter to procure a better one — a more characteristic 
 would be out of the question : — 
 
 This picture was begun in 1852 at Hampstead. The back- 
 ground, which represents the main street of that suburb not far from 
 the Heath, was painted on the spot. 
 
 At that time extensive excavations were going on in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and, seeing and studying daily as I did the British excavator, 
 or navzy, as he designates himself, in the full swing of his activity 
 (with his manly and picturesque costume, and with the rich glow of 
 colour which exercise under a hot sun will impart), it appeared to 
 me that he was at least as worthy of the powers of an English painter 
 as the fisherman of the Adriatic, the peasant of the Campagna, or 
 the Neapolitan lazzarone. Gradually this idea developed itself into 
 that of Work as it now exists, with the British excavator for a central 
 group, as the outward and visible type of Work. Here are presented 
 the young navvy in the pride of manly health and beauty ; the strong 
 fully-developed navvy who does his work and loves his beer ; the 
 selfish old bachelor navvy, stout of limb, and perhaps a trifle tough 
 in those regions where compassion is said to reside ; the navvy of 
 strong animal nature, who, but that he was when young taught to 
 work at useful work, might even now be working at the useless crank. 
 
190 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1862- 
 
 Then Paddy with his larry and his pipe in his mouth. The young 
 navvy who occupies the place of hero in this group, and in the 
 picture, stands on what is termed a landing-stage, a platform placed 
 half-way down the trench ; two men from beneath shovel the earth 
 up to him as he shovels it on to the pile outside. Next in value of 
 significance to these is the ragged wretch who has never been taught 
 to work ; with his restless, gleaming eyes he doubts and despairs of 
 every one. But for a certain effeminate gentleness of disposition 
 and a love of nature he might have been a burglar ! He lives in 
 Flower and Dean Street, where the policemen walk two and two, 
 and the worst cut-throats surround him, but he is harmless • and 
 before the dawn you may see him miles out in the country, 
 collecting his wild weeds and singular plants to awaken interest, 
 and perhaps find a purchaser in some sprouting botanist. When 
 exhausted he will return to his den, his creel of flowers then 
 rests in an open court-yard, the thoroughfare for the crowded 
 inmates of this haunt of vice, and played in by mischievous boys, 
 yet the basket rarely gets interfered with, unless through the un- 
 conscious lurch of some drunkard. The bread-winning imple- 
 ments are sacred with the very poor. In the very opposite scale 
 from the man who can't work, at the further corner of the picture, 
 are two men who appear as having nothing to do. These are the 
 brain-workers, who, seeming to be idle, work, and are the cause of 
 well-ordained work and happiness in others — sages, such as in 
 ancient Greece published their opinions in the market square. 
 Perhaps one of these may already, before he or others know it, 
 have moulded a nation to his pattern, converted a hitherto com- 
 bative race to obstinate passivity ; with a word may have centupled 
 the tide of emigration, with another, have quenched the political 
 passions of both factions— may have reversed men's notions upon 
 criminals, upon slavery, upon many things, and still be walking about 
 little known to some. The other, in friendly communion with the 
 philosopher, smiling perhaps at some of his wild sallies and cynical 
 thrusts (for Socrates at times strangely disturbs the seriousness of 
 his auditory by the mercilessness of his jokes — against vice and 
 foolishness), is intended for a kindred and yet very dissimilar spirit. 
 A clergyman, such as the Church of England offers examples of — a 
 priest without guile— a gentleman without pride, much in communion 
 
i86 5 
 
 WORK 
 
 19 
 
 with the working classes, ' honouring all men,' ' never w r eary in well- 
 doing.' Scholar, author, philosopher, and teacher, too, in his way, 
 but not above practical efforts, if even for a small resulting good. 
 Deeply penetrated as he is with the axiom that each unit of humanity 
 feels as much as all the rest combined, and impulsive and hopeful in 
 nature, so that the remedy suggests itself to him concurrently w r ith 
 the evil. 
 
 Next to these, on the shaded bank, are different characters out 
 of work : haymakers in quest of employment ; a Stoic from the 
 Emerald Island, with hay stuffed in his hat to keep the draught out, 
 and need for Stoicism just at present, being short of baccy ; a young 
 shoeless Irishman, with his wife, feeding their first-born with cold 
 pap ; an old sailor turned haymaker ; and two young peasants in 
 search of harvest work, reduced in strength, perhaps by fever — 
 possibly by famine. Behind the Pariah, who never has learned to 
 work, appears a group of a very different class, who, from an opposite 
 cause, have not been sufficiently used to work either. These are the 
 rich, who ' have no need to work ' — not at least for bread — the ' bread 
 of life ' is neither here nor there. The pastrycook's tray, the symbol 
 of superfluity, accompanies these. It is peculiarly English ; I never 
 saw it abroad that I remember, though something of the kind must 
 be used. For some years after returning to England I could never 
 quite get over a certain socialistic twinge on seeing it pass, unreason- 
 able as the feeling may have been. Past the pastrycook's tray come 
 two married ladies. The elder and more serious of the two devotes 
 her energies to tract distributing, and has just flung one entitled, 
 ' The Hodman's Haven ; or, Drink for Thirsty Souls,' to the somewhat 
 uncompromising specimen of navvy humanity descending the ladder : 
 he scorns it, but with good-nature. This well-intentioned lady has, 
 perhaps, never reflected that excavators may have notions to the 
 effect that ladies might be benefited by receiving tracts containing 
 navvies' ideas ! nor yet that excavators are skilled workmen, shrewd 
 thinkers chiefly, and, in general, men of great experience in life, as 
 life presents itself to them. 
 
 In front of her is the lady whose only business in life as yet is to 
 dress and look beautiful for our benefit. She probably possesses 
 everything that can give enjoyment to life ; how then can she but 
 enjoy the passing moment, and, like a flower, feed on the light of the 
 
i 9 2 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1862- 
 
 sun ? Would anyone wish it otherwise ? Certainly not I, dear lady. 
 Only in your own interest, seeing that certain blessings cannot be 
 insured for ever — as, for instance, health may fail, beauty fade, 
 pleasures through repetition pall — I will not hint at the greater 
 calamities to which flesh is heir— seeing all this, were you less 
 engaged watching that exceedingly beautiful tiny greyhound in a red 
 jacket that will run through that lime, I would beg to call your 
 attention to my group of small, exceedingly ragged, dirty children in 
 the foreground of my picture, where you are about to pass. I would, 
 if permitted, observe that, though at first they may appear just such 
 a group of ragged dirty brats as anywhere get in the way and make a 
 noise, yet, being considered attentively, they, like insects, molluscs, 
 miniature plants, &c, develop qualities to form a most interesting 
 study, and occupy the mind at times when all else might fail to 
 attract. That they are motherless, the baby's black ribbons and 
 their extreme dilapidation indicate, making them all the more worthy 
 of consideration ; a mother, however destitute, would scarcely leave 
 the eldest one in such a plight. As to the father, I have no doubt 
 he drinks, and will be sentenced in the police-court for neglecting 
 them. The eldest girl, not more than ten, poor child ! is very worn- 
 looking and thin ; her frock, evidently the compassionate gift of some 
 grown-up person, she has neither the art nor the means to adapt to 
 her own diminutive proportions — she is fearfully untidy, therefore, 
 and her way of wrenching her brother's hair looks vixenish and 
 against her. But then a germ or rudiment of good housewifery 
 seems to pierce through her disordered envelope, for the younger 
 ones are taken care of, and nestle to her as to a mother ; the sun- 
 burnt baby, which looks wonderfully solemn and intellectual, as all 
 babies do, as I have no doubt your own little cherub looks at this 
 moment asleep in its charming bassinet, is fat and well-to-do, it has 
 even been put into poor mourning for its mother. The other little 
 one, though it sucks a piece of carrot in lieu of a sugar-plum, and is 
 shoeless, seems healthy and happy, watching the workmen. The 
 care of the two little ones is an anxious charge for the elder girl, and 
 she has become a premature scold all through having to manage 
 that boy — that boy, though a merry, good-natured- looking young 
 Bohemian, is evidently the plague of her life, as boys always are. 
 Even now he will not leave that workman's barrow alone, and gets 
 
i86 5 
 
 ' WORK ' 
 
 *93 
 
 his hair well pulled, as is natural. The dog which accompanies them 
 is evidently of the same outcast sort as themselves. The having to 
 do battle for his existence in a hard world has soured his temper, and 
 he frequently fights, as by his torn ear you may know ; but the 
 poor children may do as they like with him ; rugged democrat as he 
 is, he is gentle to them, only he hates minions of aristocracy in red 
 jackets. The old bachelor navvy's small valuable bull-pup also 
 instinctively distrusts outlandish-looking dogs in jackets. 
 
 The couple on horseback in the middle distance consists of a 
 gentleman, still young, and his daughter. (The rich and the poor 
 both marry early, only those of moderate incomes procrastinate.) 
 This gentleman is evidently very rich, probably a colonel in the 
 army, with a seat in Parliament, and fifteen thousand a year and a 
 pack of hounds. He is not an over-dressed man of the tailor's 
 dummy sort — he does not put his fortune on his back, he is too rich 
 for that ; moreover, he looks to me an honest, true hearted gentleman 
 (he was painted from one I know), and could he only be got to hear 
 what the two sages in the corner have to say, I have no doubt he 
 would be easily won over. But the road is blocked, and the daughter 
 says we must go back, papa, round the other way. 
 
 The man with the beer-tray, calling ' Beer ho ! ' so lustily, is a 
 specimen of town pluck and energy contrasted with country thews 
 and sinews. He is hump-backed, stunted in his growth, and in all 
 matters of taste vulgar as Birmingham can make him look in the 
 19th century. As a child he was probably starved, stunted with gin, 
 and suffered to get run over. But energy has brought him through 
 to be a prosperous beer-man, and 'very much respected,' and in his 
 way he also is a sort of hero ; that black eye was got probably doing 
 the police of his master's establishment, and in an encounter with 
 some huge ruffian whom he has conquered in fight, and hurled out 
 through the swing-doors of the palace of gin prone on to the pave- 
 ment. On the wall are posters and bills, one of the ' Boys' Home, 
 41 Euston Road,' which the lady who is giving tracts will no 
 doubt subscribe to presently, and place the urchin playing with the 
 barrow in ; one of 'The Working Men's College, Great Ormond 
 Street,' or if you object to these, then a police bill offering 50/. reward 
 in a matter of highway robbery. Back in the distance we see the 
 Assembly-room of the ' Flamstead Institute of Arts,' where Professor 
 
 O 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1862- 
 
 Snoox is about to repeat his interesting lecture on the habits of the 
 domestic cat. Indignant pussies up on the roof are denying his 
 theory in toto. 
 
 The less important characters in the background require little 
 comment. Bobus, our old friend, 'the sausage-maker of Hounds- 
 ditch,' from ' Past and Present,' having secured a colossal fortune (he 
 boasts of it now) by anticipating the French Hippophage Society in 
 the introduction of horseflesh as a cheap article of human food, is at 
 present going in for the county of Middlesex, and, true to his old 
 tactics, has hired all the idlers in the neighbourhood to carry his 
 boards. These being one too many for the bearers, an old woman 
 has volunteered to carry the one in excess. 
 
 The episode of the policeman who has caught an orange-girl in 
 the heinous offence of resting her basket on a post, and who himself 
 administers justice in the shape of a push that sends her fruit all' over 
 the road, is one of common occurrence, or used to be — perhaps the 
 police now ' never do such things.' 
 
 I am sorry to say that most of my friends, on examining this part 
 of my picture, have laughed over it as a good joke. Only two men 
 saw the circumstance in a different light ; one of them was the young 
 Irishman who feeds his infant with pap. Pointing to it with his 
 thumb, his mouth quivering at the reminiscence, he said, ' That, Sir, 
 /know to be true.' The other was a clergyman ; his testimony would 
 perhaps have more weight. I dedicate this portion of the work to 
 the Commissioners of Police. 
 
 Through this picture I have gained some experience of the navvy 
 class, and I have usually found, that if you can break through the 
 upper crust of mauvaise honte which surrounds them in common 
 with most Englishmen, and which, in the case of the navvies, I 
 believe to be the cause of much of their bad language, you will find 
 them serious, intelligent men, and with much to interest in their 
 conversation, which, moreover, contains about the same amount of 
 morality and sentiment that is commonly found among men in the 
 active and hazardous walks of life, for that their career is one of 
 hazard and danger none should doubt. Many stories might be told 
 of navvies' daring and endurance, were this the place for them. One 
 incident peculiarly connected with this picture is the melancholy fact 
 that one of the very men who sat for it lost his life by a scaffold 
 
1 86 5 
 
 ' WORK' 
 
 i95 
 
 accident before I had yet quite done with him. I remember the 
 poor fellow telling me, among other things, how he never but once 
 felt nervous with his work, and this was having to trundle barrows of 
 earth over a plank-line crossing a rapid river at a height of eighty feet 
 above the water. But it was not the height he complained of, it was 
 the gliding motion of the water underneath. 
 
 I have only to observe, in conclusion, that the effect of hot July 
 sunlight, attempted in this picture, has been introduced because it 
 seems peculiarly fitted to display work in all its severity, and no 
 from any predilection for this kind of light over any other. 
 
 N.B. — In several cases I have had the advantage of sittings 
 from personages of note, who, at a loss of time to themselves, have- 
 kindly contributed towards the greater truthfulness of some of the 
 characters. As my object, however, in all cases, is to delineate types 
 and not individuals, and as, moreover, I never contemplated employ- 
 ing their renown to benefit my own reputation, I refrain from 
 publishing their names. 
 
 The most noted of the sitters for Work are, 
 of course, Thomas Carlyle and Frederick Denison 
 Maurice. The Carlylean motif of the picture is 
 indeed so obvious that it is scarcely necessary to 
 mention it. 
 
 I am not quite able to say whether the subject was 
 suggested by 4 Past and Present ' itself, or whether it 
 was entirely self-evolved. I happen to possess the 
 artists copy of that work. It is of the American 
 edition of 1840, and was therefore most probably 
 acquired from a second-hand bookstall. The elate of 
 its acquisition is not indicated, but it bears signs of 
 frequent perusal, whilst passages relating to the great 
 Mr. Bobus and many enunciating the gospel of Work 
 are pencil-marked. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1862- 
 
 The complaisant attitude that Carlyle 1 adopted 
 towards Madox Brown was without doubt due in 
 some respects to the spirit of the work in which his 
 presentment was to figure, whilst perhaps the sardonic 
 expression that Madox Brown has given to Carlyle' s 
 face was due to that sage's scarcely suppressed con- 
 tempt for painters. This, however, is a mere conjec- 
 ture. If the Carlylean spirit is prevalent and recur- 
 rent, that of Maurice is not absolutely disregarded, 
 if we may take the lady distributing tracts to be one 
 of those carrying out his ' practical ' ideas. 
 
 The o-entleman on horseback is the artist Martineau ; 
 the 1 beauteous tripping dame with bell-like skirts ' is 
 Mrs. Madox Brown, and the ' philosophic baby ' Arthur 
 Gabriel Madox Brown. 
 
 The' 1 Boys' Home, Euston Road,' was an institu- 
 tion with which Madox Brown had a certain connection 
 through his friend and patron, Major Gillum, and with 
 the ' Working Men's College, Great Ormond Street,' 
 he was also connected as an art lecturer. 
 
 The only other celebrity that calls for mention was 
 Professor Snoox, the lecturer on cats. This personage 
 was one of the imaginary companions of D. G. Rossetti. 
 With his fellow Ornithorhyncus Bug (Snoox's Christian 
 name being Athanasius) he made about this time — or, 
 perhaps, before the death of Mrs. D. G. Rossetti — con- 
 
 1 When the picture was exhibited in 1865, Carlyle was one of the 
 most frequent visitors to the exhibition ; moreover, he wrote to Madox 
 Brown informing him that his wife came even more frequently, and was 
 a very fervent admirer of the work. 
 
i86 5 
 
 NEW DESIGNS 
 
 97 
 
 stant appearance in the conversation of the poet-artist's 
 more wayward moods, a fact which may recall to mind 
 the Shelleyan snake. 
 
 Of other designs the year was fruitful. Those for 
 the ' Firm ' include Abraham and Isaac, Isaac Blessing 
 Esau, SS. Pazil, Elizabeth, John, and Matthew, 
 executed mostly in May and June, as well as the 
 water-colour and oil pictures of King Rene's Honey- 
 moon and the water-colour sketch of the Death of 
 Sir Tristram. 
 
 The same year saw also the beginning of a class 
 of work in connection with which Madox Brown 
 executed some of his most dramatic and successful 
 pictures. I refer to the designs for Messrs. Dalziel's 
 Bible. These were the Coat of Many Colours, the 
 Elijah and the Widow s Son, and Ehud and Eglon. 
 Of these, the Coat of Many Colottrs was designed in 
 November 1863. From a list of 'works in contem- 
 plation,' submitted to Mr. Rae in December, I ob- 
 serve that the first conception of Cordelias Portion 
 dates from this year. The other pictures mentioned 
 are substantially those named above. 
 
 During the visit to Newcastle in the autumn he 
 also painted the portrait of Mr. Leathart. 
 
 The only exhibition to which Madox Brown this 
 year contributed was that at Edinburgh, in the 
 early part of the year. He was there represented 
 by the Wilhelmus, the Irish Girl, and Walton-on-t 'he- 
 Naze. 
 
19.8 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1862- 
 
 Another with which he came in contact was that 
 of 4 rejected pictures ' at the Cosmopolitan Club. It 
 was organised by Mr. Holman Hunt with the very 
 sensible view of proving to Her Majesty's Commis- 
 sioners for the Academy, several of whom were 
 members of the Club, that pictures rejected by the 
 authorities at Burlington House would make a goodly 
 show if rationally selected. Madox Brown, not having 
 works that had undergone rejection, was, of course, 
 not eligible as an exhibitor, but he took some little 
 trouble in the interests of William Davis, and had the 
 gratification of knowing that two of that artist's land- 
 scapes secured excellent positions and looked their 
 best. 
 
 As regards the personal events of the year, it must 
 suffice to quote the following from a letter to Mr. 
 
 Rae : — 
 
 When you come up to town you will find but a ghost of my poor 
 self — all the nobler, or fatter, portions of me having entered into my 
 Work. 
 
 With 1864 we reach a year and period of really 
 astonishing productiveness. Apart from the com- 
 mencing of five duplicates — those of Chaucer at the 
 Court of Edward III., Oure Ladye of Good Children, 
 'fake your Son, Sir, among the number — February, 
 March, and April saw the painting of Sir Tristram, 
 a most characteristic work, and Old Toothless, be- 
 sides nine cartoons for the Firm ; May and June 
 the oil and the water-colour of King Rene s Honey- 
 
1865 
 
 NEW DESIGNS 
 
 199 
 
 moon ; July and August the oil painting of Elijah 
 and the Widow s Son, the water-colour of which 
 was finished in October. August also brought the 
 two ' ship ' 1 designs for the Firm. The duplicates 
 referred to were mostly worked at in August and 
 September. 
 
 The autumn, from October to December, saw the 
 commencement of the oil Coat of Many Colours and 
 the cartoon for Ehud and Eg Ion. 
 
 This increased activity was to a certain extent 
 due to the fact that in 1804 Madox Brown conceived 
 the idea of holding, in the following year, an exhibition 
 of the picture of Work, round which were to be 
 grouped specimens of the stages through which his 
 art had passed. To ensure a sufficiently extensive 
 display it was necessary to have a large choice from 
 which to select. Thus he commenced a number of 
 pictures, and brought them to a point that enabled 
 him to finish them with ease shortly before the 
 exhibition was held. 
 
 As regards the subject and conceptions of the 
 pictures completed in 1864, I quote Madox Brown's 
 own descriptions : — - 
 
 King Rent's Honeymoon. 
 
 King Rene was titular King of Naples, Sicily, Jerusalem, and 
 Cyprus, and father of our celebrated and unfortunate Margaret, 
 Queen to Henry VI. 
 
 1 Christ Raising Peter from the Sea and Christ Watching the 
 Disciples Labouring at the Oar. 
 
2oo LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1862- 
 
 He was poet, painter, architect, sculptor, and musician, but most 
 unfortunate in his political relations. Of course, as soon as married, 
 he would build a new house, carve it and decorate it himself, and 
 talk nothing but Art (except, indeed, love) all the honeymoon. 
 It is twilight, when the workmen are gone. Finished study for a 
 picture. 
 
 I may add that King Rene is represented as seated 
 on a throne with his Queen at his side, and is pointing 
 with the compasses in his hand to the plan of the 
 palace which he is building. 
 
 The exposition of the Death of Sir Tristram is 
 interesting as an example of Madox Brown's intro- 
 spective method of conceiving his subject : — 
 
 Death of Sir Tristram, from the ' Mort a" Arthur! 
 
 The romance thus called, written in English in the reign of 
 Edward IV. by Sir Thomas Malory, Knight, was made up of several 
 distinct French poems or romans of much earlier date. 
 
 The story of Sir Tristram is complete in itself in the original, but 
 Malory has incorporated it to a certain extent with his grand 
 mediaeval epic. The bulk of the story, however, he gives, massed 
 together, in about thirty consecutive chapters, when it suddenly 
 breaks off, giving place to fresh characters and events, the death 
 of Sir Tristram being only mentioned incidentally later on in the 
 history. 
 
 This story offers many points in contrast with the other leading 
 narratives in the book. It has no theological and little explicit 
 moral intention, save that general one inseparable from characters of 
 innate beauty and nobleness and deeds of knightly worth. There is 
 but little of Christian dependence on Providence, but rather a Greek 
 fatalism at work with the various scenes and final catastrophe of the 
 drama. The love-philter brewed for King Mark, but drunk by mis- 
 take by his bride Isonde and Sir Tristram, her escort (before they 
 
' DEATH OF SIR TRISTRAM ' 
 
 (Painted 1864) 
 
 From the picture in the possession of Mr. George Rae) 
 
i86 5 
 
 'SIR TRISTRAM 
 
 20I 
 
 were lovers), fatally holds their free-will in life-long fetters which they 
 have neither the power nor the will to cast off. The lovers die 
 unrepentant, and there seems little of hope for them but to join 
 themselves to Dante's lovers in the eternal storm of passion. Next 
 to Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram was the best Knight in Christendom. 
 Like him he erred, but he was doomed from his birth, when his 
 dying mother forenamed him Tristram, child of her sorrow. Our 
 compassionate tolerance of the lovers is artfully kept up by the 
 abject meanness of the character of King Mark, who labours, more- 
 over, under the disqualification, unpardonable in knightly circles, of 
 being a coward. The weapon, a ' glaive,' with which Sir Tristram 
 was ' traitrously slayne ' while sitting with Isonde, is well fitted for a 
 coward to use on his enemy from behind. It consists of a Turkish 
 scimitar fastened halbert-wise to a long pole. The upturned sleeve, 
 disclosing the concealed shirt of mail, and the large butcher-like 
 'anelace' at his girdle, more fitted for a yeoman than a knight, 
 bespeak at once the King's bloodthirsty intention and timid dis- 
 position. 
 
 The arms of Cornwall, which consist of money, seem most 
 appropriate to the mean-spirited King, and the motto, ' Deniers 
 prevaudront ' (pence shall prevail), has been added as in harmony 
 with this coincidence. The little dog is the ' brachet ' given by Sir 
 Tristram to Isonde, by which he was recognised when, sickly 
 and half distrustful, he returned from his exile in the garb of a men- 
 dicant. Like other lap-dogs, he is not unselfish nor over valiant, 
 and without rising he only yelps languidly at his hated master. 
 Outside is Dame Bragwain, the Queen's tirewoman, who dares not 
 interfere. 
 
 The description of the Elijah and the Widow s 
 Son calls for no especial comment : — 
 
 We all remember how the widow in the extremity of her grief 
 cried out, * Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, 
 and to slay my son ? ' So we can all imagine the half (or half- 
 assumed) reproachful look with which Elijah, as he brough t the child 
 down stairs, would have said, ' See, thy son liveth,' and even surmise 
 the faint twinkle of humour in the eyes with which he would receive 
 
LIFE OF FORD MA I) OX BROWN 1862- 
 
 the reply, ' Now by this I know that thou art a man of God.' The 
 child is represented as in his grave-clothes, which have a far-off 
 resemblance to Egyptian funereal trappings, having been laid out 
 with flowers in the palms of his hands, as is done by women in such 
 cases. Without this the subject (the coming to life) could not be 
 expressed by the painter's art, and till this view of the subject pre- 
 sented itself to me I could not see my way to make a picture of it. 
 The shadow on the wall projected by a bird out of the picture re- 
 turning to its nest (consisting of the bottle which in some countries 
 is inserted in the walls to secure the presence of the swallow of good 
 omen), typifies the return of the soul to the body. The Hebrew 
 writing over the door consists of the verses of Deut. vi. 4-9, which 
 the Jews were ordered so to use (possibly suggested to Moses by 
 the Egyptian custom). Probably their dwelling in tents gave rise 
 to the habit of writing the words instead on parchment placed in 
 a case. As is habitual with very poor people, the widow is supposed 
 to have resumed her household duties, little expecting the result 
 of the Prophet's vigil with her dead child. She has therefore 
 been kneading a cake for his dinner. The costume is such as can 
 be devised from the study of Egyptian combined with Assyrian, 
 and other nearly contemporary remains. The effect is vertical 
 sunlight, such as exists in southern latitudes. Finished study for a 
 picture. (1864.) 
 
 The only exhibition at which Madox Brown 
 was represented was that held at Stratford-on-Avon, 
 on the occasion of the tercentenary of Shakespeare's 
 birth, at which was his Cordelia at the Bedside of 
 Lear. 
 
 In fact, the subject of exhibitions as a whole, other 
 than his own projection, seems to have been more dis- 
 tasteful than ever to him. The want of discrimination 
 of the Royal Academy Hanging Committee afforded 
 him matter for several letters. 
 
' ELIJAH AND THE WIDOW'S SON' 
 
 (Painted 1 858) 
 
 (From the picture in the South Kensington Museum) 
 
i86 5 
 
 RELAXATIONS 
 
 203 
 
 To Mr. Rae. 
 
 By the ' Daily Telegraph ' this morning, it would appear that 
 Davis as well as Inchbold has been rejected in toto. I trust this is 
 a mistake. Also our friend Moore is among the ill-used it seems. 
 
 Hughes's pictures, however, are all well hung. He sent in three. 
 
 And later : 
 
 Jones's picture 1 has been badly hung by men who could not 
 understand the poetry of it. But I never heard two opinions about 
 it being one of his very finest, from such as are worth listening to. 
 
 Of course the newspapers have been down upon him, or he would 
 not be a grand genius, and they English newspapers. But he is all 
 right for fame and fortune. 
 
 Apart from actual painting and designing, the 
 year was much occupied with the business transactions 
 arising out of the exhibition of the year following, and 
 with negotiations with the trustees of the Plint estate. 
 This correspondence alone was a weighty matter, 
 spread over five years. I have in my possession 
 upwards of two hundred lawyers' letters, and a very 
 large number of copies of answers on the sub- 
 ject. They must have cost a considerable amount 
 of thought and an almost equal amount of manual 
 labour, although in many cases Madox Brown's 
 daughter Lucy acted as his amanuensis. 
 
 Relaxations were comparatively few. A short stay 
 at Newcastle and a visit to the Derby with Mr. 
 Morris may be chronicled. Otherwise, the approach- 
 ing expense of the exhibition, which Madox Brown 
 estimated at from two to three hundred pounds, 
 
 1 The Merciful Knight. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1862- 
 
 necessitated a certain drawing in of the horns of 
 expense. Nevertheless, an occasional dinner was 
 given on some such occasion as the visit of a picture- 
 buyer to London, but this not very often. 
 
 An amusing reference to Madox Brown's habit 
 of forgetting names occurs in a letter of introduction 
 from D. G. Rossetti, and may serve to round in the 
 year. It was one heralding the arrival of Mr. Spartali, 
 whose daughters were desirous of receiving" instruc- 
 tions from Brown : — 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 I send you this from Ionides, which name (and not Jonydese) 
 please fix in your mind. 
 
 By-the-bye, I did not know you reported police reports for the 
 ' Times,' but discovered such to be the case the other day on seeing 
 the following : — 
 
 < «E rra tum. — In a case at the Lambeth Police Court yesterday 
 the name of the prosecutor was erroneously given as Colnaghi. It 
 should have been Mather ! " ' 
 
 The early part of was entirely occupied by 
 
 the touching up of old pictures and the finishing of 
 others that had been commenced in the preceding year. 
 
 Of these, the most important were the designs for 
 Dalziel's Bible — the cartoon of Ehud and Egion, and 
 the pen and ink of Jacob and Joseph 1 s Coat, and the 
 series of six designs for the Firm, representing the 
 Life and Death of St. Oszva/d, which were executed 
 in December 1864 and January 1865. 
 
 To these designs the following descriptions were 
 appended : — 
 
]865 ' EHUD AND EGLON' 
 
 Ehud, and Eglon, King of Moab. 
 
 1 So the children of Israel served Eglon, king of Moab, eighteen 
 years ' (Judges iii. 14). ' But Ehud made him a dagger which had two 
 edges, and did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh ' (xvi.). 
 ' And Eglon was a very fat man ' (xvii.) And Ehud said : — 
 
 ' I have a message to thee from God, and he (Eglon) arose from 
 his seat ' (xx.). ' And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the 
 dagger from his right thigh' (xxi.). 
 
 The costume and accessories of this cartoon are taken from 
 Assyrian and Egyptian remains of a remote period. These alone, it 
 seems to me, should guide us in Biblical subjects. To pretend that 
 the Semitic races, to which the Israelites belong, have not changed 
 in costume and character of appearance up to the present day is 
 against the evidence of our eyes, as may be readily seen in the 
 Assyrians, and those of their near neighbours, the Egyptians, in 
 remains we have in the British Museum to compare with the modern 
 Arab. Englishmen should always remember that this convenient 
 similarity between the Israelite of old and the Arab of our days 
 came into vogue in France rather suspiciously, at the time of the 
 French conquest of Algiers under Louis Philippe. 
 
 The Moabites having remained in Palestine from the time of 
 Abraham and Lot, I have given a more Assyrian character to Eglon. 
 Ehud, on the contrary, I have thought necessary to represent with 
 more of the Egyptian character, the Israelites having come from that 
 country. 
 
 Jacob and Joseph ' s Coat. 
 
 The brothers were at a distance from home, minding their herds 
 and flocks, when Joseph was sold. Four of them are here repre- 
 sented as having come back with the coat. The cruel Simeon 
 stands in the immediate foreground, half out of the picture ; he looks 
 at his father guiltily, and already prepared to bluster, though Jacob, 
 his thoughts given all to his grief, sees no one and suspects no 
 one. The leonine Judah, just behind him, stands silently watching 
 the effect of Levi's falsity and jeering levity on their father ; Issachar 
 the fool sucks the head of his shepherd's crook, and wonders at 
 
2o6 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1862- 
 
 his father's despair. Benjamin sits next his father, and with darkling 
 countenance examines the ensanguined and torn garment. A sheep 
 dog, without much concern, sniffs the blood, which he recognises 
 as not belonging to man. 
 
 A grandchild of Jacob nestles up to him, having an instinctive 
 dislike for her uncles. Jacob sits on a sort of dais raised round a 
 spreading fig-tree. The ladder, which is introduced in a naturalistic 
 way, is by convention the sign of Jacob, who, in his dream, saw 
 angels ascending and descending by it. 
 
 The background is taken from a sketch made 1 in Palestine. 
 The same remarks about costume apply to this as to the Ehud 
 cartoon, only that in this one the costume is still more remote and 
 uncertain ; the loin-cloth, as worn now by the negroes of Africa, is 
 probably the garment from which all others derive themselves, and 
 is peculiarly suited to the period. In the East, taking off shoes or 
 sandals is equivalent to uncovering the head with us ; on this 
 account Simeon stands with his straw sandals in his hands ; such also 
 is the reason of Ehud's sandals being left at the door, lest by any 
 breach of etiquette he might arouse one instant too soon the sus- 
 picions of the tyrant. 
 
 That the Assyrians and Egyptians used chairs as we do is quite 
 ascertained ; as also that their furniture was much more like our own 
 and the Greek or Roman than like anything modern Turkish or 
 Arabian. 
 
 The series of cartoons devoted to the Life and 
 Death of St. Oswald records the exile, the restoration, 
 the victory over pagans, the proselytising, and the final 
 martyrdom in battle and enshrining of the early Eng- 
 lish Kin£ of Northumberland of that name. 
 
 The first one of the series — Oswald's baptism — is 
 otherwise interesting as containing the germ of the 
 frescoed Baptism of Edwin. 
 
 The exhibition itself, which was open from 
 
 1 By Thomas Seddon. 
 
i86 5 
 
 A NEW PATRON 
 
 207 
 
 March 10 to June 10, occupied almost all Madox 
 Brown's time during those months, though in the 
 meantime he finished the small replicas of Oure Ladye 
 and of Windermere. 
 
 For a new patron, the late Mr. Craven, to whom 
 Madox Brown was introduced though the good offices 
 of Rossetti and Mr. Frederick Shields, Madox Brown, 
 in July, commenced the small water-colour picture 
 called the Nosegay. This was finished in October, 
 and, at the suggestion of Mr. Craven, slightly altered 
 in November. 
 
 Later in the month Madox Brown received from 
 the same gentleman the commission for Cordelias 
 Portion. The monochrome cartoon for that picture 
 was begun on November 22, and the picture itself on 
 the 29th. 
 
 In the meantime a great deal of work was devoted 
 to the large oil picture of the Coat of Many Colours, 
 which had been commissioned by Mr. Rae the year 
 before. The picture w r as one of considerable size, 
 and, as in the case of Work, necessitated a great deal 
 of work and some little contrivance in the procuring 
 of accessory details. 
 
 Madox Brown to Mr. Rae. 
 
 As to myself and Jacob [he writes in September], I have ordered 
 his frame, if that is any evidence of progress. This I have been 
 unable to do till the other day, because I could not make quite sure 
 of the right measure of the picture, as there was a margin of canvas 
 to suit the requirements of the composition. 
 
2o8 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1862- 
 
 In the painting itself I have made good progress, if not quite 
 such expedition as was expected. 
 
 Five of the figures, the camel, and all the background are now 
 in —all, indeed, that is intricate or difficult except the little girl. 
 
 One reason why I do not get on quite so fast as I reckoned is 
 that I find in a work of this size the elaborate small drawing I made 
 is of next to no use except as a previous study. 
 
 I mean that, though it has been of advantage to the work in 
 helping to avoid errors, it is of no use to copy from. The flesh has 
 all to be painted from nature, and the draperies and accessories all 
 to be placed again. 
 
 The necklace for Levi I had to manufacture before I could 
 paint it. 
 
 As I am so behind the time of my promise, however, I must do 
 something for honesty's sake, and to make amends you must allow 
 me, when it is finished, to present you with a drawing equal to the 
 value of the interest of the money from the time I received it to the 
 delivery of the work. This is the least I can do. 
 
 During the last fortnight I have had to fall back on the domestic 
 pot-boiler from the dire necessity of keeping the establishment supplied 
 in victuals, but in a day or two I shall be again in a condition to 
 give my undivided attention to the picture. 
 
 From the 15th to the 22nd of October Madox 
 Brown worked continuously at the Nosegay — most of 
 the time in the garden, working altogether fifty-seven 
 hours in the seven days. 
 
 It was, of course, important that the picture, which 
 represents a young girl, accompanied by a majestic 
 cat, picking a nosegay — or, to speak more properly, a 
 bouquet — in a flower garden, should be finished before 
 the autumn frosts withered the flowers ; but this was 
 not an unusual number of hours' work in the week. 
 Sometimes it fell as low as thirty, but nine or ten 
 
i86 5 
 
 ADVERTISING 
 
 209 
 
 hours a day is a frequent record. This necessitated 
 working by artificial light during the evenings, and, 
 although Madox Brown had very little dislike to, and 
 still less difficulty in, painting by gaslight, he, as a 
 rule, devoted the evenings to working at cartoons for 
 the Firm. 
 
 To turn from the pictures themselves to their exhi- 
 bition. 
 
 By the end of December 1864 the gallery at 196 
 Piccadilly had been taken, and advertisements inserted 
 in newspapers and on the walls of railway stations. 
 These advertisements seem to have afforded endless 
 amusement to Rossetti. His letters, which, during 
 the previous year, had teemed with allusions to 
 furniture with which he was filling his new house at 
 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, now contained jocular or prac- 
 tical suggestions as to advertisements. I quote one or 
 two of his more amusing letters of one kind or 
 another : — 
 
 D. G, Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 February 6, 1865. — I've thought of an advertising system for you, 
 which is so good you must have the benefit of it. You should begin by 
 
 W 
 
 enormous placards with the one word Work, thus- 
 
 arid go on 
 
 with this for a week or two. Then another week of Mr. F M. 
 Browris Work, and then condescend to further particulars. If, in 
 addition to this, you put up a sign over your door representing a 
 Brown Mad Ox crossing a Ford, marked British Art, with you hold- 
 ing on to his horns with a palette and brushes, and R.A. and Public 
 
 P 
 
2 IO 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1862- 
 
 Press waving red flags to frighten him on either bank, the success 
 could no longer be dubious. 
 
 And again in a postscript : — 
 
 Swinburne announces an intention of revenge for your suspicions 
 by a continued placard — 
 
 BROWN ! 
 
 DOWN AGAIN, 
 6d. 
 
 The idea of a 4 one-man ' exhibition was a compara- 
 tively new one. Seddon's exhibition of his own works 
 had not been in any sense of the word a public one, 
 and although single works of artists — such as Mr. 
 Holman Hunt's Finding of the Saviour in the Temple 
 — or even two or three pictures by different artists, 
 had been sometimes exhibited, I am not aware 
 that the exhibition of a series of w r orks, laying 
 bare the whole art-history of an artist, was an idea 
 that had been anticipated at a then recent date in this 
 country. 
 
 The exhibition included upwards of a hundred 
 works, of which twenty at least were works of extreme 
 importance, ranging from Manfred on the Jungfrau 
 of 1840 to the Last of England and Work. 
 
 The other examples were almost all works worthy 
 of consideration, and included cartoons for stained 
 glass and designs for furniture. 
 
 Thus, I think it may with safety be said that an 
 exhibition of the same scope and personal significance 
 was practically unprecedented. On the whole, the 
 
t86 5 
 
 THE EXHIBITION 
 
 2 1 I 
 
 experiment succeeded to such an extent as to justify 
 itself. 
 
 The private view took place on March 10, and the 
 exhibition remained open until June 10, during which 
 period some three thousand people paid shillings for 
 entrance, exhausting about two-thirds of that number 
 of catalogues. Of the number of personal friends and 
 professional visitors that it attracted I have, however, 
 no means of judging. Their number was considerable, 
 and is to be added to those above mentioned. 1 
 
 For the rest, I will allow Madox Brown to speak 
 for himself : — 
 
 To Mr. Geo. Rae. 
 
 The exhibition is open at length after labours that seemed as 
 though they never would be done in time. The weather here is 
 cold and miserable to a degree which I dare say you in the 'sunny 
 south ' will hardly credit. This, I fancy, is against the public coining, 
 though they have come considerably this week. 
 
 The private view was crowded, however, though it poured with 
 rain all day ; and many people of note attended, who must be of 
 influence to my destinies, though the Prince of Wales is a great fish 
 that still remains to be caught. But Gladstone paid me a private 
 visit and delighted me much by his manners and modesty. 
 
 I believe people are pretty much agreed as to the satisfactory way 
 I have got up the exhibition and written the catalogue. The gallery, 
 I find, is too small for the number of works I have in it, and the 
 light is not so good as I could wish it ; but by careful and judicious 
 arrangement I have managed to secure for each picture a place that 
 suits it, and the whole looks filled up to excess and with something to 
 
 1 Pinwell frequently asserted that he was a pupil of Madox Brown's 
 work, if not of him personally. He and another shared the expense of 
 a season ticket for the Exhibition, and went on every alternate day to 
 study the pictures there. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 - 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1862- 
 
 look at at each turn of the head, the centre being darkened and 
 divided by curtains. 
 
 The result is that people begin to say I must have been a very 
 hard-working man all my life, a thing they have hardly given me 
 credit for as yet. 
 
 By April 19 disillusion had not yet arrived. 
 To the same. 
 
 The exhibition has been so far a success, and, at times, there has 
 been quite a little crowd, but the expense has been so great (certainly 
 over 300/. in money alone), not to mention loss of time, that I cannot 
 reckon on its paying in that line ; but the Press has done bravely for 
 me, and, in reputation, it cannot but do me much good. Indeed, I 
 have felt it already. 
 
 As to the articles themselves, they are all pasted down on cardboard 
 for the inspection of the public in the gallery. These you will have 
 an opportunity of reading of an evening in London. . . . The 
 ' Saturday Review ' notice 1 has been made into a placard. 
 
 This, with the 'Daily Telegraph,' 2 'Pall Mall,' 3 'Sun,' 4 
 ' Reader,' 5 'Athenaeum,' 6 and a review coming out next month in 
 Fraser,' 7 form the chief of what has been written. There have been 
 a good many others, some still coming out, and one or two black- 
 guard me. 
 
 Of these notices, all of them laudatory in the 
 extreme, the most balanced and, on the whole, satis- 
 factory, are that of the ' Saturday Review ' and that 
 of 4 Fraser,' by Mr. W. M. Rossetti. The greater 
 portion of almost all of them was devoted to de- 
 tailing the subject-matter of Work, which seems, as 
 indeed was to be expected, to have attracted and 
 
 1 March 25. 2 March 24. 3 March 29. 4 March 30. 
 
 3 April 1. ,; March 11. 7 May. 
 
i86 5 
 
 THE CRITICS 
 
 213 
 
 dazzled the eyes of the writers to the partial exclusion 
 of the other pictures. 
 
 Their highly favourable tone is the more remark- 
 able when one considers that almost total ignoring 
 had been the lot of Madox Brown until 1865. As a 
 matter of fact, even the critics of the least conces- 
 sionary order now showed signs of reducing their oppo- 
 sition to Madox Brown's work ; and the fact that 
 capable writers had declared him to be a man of 
 genius, and that Academies had awarded him prizes, 
 insured him at least courteous treatment at the most 
 hostile hands. 
 
 The immediate results of the exhibition were a 
 considerable access both of patrons and of public 
 esteem, and the ensuing decade was the most pros- 
 perous and probably the happiest of his life. 
 
 His circle of acquaintances had widened very con- 
 siderably, and many of his old friends had risen to 
 positions of considerable notoriety. From the slight 
 diary which he kept for a short time at this period I 
 quote the record of several more days, which will suffi- 
 ciently show how Madox Brown's life was spent at 
 that time :— 
 
 September 10th, Sunday. — Day of rest. Long walk after dinner 
 with Emma and the chicks. 
 
 wth. — From n to 1.30 and from 2 to 3 at the drapery of Judah; 
 from 3 to 6 at the Nosegay and Jacob. In the evening, from 10 till 
 12, placing drapery for Levi. 
 
 \2th. — Found the draperies on the lay figure cause delay. Began 
 painting about 12 at Levi, till 11 at night, with intervals of rest. Did 
 little good ; quite discouraged and can't work. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1862- 
 
 13//'. —To Gravesend with Emma, to fetch Lucy from Helen 
 Bromley's. 
 
 14^//. — Whitewashed ceiling of studio. Painted at the convolvulus 
 in the Nosegay. 
 
 15th. — Miss Spartali. 1 Painted at Cathy in the Nosegay. 
 
 i6tk. — Painted at Cathy and rubbed it out. Put it in again late 
 in the afternoon. 
 
 20///, Wednesday. — Cathy's head and hair. To-night for two 
 hours at making necklace of Levi. 
 
 25///. — Cursed letter from Leeds 2 requiring much thought. 
 Sketched cat for Nosegay. Painted at Levi's necklace. 
 
 2J//1. — Worked at Levi's necklace and wrote letters to divers 
 people about Work. 
 
 28///. — Tried to work at the cat. Spoiled it. Hunt called. 
 
 29///. — White called about Work. Got dress for the Nosegay. 
 Made a drawing of cat and recommenced it. 
 
 30///. Saturday. — Long letter to Leeds about Work. Painted at 
 cat and placed lay figure for Nosegay. 
 
 October 1st, Sunday. — Walked to Tottenham with P. P. Marshall 
 and Rossetti. Home in a fly with Gabriel. 
 
 2nd. — Legros called. Wasted afternoon. 
 
 8///, Sunday. — At Rossetti's. Home and Stephens and the 
 Marshalls to dinner. 
 
 15///. — Worked at child's drapery. In the evening wrote lines 
 for a song for Emma. 
 
 17///. — Same — languidly out of spirits. Evening — finished 
 Emma's song. 
 
 iSt/i. — Same — evening — upset on looking into extravagances. 
 
 November ijt/i. — Out all day. Bought horn for Levi and went 
 to Mudie's. Then to call on Burgess (out), Livock, Cave Thomas, 
 Home, Lowes Dickinson (at work), Chapman (Swinburne was in bed 
 asleep at 3.30 w T hen I called), also E. Godwin, but lost his number. 
 Thence to Gabriel's and dined there. Howell as usual. 
 
 iSt/i. — Craven called and commissioned me to paint a King Lear 
 for 525/. 
 
 ' The future Mrs. Stillman was then and for some years subsequently 
 a pupil of Madox Brown's. 3 About Work. s 
 
i86 5 
 
 ROSSETTJ'S WORK 
 
 igf/i. — Evening Webb and Anthony dined with us. 
 
 2o/>&, Monday. — At the Nosegay till 12. Then with Emma to 
 look after houses. Dined with the Burne-Joneses. 
 
 2$rd, Thursday. — Out after houses all day and to see Gabriel, 
 who was wished to say the size his drawing would be, to have mine 1 
 the same size, but he flatly refused to say. His good word, how- 
 ever, has got me the commission in some degree. 
 
 25//?. — To church, to call on the Tebbs, Joneses 2 to dinner 
 with us. Up late considering accounts, being necessary to settle 
 with Kentish Town tradespeople before leaving. 
 
 The doings of his brother artists Madox Brown 
 chronicles at some length in his letters to Mr. Rae. 
 
 F. Madox Brown to Mr. Geo. Rae. 
 
 Rossetti is, I know, well and at work on your picture. 3 He has, 
 I believe, introduced a fourth figure of a black child into it since 
 you saw it. Hughes is very well and at work for the Academy, but 
 I have not had time to see on what. Jones and his wife are pros- 
 pering, I believe. 
 
 Morris is producing glass with the usual satisfactory results, and 
 they have a man of more business-like habits introduced now at Red 
 Lion Square, which I hope will tell in favour of the Firm. Prinsep I 
 have not seen, but I believe he thrives according to wont. Martineau 
 has been at death's door with rheumatic fever. 
 
 And again : — 
 
 Same to the same. 
 
 I was at an evening party at Rossetti's the other night, and there 
 we saw the picture doing for you. It looked far advanced, and I 
 have no hesitation in saying that it will be one of the finest pictures 
 
 1 The King Lear. 
 
 2 ' Jones ' in each case refers to Sir E. Burne-Jones of to-day. 
 
 3 The Bride. 
 
2i6 LIFE OF FORD MA BOX BROWN 1862- 
 
 ever painted, and perhaps the best he has yet done. If I had any 
 share in biassing your inclination towards it I shall never regret it. 
 
 I myself am not near so satisfactory as yet as to quantity, but I 
 trust to do a good deal more before you are back, and in quality it 
 shall be of the best, and if Rossetti keeps time better than I, / think 
 you gain by the exchange of our position and habits. 
 
 The italicised remark I must confess myself unable 
 
 to understand. 
 
 Later in the year Madox Brown writes : — 
 
 All the news that I know about myself and the artistic sphere 
 generally I will keep you posted in with empressement. ... As to 
 other men, as I scarcely ever go out I see little. I was at Rossetti's 
 Sunday week, and saw the Bride looking as lovely as ever and nearly 
 done. I also saw Gambart's Blue Tile Lady, 1 which seems coming 
 on admirably. 
 
 Hughes is away at the seaside, so I have seen nothing of him. 
 I hear Prinsep has a very admirable head at Liverpool, said to belong 
 to you. 
 
 Stanhope has had to leave his beautiful JVebb-built house and 
 come up to London, where he is established for the present at Little 
 Campden House, that once belonged to Egg, the R.A. 
 
 Morris also leaves his house (at Upton), and takes up with the 
 Firm in a large house in Queen Square. 
 
 Chapman has returned from Spain and Biarritz, in improved 
 health and with a number of drawings, some, they say, very lovely — 
 slovenly, but full of poetry and art. 
 
 With the exception that Holman Hunt marries and goes to 
 Jerusalem, this closes up my budget of news. 
 
 On November 20 : — 
 
 Same to the same. 
 
 Rossetti some three weeks ago told me that he meant for certain 
 to let you have the Beloved this year. Three days ago I saw it. He 
 had painted in some tiger-lilies. 
 
 1 The Blue Bower. 
 
'THOMAS BULLION' 
 
 217 
 
 He tells me the Blue Tile Lady he painted for Gambart has been 
 sold by him to Mr. Menzel for 1,500 guineas. So he says : — 
 
 ' Now Rae's picture must be worth at least 3,000, as there is 
 more than double the work in it.' Logical, is it not ? Only every 
 one is not a Gambart. 
 
 I quote incidentally a rather interesting apprecia- 
 tion by Madox Brown of Mr. Rae's ' Thomas Bullion ; 
 or, the Letters of a County Banker : ' — 
 
 Same to the same. 
 
 I have not yet acknowledged the receipt of your little book. I 
 wanted to finish reading it, but have not yet quite done so. I do 
 not find it dry reading at all. I may be of a more inquiring turn 
 than some of the painter-poet tribe, but I find it more interesting than 
 a volume of poems I had sent me some time before by Allingham. 
 
 The perfection of clearness it exhibits, something like that of 
 Cobden's speeches, makes it interesting as art, and the quality is 
 anything but a common-place one. 
 
 The power of making things clear to others is one of the highest 
 always in art and business matters, though not thought so much of 
 by second-rate folk. But beyond this the taste in which it is written 
 I think most deserving of remark, for there appears constantly an 
 undercurrent of humour sufficient to give a zest to the work, but 
 rather repressed than tried for. 
 
 The characters are only hinted at, but it reads as though, had the 
 author chosen, he might easily have employed such glimpses as are 
 given of Twist— Farmer and Bowdley and Starkey, or the clerk who 
 uses four steel pens a day— into very amusing papers for Dickenss 
 Journal, and the two or three stories, told with perfection of sim- 
 plicity, are like Balzac's stories, good in themselves, not forced into 
 fun by the telling. 
 
 Of events other than those already narrated the 
 year was barren. The end of it found Madox Brown 
 decided to remove from the outskirts to a more central 
 
2 1 8 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1862- 
 
 position, with the result that the February following- 
 found him established in the comparatively well-known 
 house at 37 Fitzroy Square. To Rossetti's influence 
 this was to a great extent due. He was at this 
 time quite indefatigable in his exertions on behalf of 
 Madox Brown, telling all his influential friends that 
 k you are a great swell,' and putting Madox Brown's 
 name down for admission to the Garrick Club. Millais 
 was the proposer, D. G. Rossetti the seconder, and a 
 great many members added their names ; but there 
 was a strong prejudice in the minds of five or six of 
 the members arainst artists who held ' one-man ' ex- 
 
 o 
 
 hibitions. 'Even Frith' Rossetti says, 'only managed 
 to slip in.' Madox Brown accordingly withdrew his 
 candidature for fear of a black ball. In the matter of 
 the moving, however, Rossetti wrote a letter which 
 practically carried the day and made Madox Brown 
 abandon his Hyrcanian deserts : — 
 
 October 2, 1865. — Since seeing you I have been thinking very 
 seriously of what you told me respecting your position, and I feel it 
 a duty to write a special note, saying how very necessary I am con- 
 vinced it is that you should come to a more central situation without 
 delay. I am confident that the difficulty lies in great measure in 
 that question. If you were at all near me, I could satisfy at once 
 the wishes continually expressed to me by different picture-buyers to 
 see what you have to show, by bringing them myself to your studio, 
 or making sure that they went there ; but at present not one of those 
 who would be glad to do so is even able to reach you. This is a 
 very simple, but a terribly real disadvantage at which you place your- 
 self, and I advise you more strongly than ever to bring it to an end 
 immediately at the cost of any minor inconvenience whatever. If 
 you like I will do what I can towards finding you a suitable house 
 
i86 5 
 
 NEW LIFE 
 
 somewhere in this or any available neighbourhood when I am out, 
 and will make all the inquiries I can. 
 
 The close of the year and the change of abode 
 may fairly be said to have marked a very decided 
 stage in Madox Brown's career. A period had been 
 put to the long struggle against adversity, and Madox 
 Brown's position had changed from that of an almost 
 unknown iconoclast to that of an artist only officially 
 unrecognised, whilst his house became one of the 
 chief resorts of those men of genius and talent who, 
 like himself, were mostly ' officially unrecognised.' 
 
 A new factor of Madox Brown's life beo-an at 
 about this time to make itself felt. I refer to the 
 artistic talent that was beginning to show itself in his 
 children. 
 
 Of these the only son then surviving, Oliver Madox, 
 attained during his short life to a reputation of great 
 promise and no little achievement ; the elder daughter, 
 Lucy, if perhaps not so widely known to the public, 
 painted a number of pictures of extreme dramatic and 
 poetic interest ; whilst several works by the younger 
 and still surviving daughter, Catherine, have been seen 
 on the walls of the Royal Academy and at other 
 London exhibitions. 
 
 To these I shall refer in due course. At the date 
 under consideration Oliver was still a child of nine, 
 with all the mischievous instincts and no small share 
 of the outspokenness of the enfant terrible. He had, 
 however, even at that early age, shown signs of 
 
220 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1862-65 
 
 remarkable talent. His Centaurs Hunting, a childish 
 performance in point of techniqtie, is yet not wanting 
 in vigour ; and the colour, even if to a certain extent 
 fortuitous, is by no means unpleasing, qualities which 
 almost remove it from the category of even unusually 
 promising infantile performances. 
 
 Thus for a decade or so Madox Brown's life bade 
 fair to be both prosperous and happy. 
 
t 866-68 
 
 22 T 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 1866-1868 
 
 Work during 1866— Jacob and Joseptis Coat —Entombment — Cordelia's 
 Portio?i — Bank balance— Relations between Madox Brown and D. G. 
 Rossetti — Work during 1867— Replicas, &c. — Romeo and Juliet — The 
 Traveller— Rossetti and patrons — Work during 1868 — Gout — Direc- 
 tions to lawyer for picture-cleaning — Gossip— Burne-Jones's house- 
 warming — The ' Boat-race ' — Other artists' work, &c. — Spiritualistic 
 soiree— Rossetti and the ' Bogies ' — His picture La Pia— Dinner to 
 celebrate completion of the Earthly Paradise — Thirteen at table — 
 Children's work — Gout— Fitzroy Square Evenings — Sending out 
 invitations, &c— Letter about gout and work — Rossetti's poems — 
 Tragedy and mystery — Friends' work. 
 
 The early part of r866, which was considerably 
 hampered by the disjointment entailed by removals, 
 was occupied mainly by the completion of the large 
 picture of Jacob and Joseph 's Coat, which was finished 
 on April 9. Its design and the treatment of the 
 subject 1 differ very little from those of the Dalziel 
 woodcut. 
 
 Another picture of very considerable importance 
 was carried on at the same time — the water-colour 
 Entombment, which was commenced in February. 
 The water-colour of Cordelia s Portion, another work 
 of extreme importance, was finished on November 21. 
 
 1 See 1864. 
 
222 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1866- 
 
 As regards the subject of the latter comparatively 
 well known picture, it is taken from act i. scene 1 — 
 the moment being about that of France's speech. 
 
 The Entombment, 1 1867. 
 
 Lear, the central figure, exhausted with the passion 
 thrown into the speeches : ' Let it be so : thy truth 
 then be thy dower,' . . . and ' Cornwall and Albany, with 
 
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i868 
 
 'CORDELIAS PORTION' 
 
 223 
 
 my two daughters' dowers, digest this third,' has sunk 
 into his mistletoe-hung seat, with his eyes fixed on 
 Cordelia. His hand, which has been pointed vigo- 
 rously at the map torn across the third part marked 
 ' Cordelia,' remains sunk in that position. France, 
 saying, 1 Fairest Cordelia, thou art most rich, being- 
 poor,' takes her by the hand. Cordelia during his 
 speech seems to have lost somewhat of the acid self- 
 possession that found words for her dismissal of 
 Burgundy. Goneril, Regan, and their husbands, 
 supporting the King on his right, have their fingers 
 interlaced in the interstices of the crown. At the 
 back of the King's throne the subsidiary figures of 
 the tragedy crowd to look over the back of the high 
 throne or each other's shoulders. Right in the back- 
 ground Kent is still lingering, looking back from 
 the doorway. 
 
 The costume is once again that of the undefined, 
 semi-mythical period, in which, as I have said, Madox 
 Brown delighted to place his characters. Lear might 
 be a Druid ; 1 France, one of the Carlovino-ian king's ; 
 Cordelia, a slightly Byzantine mediaeval figure. The 
 palace is an old Roman villa. 
 
 A number of smaller undertakings — drawings for 
 line engraving in Mr. Leighton's Lyra Germanica, car- 
 toons for the Firm, and a duplicate of Onre Laciye 
 of Good Children — occupied the remainder of the 
 year. 
 
 1 ' Roman, Pagan-British.' Cf. the description of Lear's bedside, 1848-9. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1866^ 
 
 The only London exhibition to which Madox 
 Brown contributed was that of the famous Gambart, 
 where he was represented by the Jacob picture. 
 The result was not upon the whole encouraging as 
 far as the Press was concerned. 
 
 Madox Brown to Mr. George Rae. 
 
 I should have answered your queries with more speed but for 
 the fact of my never yet having been to Gambart's myself. My 
 two girls have, however, been there to-day, and tell me Davis's 
 are well hung (one on the line and the other on the ground) and 
 looked beautiful. My own, they say, was well hung likewise (glass 
 left on), and, of course, they thought it the picture of the gallery. 
 
 But I suppose it is pretty well so, though I don't expect much 
 at the hands of Tom Taylor ('Times ') and others like him. 
 
 There has been a handsome notice in the ' Globe,' a now 
 revived paper 1 at \d., but I will send it you by next post. I can't tell 
 what other there may have been, except one insulting one by a 
 
 scoundrel named G ; but even he could not avoid making the 
 
 picture prominent through his unusual dose of venom. 
 
 My Cordelia's Portion is to be on view Monday, Tuesday, and 
 Wednesday, and then goes to its owner. 
 
 The ' Private View ' of the latter picture was a 
 sufficiently crowded and important function to prove to 
 Madox Brown that his more central position was likely 
 to be extremely beneficial in its effect on his material 
 prospects. The picture itself seems to have earned 
 considerable applause from the visitors, and at its 
 subsequent exhibition — by its owner — at Manchester 
 it evoked unqualified praise from the ' Reader,' 2 and 
 was treated with courtesy by the local papers, facts 
 1 November 5. 2 December 1. 
 
i868 
 
 AN APOLOGY 
 
 225 
 
 sufficient to raise Madox Brown in the eyes of picture- 
 buyers. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the year was a prosperous one 
 as far as sales went, though work had a tendency to 
 fall in arrears. 
 
 To Mr. Rae. 
 
 November. 
 
 I omitted, by a quite unpardonable slip, to notice in any way 
 your kind invitation to come with Rossetti and see your new house. 
 I can only account for it by the fact of my having so long delayed 
 to inform you as to Davis, so that I was anxious as to that, and was 
 in haste to save the post, and felt exceedingly thick-skulled with 
 working hurriedly to get my Cordelia done for Monday. 
 
 As to the proposed excursion, what can I say ? You know that 
 it 'must be exceedingly tempting to a poor brute kept with his nose 
 to the grindstone as I am and must be — yet the inevitable must be 
 obeyed, and pictures long delayed thought of first. I have a 
 drawing 1 that even now ought to be delivered to Gambart accord- 
 ing to promise, and still to do, and even after that I shall be in the 
 same position with others ; so that I fear for the present it is impos- 
 sible, but I shall see Rossetti here Monday, and ask him what he 
 intends in the matter. 
 
 Rossetti was, of course, a frequent visitor, and 
 consequently only an occasional letter-writer. I can- 
 not, however, refrain from quoting one or two sentences 
 from a letter of apology for one of the ' things one 
 would rather have left unsaid ' that had escaped from 
 Rossetti in one of their conversations : — 
 
 1 A duplicate of Oure Ladyc of Good Children. 
 
226 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1866- 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 Nothing, on reflection, could pain me more (though certainly I did 
 so in a way to which I ought not to have been blind) than to inflict the 
 slightest pain on you, whom I regard as so much the most intimate 
 and dearest of my friends, that I might call you by comparison the 
 only one I have. . . . To refer to another point (having said all that 
 seems possible in confession of how much I was to blame), I may 
 say that the suggestion of any possible obligation from you to me 
 seriously distresses me. Not because I think you attribute to me 
 thoughtlessness in any degree to such a view on my own part, for of 
 that you acquit me by word as well as I should in any case have 
 known by thought ; but because if you can disregard, as I know you 
 do, the great obligations under which you have laid me in early life, 
 and which were real ones, as involving real troubles to yourself 
 undertaken for the sake of one who was quite a stranger to you 
 at the outset — what can / think of a matter which gives me no 
 trouble whatever, and in which, were I inactive, I should sin against 
 affection, gratitude, and, highest of all, conviction as an artist ? 
 
 The letter is one which calls for no comment ; that 
 it mollified Madox Brown is, of course, to be taken 
 for granted. His position in the matter was, of 
 course, a difficult one. In the early days it was an 
 easy matter for him to confer the favours of time 
 and recommendations — easiest of all, of loans. But, 
 at about this time, Rossetti was rapidly assuming 
 the position of the much more distinguished artist, 
 with plenty of work and the power of sending picture 
 buyers to Madox Brown. It must, I think, have 
 been more difficult for him to accept such favours, 
 perhaps even more so the loan of a 25/. note — the 
 obligation in question. 
 
i868 
 
 RELATIVE POSITIONS 
 
 227 
 
 In point of age Rossetti had, of course, 'levelled 
 up ' proportionally, and Madox Brown asked and 
 acted upon Rossetti's advice almost as freely as 
 Rossetti asked and acted upon Brown's, although 
 the latter's much more suspiciously independent turn 
 of mind must be taken into consideration. 
 
 I quote Rossetti's verdict on such a point. The 
 matter in question was, whether or no Madox Brown 
 should re-acquire his picture of Work on the chance 
 of selling it later on : — 
 
 To D. G. Rossetti. 
 
 The question is not an easy one to answer under the circumstances, 
 but, on reflection, I have no hesitation in saying that in your place I 
 should secure the picture. An unfavourable sale would not only be 
 highly injurious, but very disheartening, and, on the other hand, if 
 you thought necessary to replace the 500/. at once, you would be 
 able, without difficulty, to tempt some one by so evident a bargain, 
 and the sacrifice would have the great advantage of being private 
 instead of public ; whereas, if the picture could be kept, it w r ould be 
 certain to fetch a better price, even if not yet its true one, either 
 before or after your death. Were its subject a less purely realistic 
 one, I should have no fear for its fate even now, but the epoch of 
 Pre-Raphaelism was a short one, which is quite over, and its products 
 will be exceptionally valuable one day, but not yet. 
 
 Upon this recommendation Madox Brown at 
 once prepared to act, but a fortuitous appearance of a 
 purchaser put off the purchase, all idea of which was 
 subsequently abandoned, the picture going on on its 
 weary road. 
 
 I finish up these matters with a rather amusing- 
 letter of Madox Brown's to W. M. Rossetti, which 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1866- 
 
 may be taken as a quid pro qtio for D. G. Rossetti's 
 joke about the ' Times ' police reporter. The guinea 
 in question was one for a subscription in aid of the 
 widow and children of the artist Morten, who had 
 died shortly before — the guinea had vanished : — 
 
 To W. M. Rossetti. 
 
 My dear William, — I did give Gabriel that 1/. is., and he put 
 it in his pocket along with a like sum, which he was to give himself, 
 saying he'd give both the next day, or forget both. 
 
 Sure he did forget them, as was natural. . . . 
 
 P.S. — I want to speak with you someday about Stendahl's 1 book, 
 1 Le Rouge et le Noir,' which is indeed a remarkable work. I am 
 reading it slowly and savouring it, for it deserves attention. I think 
 an article in one of the magazines might well be made of it, for it is 
 without doubt the advance guard of the present school of novel. 
 Had I not known it, I should have set it down to Balzac, but it is 
 still more Shakespearian, and more imbued with Hamlet's subtle- 
 ness ; it seems quite astounding that such a book should have been 
 written by one of Napoleon's men. It's more like one of the latest 
 of the late French stories— the horrors perhaps excepted. 
 
 The 1 st of January of the year following saw the 
 commencement of one of Madox Brown's most im- 
 portant, as well as well-known pictures, the Romeo 
 and Juliet. As is the case with most of his pictures 
 at this date, the first stage, to which I am now refer- 
 ring, is that of a ' finished study ' in w r ater-colour 
 for a larger picture. This was the result of the fact 
 that Mr. Craven, the commissioner, was only addicted 
 to the purchase of water-colour drawings. For Madox 
 
 1 Henri Beyle. 
 
i868 
 
 'THE TRAVELLER' 
 
 229 
 
 Brown ' it was, of course, an eminently satisfactory 
 circumstance. The prices paid were respectable, and, 
 taken together with the sums received afterwards for 
 the oil replicas, were almost adequate, judged by the 
 amount of work bestowed. 
 
 As a case in point the Romeo and Juliet might 
 be cited. The water-colour, a not very complicated 
 two-figure design, was commenced on June 1 and 
 finished on September 16 ; the whole of the time — 
 at most about two months' work — devoted to it, 
 the commission being one of 131/. $s. For the oil 
 picture, which was commenced in October 1867, and 
 finished, at the instance of Mr. Leathart, in July 1870, 
 the price paid was 325/., and the work bestowed on it 
 was about four months if considered continuously. 
 The prices, therefore, for about six months' work came 
 to 450/. odd, which was about the average earning 
 of Madox Brown at this date. As a consequence, 
 we find that the new subjects of a well employed year 
 limit themselves to two — the water-colours of Romeo 
 and Juliet and of the Traveller, a little picture taking 
 its idea from Victor Hugo's poem about a traveller 
 who rides through a village at nightfall when all the 
 world besides is resting. The traveller, whose cos- 
 tume is that of the end of last century, rides past a 
 little cabaret, where the lights are just high enough 
 to show shadows on the blinds, whilst at the door 
 the comely French hostess is nursing her baby. 
 Beside her are her son, and a daughter who has just 
 
23° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1866- 
 
 left her spinning-wheel. Close to them the hind 
 wheels of a post-chaise betoken the halting for the 
 night of the arrival, whose malles are not yet un- 
 strapped. Away from this scene of tranquillity the 
 traveller is urging his tired horse, whilst round the 
 inn corner you can see the long road, running into the 
 sunset. At one side of it the lamp at the gates of a 
 chateau begins to shine out. 
 
 This little water-colour is an amplification of a 
 small drawing on wood made for the journal called 
 ' Once a Week.' It accompanied a translation of the 
 poem to which Madox Brown committed himself. 
 
 The subject of the Romeo and Juliet is that of 
 Act III., Scene 5, and the opening of the scene with 
 Juliet's — 
 
 Wilt thou begone, it is not yet near day ? 
 
 Romeo, who is half over the balcony, with his left 
 foot on one of the rungs of the rope-ladder, embraces 
 Juliet, having his right arm round her ; his left arm is 
 still in the attitude of pointing towards the ' envious 
 streaks that lace the severing clouds in yonder east' 
 Against the saffron grey of the dawning sky you can 
 see the towers of Verona rise, but, down below in the 
 garden, the shadows linger among the orange trees. 
 
 For the rest, ' you must expect a scene of passion,' 
 as Madox Brown wrote to the purchaser. 
 
 The picture is one of the, comparatively, most 
 popular English pictures in France. Its appearance 
 as an engraving in Paris print-shop windows is of com- 
 
i868 
 
 'ROMEO AND JULIET' 
 
 231 
 
 1 From Lyra Germanica, 
 
232 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1866- 
 
 oil version for the Luxembourg. Its owner, Mr. 
 Leathart, had, however, disposed of it from the walls of 
 the Chicago Exhibition of 1892. 
 
 The other works of the year were all duplicates. 
 The water-colour of Jacob and Joseph's Coat was 
 finished for Mr. Leyland in June. The small oil 
 version of the Entombment occupied a portion of the 
 middle part of the year. The oil, Cordelia s Portion, 
 was taken in hand in November, as was the duplicate 
 of the Chaucer for Mr. Leyland. 
 
 Besides these, there were the usual complement of 
 cartoons for Morris & Co., and a pen-and-ink drawing 
 for the ' Lyra Germanica ' — the Abraham and Isaac, 
 adapted from one of the cartoons for stained glass. 
 
 As far as exhibitions went, Madox Brown's solitary 
 essay with Cordelia s Portion at the Dudley Gallery 
 was ' venomously ' received by the Press — a fact not 
 upon the whole to be wondered at. At that date — 
 one is almost tempted to say as at this — Madox 
 Brown's method of ' realising ' his subject was ex- 
 tremely novel, and was, of course, extremely exaspera- 
 ting to the critics of the usual jog-trot kind, especially 
 to those who in 1865 had risen to the height of ac- 
 cepting, as negatively as was feasible, the pictures of 
 Work and the Last of England. But Madox Brown 
 had by that time accustomed himself to comparatively 
 disregard the Press, and would not even read the 
 notices that his friends brought him. 
 
 He was not, however, entirely oblivious of the 
 
i868 
 
 LOG-ROLLING 
 
 233 
 
 power of the Fourth Estate. I quote a letter to the 
 great Gambart touching upon a subject that is often a 
 sore one with artists — that of les revenants du passe \ — 
 
 March 2. 
 
 Dear Sir,— Reflecting on what you told me as to the study of 
 the Black Prince's Head being included in your sale, and knowing 
 how unlikely it is, considering the peculiar nature of the work, to 
 fetch any price at all, and feeling how certain the low price it may 
 fetch, were it to be bruited about by malevolent persons in the papers 
 to the damage of my reputation, while few of the public will have 
 had an opportunity of seeing that the work in question was a slight 
 study painted seventeen years ago, I should feel very much obliged 
 if it could be withdrawn from the sale. If, therefore, you will do so, 
 I would .undertake to paint for you in exchange for this study, some 
 time this year, a head of a woman or child, the same size in oil and 
 in full view instead of profile. Such, I believe, would be a more 
 valuable bargain for you, and at any other moment than this I would 
 have made you an offer in money, but I must at any sacrifice try to 
 stop the sale by auction. 
 
 Rossetti's letters are mostly occupied with news of 
 possible or intending purchasers : ' There is a maniac 
 
 named , whom I shall bring to see your things 
 
 when you are in London again, and who, I think, would 
 buy something.' But a week later comes the sad news : 
 
 ' has turned a bad lot. Just as he was beginning 
 
 to buy, he has got engaged to get married, and is 
 done lor. Leyland has asked me several times about 
 your Chaucer, which, I think, he is likely to want. 
 Have you heard anything from him about it ? ' and 
 so on. A little later a case of ' log-rolling ' occurs 
 about Dr. Hake : — k I send you the book of Hake's 
 
234 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAI) OX BROWN 1866- 
 
 for Hueffer. I did some time ago suggest to Wm. 
 to apply to the " Academy" for it, but he didn't 
 seem to think he could do so, being so very busy with 
 other things. I hope H. will like the book. Surely 
 there are many fine qualities in it, but it needs an 
 expositor more than most things, even in the poetic 
 world.' 
 
 In the early part of July the Madox Browns went 
 for three weeks to Calais. Nothing eventful happened 
 on the journey or during their stay. Madox Brown, as 
 might be imagined, found that many alterations in the 
 place of his birth had taken place during his thirty 
 years' absence. Otherwise : — 
 
 Here we are as dull as regular, set-in November fogs can make 
 us, with a prospect, I suppose, of Fenian fire to enliven us on Guy 
 Fawkes night. Otherwise the usual round of dull daubing fills in the 
 nights and days. 
 
 As a result of the 'replica' habit, the year 1868 
 can boast of absolutely no new subjects. As far as 
 work went, it was roughly portioned out as follows : 
 Till April with the Chaucer duplicate, the middle part of 
 the year with an oil Traveller ; from September to the 
 end of November with the large water-colour of Elijah 
 and the Widow s Son ; and the rest of the year with 
 oil duplicates of Jacob and Joseph 's Coat and of the 
 Entombment. Otherwise, the usual number of ' Firm ' 
 designs. At the same time he worked at one or two 
 pictures, notably the oil Ro7neo, which had been com- 
 menced at the end of the previous year. The only 
 
i868 
 
 INTER R UPTIONS 
 
 2 35 
 
 exhibition at which he was represented was that of 
 Leeds, where were his four pictures, Cordelia s Portion, 
 Jacob and Joseph 's Coat, Work, and the Last of Eng- 
 land ; but of this, and of the exhibitions at which his 
 children's work figured, sufficient notice will be taken 
 in Madox Brown's letters that I shall have occasion 
 to quote. 
 
 Perhaps one reason for the diminution of the 
 year's tale of work was the considerable increase of 
 social cares that interrupted everything. The Fitzroy 
 Square house, for the next ten years or so, was the 
 scene of a continual va et vient of guests of one kind 
 or another. Over and over again Madox Brown's 
 letters contain plaintive remarks of having no time for 
 anything. 
 
 ' So surely as I take up a pen to write to you, just 
 so surely does someone or other turn up and interrupt 
 me,' he writes in August to Mrs. Madox Brown at 
 Yarmouth. Besides, the house was not a healthy one 
 — twice in the year he was laid up and unable to work. 
 The usual complaint was the gout, brought on to some 
 extent by over-indulgence in open-air painting — 
 witness that of the Last of England and its blue-with- 
 the-cold flesh. 
 
 I shall at this point take upon myself to quote 
 rather freely from Madox Brown's letters touching 
 upon a multiplicity of points that occupied his mind 
 from year's end to year's end at about this portion of 
 his life. 
 
236 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1866- 
 
 To Madox Brown's correspondence with Mr. Rae, 
 or rather to the latter gentleman's desire to be kept 
 informed of the doings of Madox Brown's circle, we are 
 indebted for several amusing items : — 
 
 To Mr. Rae. 
 
 As to news, I will give you what I have : Jones, having moved 
 into his new house, gave a dance, a very swell affair ; the house, 
 being newly decorated in the 1 Firm ' taste, looked charming, the 
 women looked lovely, and the singing was unrivalled, and w r e all 
 luckily escaped with our lives, for, soon after the guests were gone, 
 the ceiling of the studio (about 700 lbs. of plaster) came down just 
 where the thickest of the gathering had been all night. Morris was 
 to have slept on the sofa on which most of it fell, but, by good luck, 
 went home to sleep with Prinsep. This I feel triumphantly is 
 something like news, but it prevents Jones having anything for the 
 O.W.C. this year. When you want more, I hope I shall have still 
 more startling events to relate. 
 
 Then follows, in three weeks' time : — 
 To the same. 
 
 April 9. 
 
 My dear Rae, — I would have taken up your challenge at once 
 but that I thought it best to wait till I might be at leisure to do so 
 more at length. Just at this moment, though, I fear there are no 
 ceilings coming down to be chronicled. 
 
 I am glad to know the Jacob is got off to Leeds without hitch. 
 I hear there is some demur as to the lighting of the pictures, seeing 
 that the rooms were never constructed with any regard to such a 
 purpose, but they have promised me that your two shall be well cared 
 for, as indeed it would appear they desire, from their borrowing no 
 less than four of my chief works — viz. (as poor Thackeray used to 
 say), Jacob, Cordelia, Work, and the Last of England. 
 
 I cannot complain of the choice, and if the people do not like 
 my style, it won't be for want of seeing it. Now, as to what is doing 
 
i868 
 
 GOSSIP 
 
 237 
 
 here Saturday we went to see the boat-race from Stephens's, 
 
 at Hammersmith Terrace. It was a most lovely day, though in 
 London it began with a dense fog. On the river there was sunlight, 
 with the beautiful white mist that Turner loved to paint. Boats 
 were too near the further side to be well distinguishable, but the scene 
 was very remarkable, for, as this year the police had kept all the 
 steamboats back, the river was smooth and shining till where they all 
 followed in a fleet, bringing quite a storm of sea along with them, 
 which, dashing over either bank, washed many an unwary spectator up 
 to the middle, like the 1 Eager ' that at certain times rolls up the 
 Welsh and other rivers. 
 
 Many artist-folk were there, quite a small crowd, attracted partly 
 by the favourable site of the house, with terrace on the river, and 
 partly, I suppose, owing to Steeds influential position. John Seddon, 
 his wife, and brother were there, and with them we took boat after- 
 wards to Hughes's, at Putney, and saw his pictures, two, besides 
 portraits. 
 
 One, of a young knight in a church watching his armour, was so 
 unfinished that one could scarce yet pronounce about it. The other, 
 and larger one, of a lady sitting alone by a window, in illustration of 
 Shakespeare's 'Sigh no more, ladies,' I think one of Hughes's 
 happiest efforts, fine.r in colour and bolder in painting than usual, 
 and with an indefinable charm about it that I will not attempt to 
 convey with a pen. . . . Blank gave a spirit soiree at which Rossetti 
 attended, and flowers grew under Blank's hands out of the dining-table, 
 and Eau de Cologne was squirted over the guests in the dark ; but 
 Gabriel, growing irreverent, and addressing the S.'s by the too familiar 
 appellation of ' Bogies,' they squirted plain (it must be hoped clean) 
 water over those present and withdrew. So the report runs— I was 
 not there. 
 
 Rossetti has had the Morrises staying with him in order to paint 
 Mrs. M. as ' La Pia' from Dante's ' Purgatorio.' She says to Dante : 
 ' Remember me, Siena gave me birth and Maremma undid me.' (The 
 deadly marshland still in the vicinity of Siena.) ' He who with this 
 ring espoused me caused my death.' 
 
 It seems that, in Dante's time, a very beautiful lady was shut up 
 by her husband in a castle in the Maremma, and there died either 
 of poison or through the malaria. With Mrs. Morris for model and 
 
238 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BRO WN 1866- 
 
 Rossetti for the painter, and such a subject, you can imagine some 
 of the tragic, fearful beauty of the picture. 
 
 Meanwhile Morris, called Topsy, has there finished the last 
 stories of his new two volumes of the 1 Earthly Paradise,' forthwith to 
 appear. A grand dinner was given (by D. G. R.) in honour of the 
 ' Topsies,' and we were all warned to appear in Togs. At the hour 
 named, however, the host was still in dirty painting-coat, having been 
 hard painting till seven ; but he soon made himself smart. How- 
 ever, Morris, at the last moment, was despatched to Queen Square 
 to forcibly bring back his partner, Faulkner, thirteen at table being 
 otherwise the mishap. 
 
 But Morris was scarce gone when it turned out that Rossetti had 
 miscalculated, and we were thirteen^ without Morris, and so had, 
 perforce, to wait till he returned, so not till nine did we sit down, 
 famished, but magnificent and jolly. 
 
 Later in the year, when gout had caused a cessation 
 of work, Madox Brown went to Yarmouth for a short 
 time in July. Just before starting he writes to Mr. 
 Shields a letter, in which he announces what is practi- 
 cally the discovery of his son's talent : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 July 5- 
 
 Lucy and Nolly are at home with me — Cathy with her mamma, 
 all three well. They get on with their painting, but Nolly, chiefly, is 
 my surprise. He seems to be turning out a perfect genius. He has 
 just this evening, while I was out, designed a groom forcing his horse 
 into the sea (subject his own), and really, as a design the thing could 
 not be finer — it is in the highest style of designing, combining reality 
 with vivid action, and a sort of noble picturesqueness that only 
 belongs to the higher class of men. You will think I am mad to talk 
 so, but I truly believe it. He shall send you some [drawings] one of 
 these days. My hand is not good for much writing yet, so I must 
 leave off. You will soon hear from me again. 
 
i868 
 
 'AT HOME' 
 
 2 39 
 
 The gout was then, and thenceforward, a fearful 
 scourge, but although suffering from it for more than 
 two months in the summer, he only allowed his paint- 
 ing to be interrupted for the three weeks of his stay in 
 Yarmouth. At times he even resorted to the use of 
 his left hand. 
 
 Mr. to Mrs. Madox Brown. 
 
 July 3- 
 
 John Marshall only came in by accident ; I did not send for 
 him ; but, as I complained that my wrist was so slow in getting 
 right, he said it was because I had to paint with it, and that I must 
 not write also, but get an amanuensis. [The handwriting is very 
 tortuous.] I have painted all last week. The picture will soon be 
 done and sent off, and then I will come down — but not by boat, 
 that comes more expensive than by rail. Is it true you are so much 
 better ? Are you any stouter, or at least, firmer in muscle ? God 
 bless you both. 
 
 A few days later the talk is all about inviting guests 
 to an assembly at Fitzroy Square : — 
 
 I ought to have written you before, but the weather has been 
 so hot that I really have not found time, for in the evening I could 
 do nothing but gasp and read the papers. We have made all arrange- 
 ments for the party to come off Tuesday week. We have written to 
 some first to know what to depend on, and now we have a card 
 engraved ' Mrs. Madox Brown at Home,' and that is just come home, 
 and is going to be sent off at once to all. The Martineaus, the 
 Rossettis, and the Streets, I fear, can't come. However, Christina, if 
 well enough, may. The Greeks seem all ready to come, including 
 the tribe Ionides, whom we were going to ask, but who asked 
 Howell (as he told me last night at Tebbs's) to get them asked. The 
 Hardys, the Marstons, the Joneses, the Howells, the Morrises and 
 others have answered in the affirmative, also the John Seddons. 
 
240 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1866 
 
 We were at Blank's last night — such a stupid affair, but I will tell you 
 to-morrow all about it. 
 
 We have been ordering matting for the studio this morning, and 
 I have bought some collars and a tie for Nolly, also some socks for 
 him. 
 
 Upon the occasion of these parties, the house was 
 thrown open to everybody, or almost everybody whose 
 gifts gave any claim to consideration, and many 
 'names' pass through the tale of the numbers — 
 more than ever at a later period, say in the early 
 seventies. 
 
 The house was one of those large stone-staircased 
 buildings that abound in that neighbourhood, with 
 rooms big enough to hold a goodly number. Madox 
 Brown, as has been said, was an excellent host, and 
 the company, as a rule, mixed well. For the rest, the 
 entertainments were reasonably informal, enlivened 
 with sones and with dissertations on this and that, 
 from such and such a distinguished poet of the so-called 
 Pre-Raphaelite group, and adorned with so many fair 
 women more or less aesthetically garbed, who moved 
 amongst articles of furniture mostly after the ' Firm ' 
 taste. 
 
 In the studio, the last picture stood on the easel, 
 with its back only to view, if it were not sufficiently 
 far advanced to be seen. The great picture of Chan- 
 cer occupied almost the whole of one side of the front 
 studio, and continued to do so until its sale, in 1872, to 
 the Sydney Museum. 
 
i868 
 
 ROSSETTrS ILL-HEALTH 
 
 241 
 
 The guests were nearly all of them people of 
 interest. The nickname which w r as accorded them as 
 a body was ' Pre-Raphaelite,' a better one might have 
 been the ' v'Estheticists.' The ^Estheticists, at least, 
 formed the nucleus, but there was a ' tail ' of occasional 
 visitors of distinction ranging from Turgeneff and 
 Mazzini to Mark Twain. 
 
 So many of the habitues have since passed on to 
 fame that these gatherings must needs be historic — 
 Rossetti, Burne Jones, Holman Hunt, William Morris, 
 Algernon Swinburne and Theodore Watts-Dunton, 
 Christina and William Rossetti, Mr. Stephens ; Dr. 
 Garnett and the all-too-soon forgotten younger ' Pre- 
 Raphaelite ' poets ' B. V.,' Arthur O'Shaughnessy, 
 Philip Marston ; and Mr. John Payne. 
 
 Music was represented by Theo. Marzials and Dr. 
 Hueffer, who championed the music of the future in 
 those past days. In the younger generation Miss 
 Blind, Miss Spartali, now Mrs. Stillman, and Lucy, 
 Catherine, and Oliver Madox Brown promised much. 
 
 Less frequent guests were younger artists like 
 Fred. Walker, Pinwell, who called himself Madox 
 Brown's pupil, A. B. Houghton, or James Whistler 
 and Val Prinsep, and a host of others. 
 
 All this once a fortnight during seven years or so. 
 
 As the year 1868 drew on towards October, Ros- 
 setti' s health gave great cause for misgiving, though 
 he himself rather exaggerated the gravity of the symp- 
 toms. The result was his journey to Penkill Castle, 
 
 R 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1866- 
 
 where he was the guest of W. B. Scott. His letters 
 thence are full of impatient commands that Madox 
 Brown should follow him thither. I quote one of 
 several : — 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 October 12, 1868. 
 
 Dear Brown, — Your letter is perfectly insane. If a ioo\d {sic in 
 orig.) won't buy, try a fool. But, meanwhile, come down here. It 
 won't be the least use waiting for Blank, who will think all the more 
 of you if you are away when he calls, and I'm sure he won't be able 
 to call yet. . . . You really must come ; you know we should be as 
 jolly as possible. I would recite to you all the ignominious rhymes 
 I have made on Scotus, and I would make some on you too. 
 
 Madox Brown, however, was unable to leave his 
 work. At almost the same date we have him writing 
 to Mr. Shields : — 
 
 Madox Brown to Mr. Shields. 
 
 October 10. 
 
 I have had another attack of the gout, but suffered more in 
 comfort and looks than work, for though I have been bad at least 
 two months in all (this year), I certainly did not lose more than three 
 weeks of work. I was only too glad to be able to while away the 
 time in painting the moment it was possible. 
 
 In this connection it may be interesting to note 
 that Madox Brown had a peculiar antipathy to letting 
 his patrons know that he suffered at all from the gout, 
 imagining — possibly with reason — that it would make 
 them deem him untrustworthy as a producer. It was 
 probably this feeling that induced him to write to Mr. 
 
i868 
 
 FELLOW-ARTISTS' WORK 
 
 243 
 
 Shields, an intimate friend of Mr. Craven's, as much in 
 extenuation of the trout as was feasible : — 
 
 <z> 
 
 The same to the same. 
 
 It was not this, however, that delayed Craven's Elijah, but the 
 fact that I had several other works to finish first. I have, indeed, 
 finished five since he gave me the commission — the duplicate of 
 Chaucer and the Entombment Tor Leyland; the Traveller water-colour 
 for Howell ; the Nosegay (which I took back from Craven, and on 
 which I must, of course, needs begin three weeks' work again on 
 seeing it), and a small duplicate, Romeo and Juliet, for Mr. Graham. 
 I have, however, worked at Craven's in the interval, and it is all 
 laid in, painted in, I might say, except the heads and the widow's 
 arms. As I now mean to stick to it alone till finished, it will most 
 likely be done in five or six weeks, and Craven may consider himself 
 well treated, for I only had the commission in March, and the draw- 
 ing is large and important. As to Gabriel, I have no doubt he will 
 be all right in a few weeks if he continues to rest as he is now doing- 
 I don't think he has been overworking himself lately, certainly not 
 at the Perseus, for it is not begun, but for the last ten or fifteen years 
 past his life has been one of perpetual toil and anxiety, and he is 
 now beginning to feel it. . . . Nolly is going every day to Richmond 
 Park to paint in the background of his Jason and the Centaur— an 
 ambitious subject, but I hope he will get through with it with my 
 advice. 
 
 Somewhat later, in a letter to Mr. Rae, we have 
 another report of the work of his fellow-artists and his 
 children : — 
 
 To Mr. Rae. 
 
 November 30. 
 
 As to news, we are all well in this house. Rossetti has been 
 ailing and told to leave off painting, so has been in Scotland for 
 change of air, but he has been back some time now, and, I believe, 
 is at work again. Hughes is well, and getting his Galahad and one 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1866-68 
 
 or two others ready for next year. There are a Luna and Endymion 
 from Keats ; a sort of autumn landscape, with a boy carrying an 
 ass's foal in his arms, the mother following, a subject he was struck 
 with in the fields one day— a beautiful thing ; and the picture of the 
 young knight watching his armour, begun last year. 
 
 Anthony has been again to Spain and brought home a lot of 
 work to finish this winter. 
 
 Burne Jones is all right, doing a great deal of work of an allego- 
 rical sort, always poetic and grand in colour. 
 
 I have finished and sent off four or five works this year, and my 
 son Nolly is hard at work on an [Infant] Jason being delivered 
 to the Centaur, from Morris's book. This time it is a good-sized 
 water-colour, and, I think, will turn out very fine. He beats me in 
 colour already, and, I fancy, before many years he will beat me in 
 other qualities also, seeing that till February he will not be fourteen 
 years old. This work is for exhibition. My daughters are painting 
 also, with like intent, so we have our hands full. 
 
 As scarcely anything that has not been mentioned 
 in one or other of the foregoing letters in the year 
 calls for special comment, it may be left to itself without 
 further remark. 
 
1869-71 
 
 245 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 1 869-1871 
 
 Work during' 1869— Don Juan—Jacopo Foscari — Replicas, &c. — Elijah 
 at Manchester — Controversy — Madox Brown's enemies — His methods 
 of making them— Period of depression — Want of the faculty for 
 reclame, &c.— Re-appearance of patrons and prosperity — Brother 
 artists' and children's work — Rossetti's poems — A mystery and 
 tragedy — Death of the chameleon — Oliver's sonnet — -Work during 
 1870 — Replicas — Byron subjects — Sardanapalus — The Corsair — 
 Oliver's Mazeppa — Increased hospitality — Its effect on output of 
 work — Rossetti at 'Sealands' — Dante's Dream — Rossetti's poems — 
 Tales, reviews, &c. — Rossetti's animals : zebu, wombat, &c. — Non- 
 sense rhymes — Work during 1 871 —Replicas of Entombment, Corsair 
 —Sardanapalus — Designs for Dow?i Stream — Proposed subjects — 
 Children's work— Lynmouth — Gossip. 
 
 Like its predecessor, the year 1869 is not distin- 
 guished as having seen the conception of many new 
 subjects — the only one, in fact, being the picture of 
 the Finding of Don Juan by Ha'idee, a largish water- 
 colour which was commissioned by Mr. Craven in 
 May, begun then and laid aside until the beginning of 
 December, at the end of which month it was finished. 
 
 The design, and that for Jacopo Foscari, which was 
 also subsequently commissioned and commenced on 
 the last day of the year, had their origin as illustrations 
 for Moxon's ' Byron ' — one of the series of 4 British 
 Poets,' of which William Rossetti was the editor. 
 
246 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1869- 
 
 The subject of the Juan and Haidee is compara- 
 tively simple. 
 
 Juan, a nude figure, is extended on the sand, his 
 hand ' drooped dripping on the oar,' which had served 
 to buoy him up ; over him, the nurse Zoe leans for- 
 ward from her knees, with her hand on his heart, 
 whilst to the left Haidee stands with her eyes fixed 
 on Juan's face and her hands clasping each other in an 
 attitude of naive excitement. 
 
 In the background the rocky coast rises, fretted 
 into columns and needles, and, like the sky and suddenly 
 stilled water, the rocks and sand are almost iridescent 
 in colour. Haidee' s costume is semi-orientally Greek 
 in shape, full of bright colours, and admirably fitted for 
 making fine folds. 
 
 The Foscari subject is even more simple — merely 
 representing the wife of the ' younger Foscari ' visiting 
 her husband in the dungeons of the Venetian Council 
 of Ten. 
 
 Mar. My best beloved ! 
 Jac. Foscari (embracing her). My true wife 
 
 And only friend, what happiness ! 
 Mar. We'll part 
 
 No more. 
 
 Jac. Foscari. How ! wouldst thou share the dungeon ? 
 Mar. Ay, 
 
 The rack, the grave, all — anything with thee, 
 
 But the tomb last of all, for there we shall 
 
 Be ignorant of each other, yet I will 
 
 Share that — all things except new separation. 
 
-r 
 c 
 
 PC 
 
 c 
 
 5 
 
 o 
 
ENEMIES 
 
 247 
 
 Besides these two works, the number of pictures 
 painted was not large. In February the small water- 
 colour of Romeo and Juliet was finished ; in June the 
 oil duplicate of Jacob and Joseph } s Coat, and in 
 December the large Entombment ; otherwise there 
 was a portrait of Ernest Jones, the Manchester 
 Chartist, which Madox Brown painted from a photo- 
 graph. It was intended for engraving, and can only 
 be regarded as a work of the pot-boiling order. Of 
 the same class was the work which Madox Brown 
 was again forced to resume in the early part of the 
 year — that for Messrs. Dickinson. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the autumn and winter 1868-9 
 were scarcely prosperous seasons for Madox Brown, 
 and the largeness of his expenses rendered it a very 
 anxious time. 
 
 The only exhibition at which he was represented 
 was that of the Manchester Academy, to which Mr. 
 Craven sent the Elijah. The fact that it did not 
 secure the 60/. prize — awarded to a picture by Mr. 
 Keelly Halswelle — excited a considerable amount of 
 indignation in the local papers, one of which appeared 
 with a leader commenting upon the matter. When 
 all was said and done, the fact seemed to remain that 
 Madox Brown's work was not singularly popular, and 
 that he had many 1 enemies ' in that town, as in many 
 other places. 
 
 The question of 1 enemies ' in most men's career is 
 
2 4 8 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1869- 
 
 a very difficult one to approach ; in Madox Brown's it 
 was particularly so. 
 
 His 'enemies' divided themselves into many 
 classes. There were certainly several people, artists 
 and others, who disliked him personally, and who 
 naturally conveyed their dislike from his person to his 
 work. Such men would be very unlikely to do him 
 a good turn, and might even go out of their way to do 
 him a bad one. 
 
 Madox Brown's personality rendered him pecu- 
 liarly apt to make this kind of enemy of reasonably 
 stupid artists, poets, and even preachers. Incautious by 
 nature, he would stigmatise some such gentleman's work 
 as 'clotted nonsense,' or end a sentence by some such 
 phrase as a ' cursed fool like so-and-so ' — to discover, 
 only too late, that the person to whom he had uttered 
 this opinion was the brother-in-law or fidus Achates 
 of the cursed fool in question. He was scarcely able 
 to mention an Academician, as such, without the addi- 
 tion of an abusive epithet, and hasty and unjust as 
 well as hasty and too laudatory verdicts upon works 
 and persons were with him matters of hourly utterance. 
 
 If we add to people thus offended and their friends 
 the number of those who cordially disliked his work 
 for one reason or another, and those who disliked his 
 reputation, we need not wonder that a large harvest 
 of tares should creep into the Brunonian wheat. 
 
 He had been forced to withdraw his candidature 
 from the Garrick Club because of personal unpopu- 
 
ENEMIES 
 
 249 
 
 larity, and now, four years later, the same causes 
 led to his withdrawing his candidature from the Old 
 Water-colour Society, although he was most warmly 
 supported in it by Alfred Hunt. 
 
 The same set of reasons, however, supplied a per 
 contra balance of really warm, Quixotic friendship, 
 which was at the bottom of almost every case in which 
 recognition was ever accorded to Madox Brown. To 
 those who came once under the influence of Madox 
 Brown, either as an artist or as a man, his fascination 
 was both remarkable and durable. To those who 
 never came within the circle of his bristles — artistic 
 and psychological — the feeling of aversion was almost 
 equally marked and equally durable. 
 
 To what extent this bevy of ' enemies ' hindered 
 Madox Brown's career must remain a problem. His 
 own suspicions led him to discover ' plots ' where it is 
 certain that none existed. At the same time chance 
 occasionally led him to discover attempts to ' rig ' his 
 market, and encouraged his own and perhaps Rossetti's 
 abnormal suspiciousness in such matters. That he 
 would have been more prosperous without his enemies 
 is certain ; he owed them, perhaps, to the ' defects of 
 his qualities,' and there the matter may be allowed 
 to rest. It might be gratuitous to set down to the 
 influence of enemies the fact that the commission 
 for the Don J nan was the first Madox Brown had 
 received for twelve months — from June 1868 to May 
 1869. 
 
25° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1869- 
 
 He himself did ascribe it to some such fact — that a 
 certain irresponsible friend, who was more than half a 
 picture-dealer, had during that time made a tour which 
 took in the houses of all the gentlemen who had, up 
 to that date, been in the habit of making frequent 
 purchases from Madox Brown's studio. 
 
 In February we find a period of great depres- 
 sion : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 February 9. 
 
 Things are rapidly coming with me to such a pass that 1 would 
 hail with delight and avidity any prospect of one of them, 1 or indeed 
 of anything else which might hold out a hope of hard cash. 
 
 I have not for years known anything like it — not apparently the 
 faintest chance of effecting a sale on any hand or obtaining a com- 
 mission. Nothing seems ever now to approach the house except 
 Christmas bills, which come tumbling in with a will certainly ; not 
 so the wherewithal to acquit them. Things look too threatening 
 (nothing less than a combination of all England against one or two 
 poor devils ; even the editor of the seems now to cut out any- 
 thing Stephens attempts to write about me or any of my name) for me 
 to stand upon niceties, especially with you, whose good-nature is so 
 untiring. 
 
 They have skied 2 poor Nolly's Jaso?i most infamously — put it, in 
 fact, entirely out of sight ; otherwise there was a good chance of its 
 having sold. Cathy's pretty head is likewise in the dark. Lucy's, 3 
 however, is well hung and spoken of, only the papers seem more or 
 less in a combination to run even it down. The Dudley is on the 
 whole poor — with a frightfully impudent Calderon, as usual, in the 
 place of honour. Poynter and Mason are the Associates elect for 
 the R.A. — not so bad a choice. 
 
 1 Referring to the portrait of Ernest Jones. 
 
 2 At the Dudley Gallery. 
 
 :! A picture called Painting — Mrs. Rossetti's first picture. 
 * 
 
1 8 7 1 MORBIDNESS 2 5 1 
 
 It is not perhaps entirely difficult to understand the 
 ' conspiracy ' motive that makes its appearance in this 
 letter. To an artist convinced, rightly or wrongly, of 
 his own genius and of his own industry, and who has 
 relied upon those qualities for the making of those 
 4 friends at court ' who hang pictures in the place of 
 honour and insert laudatory articles in society or 
 literary journals, the existence of a ' combination ' seems 
 almost self-evident. Madox Brown was, upon the 
 whole, lamentably deficient in any knowledge of the 
 art with which reputations are nursed — of the long 
 period of watching and coaxing that is as a rule 
 necessary. I do not mean to claim for him a soul 
 above such trifles, but rather the want of knack — per- 
 haps of suppleness of backbone. Occasionally, without 
 doubt, he awoke to a sense of the necessities of the 
 case, and indited a letter to dear so-and-so, saying 
 that such a picture was just about to be sent off to its 
 purchaser the great ironmaster, and the like. But these 
 were spasmodic efforts, and for one reason or another it 
 fell about that, with a house overflowing with journalists 
 and poets and painters, hardly an article was written 
 about, hardly a poem to, and never a picture gently 
 hoisted on to a line for, Madox Brown. 
 
 Morbid fits were not of very long duration, 
 although easily evoked by untoward happenings. 
 Five days later than that of the former quotation he 
 writes : — 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1869- 
 
 To the same. 
 
 February 11. 
 
 I have been arousing the Firm, and have extracted some cartoon 
 work from it. I have also got some portraits to set right for Dickin- 
 son & Co., which is, to me, agreeable work, and that pays tolerably 
 if one could only get enough of it. So with one job and another I 
 suppose we shall jog on pretty cheerfully, only never again will I not 
 jump at the first offer of a job ever made me. 
 
 A little later we hear of the same sort of work : — 
 To the same. 
 
 May 11. 
 
 I have not yet been to the O.W.C. but Lucy has, and says your 
 drawing of Hide looks stunning, but it seems you have only one, so 
 the Solomon Eagle is or was not finished. Craven was here four or 
 five days since, and was to be here yesterday or to-day, but has not 
 turned up. He was in buying, or rather commissioning, mood (rule 
 in hand, though), for the only water-colour I had to offer him — an 
 Entombment — was, alas ! two inches too high, though the exact length. 
 
 This is a fearful failing in Craven's otherwise most complete 
 character. 
 
 I have been doing stained-glass work and illustrations chiefly of 
 late, but very lazily. I forget if, when I last wrote, Nolly's pictures 
 had been turned out of the R.A. Cathy is very well hung, and looks 
 magnificent. 
 
 The tone becomes more confident in the course of 
 the following week : — 
 
 To the same. 
 
 May 20. 
 
 The brick Craven has just given me a commission again for a 
 companion to Rossetti's Tibulhis, so things will begin to look brighter 
 again, for other commissions will follow this one, I feel. This has 
 been the first one I have had this year, indeed, since June, I think, 
 of last year. However, Lucy, Cathy, and Nolly selling four pictures 
 for small sums have helped to keep things square. I am going to 
 
POETS 
 
 253 
 
 paint a Don Juan for Craven, and he thinks about a Phryne naked 
 by the seashore sitting to Apelles for his celebrated Venus rising 
 from the Sea, so isn't he developing in the amorous line ? 
 
 It is satisfactory to consider that some little time 
 after — namely in December — the confident prediction 
 of new commissions was fulfilled to the number of 
 three, one of which was a purchase of a completed 
 picture, the Entombment. 
 
 Of events the year was as unproductive as was 
 usually the case. I quote one or two letters of mis- 
 cellaneous interest, or want of interest, as the case 
 may strike the reader. Regarding the work of brother- 
 artists, remarks are not many : — 
 
 To Mr. Rae. 
 
 October 5. 
 
 We dined with Hughes a few days back, but there is nothing 
 very new there to describe. Sir Galahad, Endymion, and the 
 Young Knight still remain at the same point. He has been book- 
 illustrating a great deal, and taken up with a huge affair of Lord 
 Derby and the late Manchester Relief Committee. Nolly is helping 
 me to illustrate ' Lord Byron.' Lucy and Cathy and Miss Spartali 
 are beginning water-colours for the coming season. 
 
 Somewhat later : — 
 
 December 4 and 5. 
 Rossetti will soon have a splendid volume of poems in the press. 
 Morris's new volume of the ' Earthly Paradise ' is just out. He is to 
 bring it us to-night (Sunday). He brought it, and stayed to what 
 hour this morning you may imagine. It is full of admirable things, 
 most of them I had heard read from his own lips. 
 
 Rossetti's poems, which had only lately been 
 recovered, were a source of much interest to Madox 
 
2 54 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1869- 
 
 Brown. Consultations about this and that matter con- 
 nected with them were frequent. It was not, however, 
 until the year following that they saw the light as far 
 as the public was concerned, and a small domestic 
 mystery, and an even smaller tragedy, may serve to 
 close in the record of the year : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 August 5. 
 
 I have not time for a letter (nor indeed news), but I send a 
 line to ask a question, a serious one some, perhaps, might think. 
 You must know I took Nolly down to his mamma at Gorleston 
 Saturday last, and while packing his things it was impossible to find 
 a pair of his boots. They had a few days before come home from 
 being soled and were of no great value, but had never been taken 
 out of the paper they were packed in, and were in my studio. The 
 only solution possible short of that of some thief having made his 
 way up into the studio, is that they might have got packed in 
 amongst some of your things. This, however, I think unlikely, 
 and the thing will, in all probability, remain one of those unsolvable 
 mysteries which every now and then turn up in life. 
 
 And a mystery it did remain. The tragedy is re- 
 corded in a P.S. of December. 
 
 P.S. — -Chameleon's dead ! I painted him over with brandy and 
 water for three days, which seemed at first to comfort and revive him 
 — but it availed not. 
 
 The beast in question was the subject of Nolly's 
 
 sonnet beginning : — 
 
 Made indistinguishable midst the boughs, 
 With saddened, weary, ever restless eyes, 
 The weird chameleon of the past world lies 
 Like some old wretched man whom God allows 
 To linger on. . . . 
 
Mrs. Madox Brown. 1869. 
 
 (From pastel in possession of Mr. H. Rathbone.) 
 
1871 
 
 WORK DURING 1870 
 
 2 55 
 
 A really remarkable instance of its author's pre- 
 cocious genius, however nurtured by the atmosphere 
 of his father's studio, this sonnet was not considered 
 worthy of being submitted to the criticism of even the 
 home circle, and was only discovered among various 
 MSS. found in his desk after his early death. 
 
 The year 1870 began as one of some depression 
 does, and held on its course rather languidly. No 
 pictures new in subject were commenced, but de- 
 signs for pictures, subsequently executed, had their 
 origin in the already referred to illustrations of 
 Moxon's k Byron.' The early part of the year was 
 occupied by the painting of a 1 fancy portrait' of Mrs. 
 Madox Brown, entitled May Memories, a lady of 
 sumptuous charms sitting amongst a wealth of may- 
 blossoms, meditating upon the glories of her may- 
 days in the temps jaciis. This picture was, however, 
 not finished until long subsequently. 
 
 In March was begun a large oil replica of Haidee and 
 Don Juan. It was worked at concurrently with that of 
 Romeo and Juliet, which was finished in June -July, 
 and sold to Mr. Leathart. The latter part of the year 
 was occupied by the pictures of Jacopo Foscari and 
 the Entombment, of which the former was finished in 
 December. 
 
 The designs for the ' Byron ' illustrations included, 
 besides those already mentioned, those of the Dream 
 of Sardanapalus and the Return of the Corsair. The 
 
256 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1869- 
 
 book also contained two by Oliver Maclox Brown, a 
 Mazeppa and The Deformed Transformed. 
 
 Madox Brown, now approaching the age of fifty, 
 had reached a time of life when work was no longer 
 the keen pleasure to him that it had been at one time. 
 Passages of depression and of an almost pococurante 
 flavour appear constantly in his correspondence, more 
 often in turns of phrase than in actual passages of a 
 languid kind, though these are not infrequent : ' I my- 
 self am never now other than in a depressed or 
 somnolent state, but it comes from interest in things 
 in general having decreased, not from any particular 
 state of the brain.' 1 This on a hot June day, when 
 languor is not inexcusable, may be set down to a 
 momentary feeling exaggerated into perennial im- 
 portance. At other times we have : ' I have not been 
 at work for a fortnight, but yet so busy that I have 
 hardly even been able to open my letters sometimes ; ' 2 
 or, ' I have been rather industrious till a threatening of 
 gout within the last four days has rather interfered 
 with my perseverance, but I have walked and physicked 
 it off, and shall do it again.' 3 This letter, written 
 four days before the first announcement of usual 
 depression and somnolence, may be thought to miti- 
 gate its strain. 
 
 At the same time a certain disposition to leisure - 
 liness rather than extreme industry, if it did not 
 
 1 June 17 : to Mr. Shields. 2 January 17 : to the same. 
 
 3 June 13 : to the same. 
 
1871 
 
 CONTROVERSY 
 
 2 57 
 
 eliminate artistic excellences, tended to change their 
 tenor and direction, and certainly influenced the 
 number and size of his pictures. 
 
 Thus we have a recrudescence of the 'At Homes,' 
 which for a time had languished, a recrudescence 
 which, even if due, to a certain extent, to a like 
 easiness of the generally unaccommodating items of 
 balance at the bank and cash in hand, was also a 
 product of a greater deference to those inherited 
 tendencies of open-housed hospitality and easy con- 
 viviality which had so seriously impaired the prospects 
 of his ancestor, the great Dr. John Brown. 
 
 The re-institution of the ' Evenings ' was matter 
 for satisfaction to many of Madox Brown's friends. 
 Rossetti, at least, writes congratulating himself and 
 the world in general at the prospect, and Rossetti was 
 not unexacting in such matters. But the ' Evenings ' 
 meant the disturbance of days. There were people 
 to be written to, and people to be talked to, not to 
 mention such details as the uncorking of bottles and 
 descents to the wine-cellar. 
 
 By this time Madox Brown's pictures had almost 
 ceased to appear at exhibitions. The appearance 
 of the Elijah and the Widow s Son at Manchester 
 in the winter of 1869 70 caused another storm in 
 the local papers — a correspondent signing himself 
 'Laicus' being the principal, if rather silly, assailant, 
 and Mr. Shields an heroic defender. Madox Brown's. 
 
 s 
 
LIFE OF FORI) MAD OX BROWN 1869- 
 
 own feelings in the matter were, however, quite un- 
 stirred : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 You may be sure your writing about me has given me the 
 utmost satisfaction, whatever its effect may be — and it cannot do 
 me harm ; I only trust, though, that it may do you no harm. In the 
 long run I should think it could not, but immediately people may 
 think you cantankerous. 
 
 ' Laicus ' is certainly a very weak writer. Setting his opinion as to 
 my work aside, his style of argument is altogether of the feeblest and 
 flimsiest. But, Lord love him ! if it pleases him it can't hurt me — 
 at least, I think not. I suppose you have had the last word of it 
 now, which is a comfort at any rate. 
 
 Early in the year Rossetti was at Scalands, in 
 the neighbourhood of Hastings, where Madox Brown 
 visited him once or twice. It was at the time of 
 Rossetti's almost entire recovery from the malady that 
 beset his sight. He was more or less actively engaged 
 upon the great picture of Dante s Dream, and upon 
 the preparation for the press of the first volume of 
 poems, enterprises in both of which Madox Brown 
 took the utmost interest. Rossetti's letters are full of 
 details that concern either the one or the other. 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 April. 
 
 Ellis sends out copies to the principal reviews to-day, in provi- 
 sional covers, with a notice that copies fully bound can be had in 
 exchange after the 23rd, so the reviews will not have to complain of 
 no chance of speaking first. I shall have to come up next Monday 
 week in order to write inscriptions in the gift copies at Ellis's. Of 
 course, if you could look in at Marston's without seeming to be on 
 
ROSSETTrS POEMS 
 
 259 
 
 my affairs, I should be glad to hear how the ground lay, but don't 
 want to worry him at all. 
 
 Madox Brown took very considerable trouble 
 (more, it would be safe to say, than he ever took to 
 further his own interests) to smooth the way for 
 the volume of poems, and in the end had the grati- 
 fication of knowing that it met with the success it 
 deserved. 
 
 The same to the same. 
 
 May 3. 
 
 Ellis tells me that he has sold out my first 1,000 copies, all but 
 200, and is going to press again at once, so the two editions will 
 bring me in 800/., not so bad for poetry, after all, even if the public 
 find themselves glutted after the second thousand. 
 
 The first 1,000 ought to have been two editions, but, 250 having 
 been sent to America, the remaining 750 had to be put into one edi- 
 tion ; at least Ellis thought it best to do so, though I think it abates 
 one's crow to an unsatisfactory extent. 
 
 I suppose you have seen Swinburne's wonderful article. He has 
 modified the passage at the end about the other poets. It is dearly 
 friendly, and full of splendid things, of course, but much too much so 
 in all reason. The ' Athenaeum's ' is a very nice article, and ' Fraser's ' 
 liable to be useful. 
 
 Now for my foes with a clear course. I expect the ' Saturday ' 
 or ' Spectator,' or both, to tune up on that tack. ... I am flooded 
 with letters about my book ; a rather shabby one, I must say, from 
 Tennyson, and none from Browning as yet. I find, on inquiry, that 
 my ' Italian poets ' is sold out, so shall reprint it immediately with 
 Ellis, if he thinks well to do so. 
 
 Consultations about the picture were frequent. 
 To F. Madox Brown. 
 
 August. 
 
 My soul is vexed with the following point : — The women in my 
 picture being 62 inches high, will it do for the man to be 65 inches, 
 or should he be taller? I've got him traced on the canvas, and fancy 
 
 s 2 
 
2 6o LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 [869- 
 
 he looks all right, but am rather nervous about beginning to paint 
 him, lest he should possibly need heightening. The women's faces 
 are 5^ inches long. Do you think half an inch more is enough for 
 his face — i.e. six inches? 
 
 Proportions always bother me more than anything else. I've been 
 meaning to get up to you in the evenings, but was unable. May 
 probably come Sunday. 
 
 The soul of Nolly will be sad to hear that yesterday morning 
 the poor little mole was found dead after being all right over night, 
 and eating worms like fun. I had gone to the expense of a magnifi- 
 cent glazed mansion for him, which was picked up at a broker's shop. 
 
 The cares of animal life and death formed a con- 
 siderable preoccupation of these artists, Master Nolly 
 having done much to spread the contagion which had 
 originated with Rossetti. Passages like the foregoing 
 were frequent in the artistic correspondence, and the 
 freaks of Rossetti's menagerie formed a considerable 
 proportion of Madox Brown's stock of anecdotes. 
 The story of the zebu bull that ' treed ' the painter in 
 his own back garden has been frequently told. Not 
 quite so familiar is that of the raccoon that devoured 
 with equal equanimity the neighbours' fowls and 
 shillingsworth's of prussic acid, and that was disco- 
 vered after a long disappearance ensconced in a locked 
 drawer with no visible means of in- or egress, or, for 
 the matter of that, of support other than that afforded 
 bv the aforesaid neighbours' fowls. 
 
 The beast that made the greatest impression, 
 at least on Madox Brown, was the singularly in- 
 active marsupial known as the wombat — an animal 
 that seems to have exercised a latent fascination on 
 
ANIMAL CARES 
 
 261 
 
 the Rossettian mind. On high days and holiday 
 banquets it occupied a place of honour on the cpergne 
 in the centre of the table, where, with imperturbable 
 equanimity, it would remain dormant. On one occa- 
 sion, however, it belied its character. Descending 
 unobserved, during a heated post-prandial discussion, 
 it proceeded in leisurely fashion to devour the entire 
 contents of a valuable box of cigars, achieving that 
 feat just in time for the exhaustion of the subject 
 under consideration and consequent attention to things 
 mundane. 
 
 If Madox Brown may be believed, the wombat of 
 Rossetti was the prototype of the dormouse in k Alice 
 in Wonderland,' the author of which beloved work 
 was a frequent visitor of Rossetti's household at 
 Chelsea. The ' Alice ' books exercised an even greater 
 fascination over Rossetti — and for that matter over 
 Madox Brown — than the historic wombat had done ; 
 and so it was with Edward Lear's nonsense-rhymes, 
 Rossetti's parodies of which remained in Madox Brown's 
 memory to the end. The painter named Brown, who 
 had a most terrible frown, came in for his share of 
 those whimsical caricatures. His favourite reminis- 
 cence was that inscribed in the copy of the work pre- 
 sented by the poet to Oliver Madox Brown : — 
 
 There was a young rascal called Nolly, 
 Whose habits, tho' dirty, were jolly ; 
 And when this book comes 
 To be marked with his thumbs, 
 You may know that its owner is Nolly. 
 
262 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MA I) OX BROWN 1869- 
 
 To turn from the play of one year to the work 
 of the next. The first picture finished was the replica 
 of the Entombment, which had been begun in October 
 of the year preceding and was finished in March 
 1871. 
 
 The next in order of completion was the Corsair, 
 a small water-colour replica of one of the Byron illus- 
 trations, which had been begun for Mr. Craven in 
 December 1870, and was finished towards the end of 
 May 187 1. The moment selected is that of the cor- 
 sair's return to find his beloved on her bier with the 
 flowers strewn on it. The presentment is sufficiently 
 simple — identical with that of the poem. Owing to 
 the tragic character of the subject, it did not, however, 
 give entire satisfaction to its owner, and was eventually 
 returned as part payment for a larger commission, that 
 of a replica of the Sardanapalus subject, which was 
 begun in August and finished in November. In this 
 case the moment selected is that of Sardanapalus' 
 dream. The builder of seven cities in a day is repre- 
 sented as lying on a couch, or, to speak more precisely, 
 tossing in his sleep on it. Myrrha, the Greek slave 
 who immolated herself, is lifting up the coverlet to see 
 if the condition of his wounds causes his uneasiness. 
 The walls represent the winged man-headed bulls. In 
 the open doorway an archer on the watch is discharg- 
 ing an arrow. On the cushion at the couch-side is the 
 royal horned helmet, and the king's spear and shield. 
 
 Finished slightly before the Corsair were the 
 
' PHR YNE AND APELLES 
 
 263 
 
 small oil duplicate of Jacob and Joseph's Coat, and the 
 small water-colour of Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 To this year belongs the commencement of a 
 picture, the idea of which Madox Brown had long 
 cherished — that of Phryne sitting to Ape lies for his 
 Picture of Venus Anadyomene. That unfortunate pro- 
 perty the nude was, however, a necessary element of 
 the design, and the commissioner of the picture, Mr. 
 Craven, boggled at the idea at its very commencement. 
 Thus a picture that must have been interesting was 
 1 abrogated and uncertain,' and finally abandoned. 
 The design, however, exists in one or two forms. It 
 represents Phryne standing on a rock on the sea-shore, 
 whilst on another rock, just beneath the cliffs, sits 
 Apelles holding his painting-board. The rocky land- 
 scape is suggestive of and similar to that in the picture 
 of Don Jtian. 
 
 Of other designs of the year the most important 
 were the two illustrations for Rossetti's poem of ' Down 
 Stream,' which appeared in a moribund magazine, 
 ' Dark Blue.' 
 
 Of these designs, the first one, for the ' Last 
 Year's First of June,' is by far the more powerful — 
 perhaps the most powerful of Madox Brown's ' amor- 
 ous ' designs. It is admirably summed up by Rossetti 
 in the passage from a letter which I quote : — 
 
 Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 My dear Brown, — I expect to see you in a few days, but must 
 write meanwhile to say how very excellent I think your drawing in 
 
264 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1869- 
 
 4 Dark Blue.' It is like a tenderer kind of Hogarth, and seems to 
 me much the most successful of your book illustrations, unless 
 perhaps the Traveller, and I think it licks that. 
 
 The little one is pretty too. I can't, of course, judge of the 
 cutting, but I think it looks well on the whole. At any rate, an eye 
 new to the design finds nothing out of harmony. 
 
 At first sight the people in the boat look both like rustics, but I 
 suppose this may be otherwise when one considers the costume. 
 I meant my unheroic hero for an Oxford swell, though you may say 
 certainly that the internal evidence is rather less perspicuous than 
 Lord Burleigh's shake of the head in the 'Critic' 
 
 By-the-by, you have certainly not minced the demonstrative 
 matter — but would there perhaps be a slight danger of overbalancing ? 
 
 At any rate, whatever may happen to the boat, I should think 
 there was no doubt of the Mag.'s capsizing (to say nothing of our 
 share in the cargo) when it contains one article on Browning as a 
 preacher, and another on Walt Whitman. 
 
 From letters written to Mr. Craven, who, through- 
 out 1871, seems to have displayed an almost unequalled 
 faculty for changing his mind as to the subject of 
 pictures, I learn that at this time Madox Brown had 
 in his mind several designs destined never to be exe- 
 cuted. Of these, one was a subject from ' Childe 
 Harold,' and another the Marriage of Romeo and 
 Juliet in Friar Laurence s Cell. About the latter he 
 writes : — 
 
 To Mr. Craven. 
 
 I have found out a peculiarity in old Italian mediaeval marriages 
 which would give a comprehensible form and point of interest to the 
 subject of Romeo's marriage that was otherwise unmanageable, and 
 would have looked simply like three figures in a cell. 
 
 This has given me a renewed interest in this subject, and, if you 
 wish, I can still paint it for you ; but, as I have said before, with 
 three figures it would not pay at 125 gs. 
 
'MARRIAGE OF ROMEO' 
 
 265 
 
 As I have no other subject that I can think of at present that 
 would suit this shape, should you still object to the ' Childe Harold,' 
 I would endeavour to meet you by putting the marriage at something 
 lower (say you to pay me 90/. instead of the 78/. 1 55. over the 
 
 Design for 'Childe Harold,' 1869 
 
 50 gs. paid), you paying for the frame. But, if I make this reduc- 
 tion, you must please remember that this commission is the outcome 
 of three bargains, abrogated to suit your convenience, all which 
 pictures you had full opportunity of seeing before agreeing to. 
 
266 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1869- 
 
 And later, when the trouble about a subject had 
 pursued Madox Brown even into his retreat at Lyn- 
 mouth, we hear of another subject : — 
 
 The only other Biblical subject that I have ever thought of 
 painting (except the Rahab, which is out of the question, as being 
 moonlit and quite other in shape) is the Nativity. This, with the 
 Entombment and the Washing of Fetei^s Feet, forms a trilogy of 
 subjects including Christ's miraculous Life and Death, and the 
 essence of His doctrine. This subject is, however, a very compli- 
 cated one, which I should never think of beginning without a very 
 large commission. 
 
 I had begun putting the Sardanapalus to the scale of the Don 
 Juan, but I will now wait till I hear from you if either of the new 
 propositions should suit Mrs. Craven, who certainly has a right to 
 half at least of the satisfaction to be derived. 
 
 At about the same date he writes to Mr. Shields : — 
 
 March 3. 
 
 What you say about Craven alarms me. Surely none of his 
 friends in Manchester could have the power to make him recant his 
 opinions. It must be some of my London ill-wishers. I have just 
 sent off to him the drawing of the Entombment, which, in the 
 opinion of such as have seen it, is the finest piece of colour I have 
 yet produced. Will you oblige me by going to see it at once (so as 
 to be beforehand with any opinion of an adverse kind that Craven 
 may be in the habit of hearing), and at the same time endeavour to 
 ascertain who it is that speaks against me ? 
 
 Otherwise the year was uneventful enough- Sum- 
 mer holidays were made a pretext for a month's stay 
 at Lynmouth, a theatrically beautiful little village then 
 scarcely made famous otherwise than by the stay there 
 of Shelley in the early years of the century. Here, 
 but for the trouble of excogitating answers to Craven's 
 
1871 
 
 MISS BUND 
 
 267 
 
 letters, Madox. Brown enjoyed a time of uninter- 
 rupted peace, whilst his children sketched industri- 
 ously enough. 
 
 To the same. 
 
 July 26. 
 
 We have been here just two weeks on the north coast of Devon. 
 It is a most lovely spot, but we find it the reverse of bracing, and 
 bathing is very inconvenient ; but, for a painter, the scenery is 
 delightful. 
 
 Lucy, Cathy, and Nolly are all at work at landscape drawings. I 
 have done little myself except write to Craven. Rossetti is down 
 in Oxfordshire, William Rossetti gone to Italy, Morris to Iceland— 
 everyone somewhere. Hueffer is down here in Lynmouth ; the 
 Stillmans gone to America. 
 
 This is one of the places Shelley was at with his wife, Harriet, 
 when he was about eighteen and she sixteen. We have found an 
 old woman 1 who remembers them perfectly. I am going to draw 
 her, Miss Blind to make an article about her. We have got some 
 new facts from her. 
 
 Miss Mathilde Blind, who from this time forth 
 became one of the most intimate friends of the Madox 
 Brown family, had made their acquaintance the year 
 before, chiefly owing to an article on Shelley which 
 she had published in the 'Westminster Review/ 
 which had attracted considerable attention. It was 
 her enthusiastic description of the beauties of Lyn- 
 mouth which induced Madox Brown, then in search 
 of appropriate scenery for his Apelles and Don Juan, 
 to go there with his family for the summer holidays. 
 
 1 The drawing of the old woman in question was duly made, and was 
 sold at the Madox Brown sale. She had been servant to the landlady 
 at the house at which the Shelley s had lodged. 
 
268 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1869- 
 
 There at his invitation Miss Blind joined them. Her 
 love of everything connected with Shelley led her 
 to make repeated inquiries regarding any lingering 
 reminiscences of the poet's stay in Lynmouth. At 
 last she discovered the octogenarian woman, Mary 
 Blackmore, who had once 'seen Shelley plain.' 
 
 A letter in which Shelley acknowledged a debt of 
 5/. passed into Miss Blind's hand, and a small sum of 
 money, collected by admirers of the poet, made the old 
 woman happy. 
 
 Rossetti's letters were frequent — most frequent those 
 written from Kelmscott, a house jointly occupied by 
 Rossetti and Mr. Morris, which Rossetti found a ' haunt 
 of ancient peace,' and where he managed to find quiet 
 spots for the composing of poems and the like, though 
 even there he, too, was troubled with letters from 
 Craven. In justice to that gentleman, it must, how- 
 ever, be said that dilatoriness was not a vice entirely 
 strange to either painter — perhaps the quality pre- 
 dominated in Rossetti, though from Kelmscott he 
 writes : — 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to F. Madox Brown. 
 
 August 3. 
 
 One might settle down into complete and most satisfactory 
 habits of work here. There are two splendid riverside walks to be 
 taken alternately every day, without a soul to be seen on the road to 
 disturb the cud of composition, and at home everything lends itself 
 to poetic composition. 
 
 We heard the other day of Top, from the unpronounceable 
 capital of Iceland. Of course his peregrinations and much-endurings 
 
F1TZBALL 
 
 269 
 
 had not yet commenced. An Icelandic paper was also sent, in 
 which his arrival was recorded as ' Wm, Morris, skald.' He really 
 ought to go by no other name for the future, and the ' Bard ' he 
 relegated to Swinburne. 
 
 A gossipy letter written a little later may serve to 
 round in the year : — 
 
 Same to same. 
 
 August 12. 
 
 I am writing a long ballad 1 about a magic mirror. When Lucy- 
 painted that picture, 2 did she turn up any wrinkles as to such 
 matters ? My mirror, however, is a crystal ball. I wish one could 
 
 live by writing poetry. I think I'd see painting d d if one could. 
 
 That vile replica has plagued me here (it is Graham's, not Craven's, 
 which is still to do), but seems coming round again. I have painted 
 the better part of a little picture besides, but don't know who is to 
 buy it. I can't be bothered to stick idle names : a head is a head, 
 and fools won't buy heads on that footing. 
 
 I wish you'd write me anything that comes uppermost when you 
 have leisure. 
 
 How is Hueffer ? Tell him he will get on in the world, for he 
 laughed to scorn my claim for Fitzball about the 'Flying Dutchman,' 
 and now it is his claim {vide ' Academy '). 
 
 N.B. — Of course I am only joking, and was glad to see the 
 great Fitzball canonised. I think you never read his ' Auto- 
 biography,' which I have. I must lend it you. It is a book of 
 books. Old Hake has sent me ' Blind Boy,' made absolutely perfect 
 now. I didn't think he could do it, but if he makes the whole 
 volume like this it must get him a name. I have been urging him 
 to bring out his comic novel 3 at the same time, as it gets better and 
 better the more I read of it. Really he is a very extraordinary man. 
 
 1 ' Rosemary.' 
 
 2 A picture having for its subject the Earl of Surrey being shown his 
 mistress through the medium of a magic mirror. 
 
 3 ' Her Winning Ways.' 
 
2jo LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1869-71 
 
 I am sure the novel would astonish you. I hear that Swinburne is 
 visiting in Perthshire, together with Browning ! 
 
 Have you any news of Shields ? I wrote to poor dear Smethani 
 lately, and got some of his quaint memoranda by return of post, full 
 of good things, but revealing, I fear, a sad state as to prospects. 
 
1872-74 
 
 271 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 1872-1874 
 
 Work during 1 872 — Portrait of Professor and Mrs. Fawcett —Convalescent 
 — Sardanapalus and Don Juan replicas — Rossetti's illness— Madox 
 Brown's account of it — Rossetti's recovery — Holding fund — Marriage 
 of Catherine Madox Brown — Madox Brown's candidature for the 
 Slade Professorship — Letter from D. G. Rossetti to the Home Secre- 
 tary — Madox Brown's address to the Vice-Chancellor— Failure— Sir 
 Francis Grant, P.R.A. — Advantage of politeness — Madox Brown's 
 view of picture buyers — Rejected pictures of the Royal Academy — 
 Whistler's Portrait of his Mother, &c. — Children's work, Oliver's 
 ' Gabriel Denver' — Work during 1873 : Oil Don Juan, Jacopo Foscari, 
 Byron and Mary Chaworth, Completion of Cromwell on his Farm 
 (1856) — Return to Nature : Portraits — Lohe?ig?'in Piano — Lectures — 
 Death of William Davis — Madox Brown's charitable schemes — 
 Rossetti's remonstrance — Review of W. M. Rossetti's ' Fine Art 
 chiefly contemporary,' ' Gabriel Denver' — Rossetti's jocular letter — 
 History of Charles Augustus Howell — Joachim Miller— James Sme- 
 tham — ' Pre-Raphaelite' poets— Work during 1874. 
 
 The year 1872 was so broken in upon by distress- 
 ing illnesses and harassing cares that the item ' work 
 of the year ' dwindles down almost to the confines 
 of nothingness, being restricted to the Portrait 
 of Professor and Mrs. Fawcett, painted for and now 
 in the possession of Sir Charles Dilke, and to the 
 pastel portrait of Mrs. Madox Brown, called Coiwa- 
 lescent. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1872- 
 
 The earliest months of the year were occupied 
 with the finishing and retouching of the pictures not 
 quite finished, or commenced late in 1 871 — the large 
 Sardanapalus. The large Don Juan, commenced in 
 1870, was also on the easel and frequently worked at 
 at odd moments until its sale to Mr. Leyland in June 
 of this year. 
 
 The distractions that impeded his work are summed 
 up in the following letter on the subject : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 July 17. 
 
 I am quite overwhelmed with shame when I look at the date of 
 your letter, but when I explain the nature of my silence you, with 
 your forgiving nature, will be more ready to excuse me than I can 
 be myself. About the time you wrote to me (May 12) I had already 
 lost a considerable amount of time owing to repeated attacks of 
 rheumatism, and before I had time to answer your long, kind letter, 
 a matter of quite a new kind sprang up which completely shut up 
 my time and attention, and that is the state of Gabriel. 
 
 He is at present in Scotland along with Dr. Hake, the poet, and 
 his son. I and the younger Hake went down with him there four 
 weeks ago. I stayed eight days, and left him with W. B. Scott and 
 George Hake. Now Dr. Hake has replaced Scott, and to-day I 
 have from him the first letter of a really hopeful kind that has reached 
 me from Scotland. 
 
 You must know that Gabriel for the last two years has been, 
 without our noticing it, subject to slight fits of eccentricity, par- 
 taking of the nature of delusions. He had also been sleeping worse 
 and worse and taking doses of chloral every night. About the time 
 of that horrid Buchanan pamphlet, called the ' Fleshly School of 
 Poetry,' this state, owing to the irritation consequent on that libel, 
 reached a state of development, accompanied by a kind of fit (which, 
 by-the-by, was falsely represented to us and his family as irrecover- 
 
i8 74 
 
 ROSSETTI'S ILLNESS 
 
 273 
 
 able in its nature — you may judge of his poor mother's, and indeed 
 all our feelings), that rendered it unsafe to leave him alone. I was 
 some days at Cheyne Walk with him, some, days we brought him 
 here, and then at last I got him off to Scotland and went with 
 him. 
 
 There his state, physically, began to improve, sleep gradually 
 returned to him, and with less chloral (for they dared not leave it off) 
 his walking power returned, for the fit had left him with a lame 
 leg. 
 
 The gloomy black temper and the delusions, which were to the 
 purpose that the whole world was in a conspiracy against him, with 
 the exception of a few friends, did not give way — rather the re- 
 verse. 
 
 But to-day Dr. Hake writes the first hopeful letter, and we have 
 every reason to expect that, as his mental state is none of the worst 
 kind, that in three or four months he will be all right again and at 
 work. 
 
 But it has been a fearful anxiety, and the charge of it has been 
 thrown more heavily upon me, owing to the fact that his brother 
 William seemed at one time liable to fall almost equally ill owing to 
 the shock to his feelings, so that I was obliged to keep letters back 
 and act often on my own judgment. 
 
 This state is now happily righting itself, and I do trust Gabriel's 
 condition will continue to improve. 
 
 I have perhaps news of my own that might interest you, but I 
 have little time left this morning to write it. I am painting Fawcett, 
 the blind member, and his wife in one picture for Sir Charles Dilke 
 — quite a pathetic-looking group. 
 
 My large Don Juan has also made some progress. 
 
 Somewhat later we hear of Rossetti's recovery. 
 To the same. 
 
 September 6. 
 
 I wrote you last a very dreary letter about Rossetti. I, now that 
 I have good reason for doing so, write to say that he is perfectly re- 
 covered and at work again. 
 
 T 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1872- 
 
 I know that this news will be of great and joyful import to you, 
 and that I ought not to withhold it. 
 
 He is still in Scotland, and Dr. Hake and his son with him ; this 
 week the elder Hake returns and Dunn 1 goes to replace him. For 
 at least a fortnight Hake's letters have invariably given the same 
 information — total recovery. Christina, I may also tell you, is vastly 
 better and down in the country with her mother. 
 
 The letters practically exhaust the subject of Ros- 
 setti's illness. So much, with this or that tenor, has 
 been said about the matter, that, although reasonably 
 simple, it has become rather irrationally involved. 2 To 
 the present writer it seems that Madox Brown's letters 
 on the subject place the affair in a very right light. 
 
 They are the letters of a most sincere friend of the 
 sufferer, written to a friend so intimate and trusted 
 that nothing material was omitted, and nothing ex- 
 tenuated. 
 
 The absence of Rossetti, even after his recovery, 
 engendered a number of petty tasks and problems 
 for Rossetti's representatives in town, and these were 
 shared almost equally between Mr. W. M. Rossetti 
 and Madox Brown, occupying a good deal of time, 
 a fact which Rossetti by no means ignored. Writing 
 from Kelmscott, whither he had removed from Scot- 
 land, he says : — 
 
 1 Mr. H. T. Dunn, who then and subsequently acted as Rossetti's 
 assistant ; the significance of the fact is, of course, that Rossetti was suffi- 
 ciently recovered to exchange his doctor for his assistant — his remedies 
 for his work. 
 
 2 I do not, of course, refer here to recognised lives like Mr. W. M. 
 Rossetti's lately published memoir, or Mr. Knight's ' Rossetti,' but to 
 irresponsible tittle-tattle in the Press, &c. 
 
i8 74 
 
 THE 'HOLDING' FUND 
 
 275 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 September 25. 
 
 Here I am as well as ever I was in my life, which, perhaps, is a 
 pretty good reason for coming here. Even the lameness seems to 
 be giving in a little, and my voice has completely recovered. 
 
 The better I am, the more intensely I feel your friendship in word 
 and deed. I need not doubt that you have pardoned any feeble 
 petulance of my late ailing condition. 
 
 The other distracting events of the year were 
 Madox Brown's gout — or, as he preferred to call it, 
 rheumatism — which attacked him very severely in the 
 spring and autumn ; an extremely dangerous feverish 
 illness that in October and thereabouts jeopardised 
 the life of Mrs. Madox Brown, and among minor 
 troubles, the collecting of contributions lor the ' Hold- 
 ing ' fund, to which Madox Brown contributed his 
 pastel Convalescent. 
 
 Holding was a youngish Manchester artist of not 
 inconsiderable powers, who, after having had as hard 
 a struggle for existence as too many artists of the 
 day, received a commission that seemed to open very 
 excellent prospects. It consisted of painting a scene 
 in the environs of Paris, whither he set out, only to 
 die almost immediately of typhus. The tragedy was 
 accentuated by the fact that the first intimation of his 
 death that his widow received was in a telegram from 
 the municipal authority of the city, asking for directions 
 as to the disposal of the body. 
 
 So tragic a history was one eminently calculated to 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1872- 
 
 make Maclox Brown use very considerable exertion 
 towards aiding in the endeavour to assist the artist's 
 widow, which had been originated by Mr. Shields. 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 October 1 5. 
 
 I have got answers from Hughes, Boyce, Jones, and I). G. 
 Rossetti ; they will all contribute something ; and now. strengthened 
 with their names, I will apply to Anthony, Wallis, and Linnell. 
 
 Lucy, Nolly, Edward Hughes, and Dunn will also contribute 
 something. . . . AVilliam Rossetti has given me 2/. for the fund, and 
 Hunt promises money soon. 
 
 Two other matters occupied the latter portion of 
 the year, the marriage of the artist's daughter Cathy 
 to Dr. Hueffer, and the candidature for the Slade Pro- 
 fessorship at Cambridge. 
 
 As regards the latter matter a few words might 
 not be superfluous. As to the relative merits of the 
 two candidates, Madox Brown and Mr. Sidney Colvin, 
 it is unnecessary to say anything — it is, at any rate, 
 sufficient to say that the latter was successful. 
 
 Madox Brown's attitude with regard to the matter 
 of the Professorship he puts in this way : — 
 
 As to my chances, I know nothing, except that I have made 
 myself fully talked about among the parties interested, and if I be 
 not elected, it will be because they have determined on some other, 
 and not that they consider me as incompetent. 
 
 If I do not get it, I shall not care, for the work would be serious, 
 and I shall have done myself no harm as an artist ; in fact, I came 
 forward as much for a duty as from personal motives. 
 
 This pococurante attitude did not altogether pre- 
 clude the sending of many letters to people of influence 
 
i8 7 4 
 
 THE SLA BE SCHOOL 
 
 277 
 
 by way of canvassing, and the issuing on December 20, 
 1872, of an ' Address to the Very Rev. the Vice- 
 Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.' 
 
 The immediate result of the letters sent out was 
 a crop of answers of an eminently flattering kind, 
 emanating from a large number of well-qualified ' artists 
 and connoisseurs.' The impossibility of judging of the 
 entire sincerity of such testimonials precludes my 
 quoting more than one letter, that from Rossetti to the 
 Home Secretary ; 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to the Home Secretary. 
 
 December 1 5. 
 
 My dear Bruce, — I do not know whether you can aid at all in 
 the matter I venture to write to you about, but I know that at least 
 you will pardon my doing so. 
 
 Madox Brown, the dearest friend I have (whose works as a painter 
 are no doubt known to you), is now a candidate for the Slade Profes- 
 sorship of Art at Cambridge. His qualifications for the post are far 
 from being restricted to his eminence as an artist. He has also the 
 widest theoretical and historical knowledge of art, and quite excep- 
 tional gifts as a speaker. Indeed, the true thing to say is this, that 
 to obtain such a man for such a place is an opportunity rarely occur- 
 ring, and which, if missed, would be a subject sooner or later for the 
 deepest regret. 
 
 My friend's success is very near my heart, both for his own sake, 
 in carrying out his views in a worthy field of action, and for the sake 
 of art in England, which so much needs the cultivation of its coming 
 patrons no less than of its coming producers. 
 
 Of the 'Address to the Vice-Chancellor' I will 
 quote a single passage, which may possibly, since it 
 represents an ideal master, be intended to portray the 
 artist himself : — 
 
278 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1872- 
 
 It is still more owing to personal ascendency that the practical 
 man remains valuable. The master must also be master of his craft 
 — one, to lead soldiers, must have fought battles ; to impress a 
 medical class, one must have performed cures ; to wield authority in 
 the house, one must have been the ' author,' the ' auctor,' or adder 
 to it of at least one stone during its building ; and so likewise to the 
 art-seeker, the art- master, the creative genius, is indispensable. But, 
 to obtain and keep hold of this personal influence, it suffices not to 
 be a historical painter in name (a denomination, moreover, of the 
 vaguest), seeing that it no wise necessitates the carrying out of sub- 
 jects taken from history ; it requires a man with a living interest 
 attaching to all he does, a man so balanced as to unite executive 
 excellence with imagination and elevation of aims, combining gene- 
 ral knowledge with acuteness of reasoning sufficient for the evolution 
 of fresh laws where the progress of art demands them or the erase- 
 ment of rules become obsolete ; in short, an artist equally capable of 
 clothing his ideas in words or in works. Such a man commands 
 attention by force of judgment ; his memory is stored, but with 
 typical instances — heavy in grain, not with the husk and chaff of dry 
 facts. If his utterance be not of the most spontaneous sort, if his 
 periods be not always perfectly rounded, on the other hand, he never 
 leads his pupils astray, for, as each topic arises, his reasoning is a 
 match for it, and, by degrees, as his subject warms beneath him, un- 
 conscious eloquence is expressed, for he is original. 
 
 His thoughts run not on catalogues, nor his opinions on other 
 men's writings. These, when he remembers them, he identifies 
 with the ideas of the times which engendered them, and, with his 
 own mind brought to the subject, he accepts them, however oft 
 quoted, for what they are worth ; and of the dried leaves of common- 
 place is made nourishment for the living seed of thought as it takes 
 wing and roots itself in the brains and hearts of others, and, in the 
 place of the sickly plant dilettantism, expands to a powerful tree of 
 knowledge and love of art. 1 
 
 1 Rossetti sums up the address very neatly in a letter of January 2, 
 1873: — 'I have just read with much satisfaction your address, which 
 should be quite conclusive as to your literary claims. I wish, however, 
 I had seen it in proof, as the punctuation is confused, and the sentences 
 
1874 SIR FRANCIS GRANT, P.R.A. 279 
 
 Taken in any sense, the passage could scarcely 
 have been calculated to appeal to a scholastic board of 
 electors ; the whole course of the address is that of a 
 tilt against scholasticism. The ' synopsis of a course 
 of eighteen lectures ' is very unorthodox, and unlikely 
 to appeal to donnish minds. 
 
 Having issued the address, Madox Brown waited 
 quietly for the decision of the authorities. 
 
 When, in January, the adverse decision of the 
 electors was made known, he did not display any 
 profound dejection ; and his non-success left the roll 
 of his pictures very much the richer. 
 
 A somewhat remarkable coincidence is the fact 
 that Sir Francis Grant, in his capacity of P. R.A., 
 was one of the board that decided against Madox 
 Brown. 
 
 It may be remembered that that artist was the 
 Academician upon whom, twenty years before, Madox 
 Brown had turned his back on the occasion of the 
 skying of his Christ and Peter. I have, of course, no 
 idea of insinuating that that circumstance in any way 
 influenced Sir Francis in his choice, though, had it 
 done so, it would not have been an impossibly flagrant 
 case. 
 
 The circumstance, in any case, points to the ad- 
 vantage to be gathered by artists by the employment 
 of judicious proportions of politeness and, perhaps, 
 
 sometimes, 1 venture to think, rather abrupt and fragmentary in structure > 
 though as easy as possible to clear up.' 
 
LIFE, OF FORD MA BOX BROWN 
 
 1872- 
 
 Tapleyism as a leaven to their convictions of their own 
 genius. 
 
 To bring a somewhat sad year to a close, I will 
 quote one or two letters upon more or less allied topics. 
 Here we have the artist's view of picture sales : — 
 
 To Mr. Rae. 
 
 I trust the works [in the collection of Mr. Craven] may afford 
 you some gratification, for that seems the only thing likely to be 
 ever connected with works of thought, labour, and imagination in 
 this country, since the examples of the recent sales here in London, 
 at which they bid 3,500/. for a David Cox that took a week to paint, 
 and 180/. for a Maclise which must have taken six months. The 
 great picture- buyers seem going clean off their heads. 
 
 Most people's minds now seem taken up with the number of 
 works which seem to have been rejected again this year from the 
 Academy. This, of course, does not concern me personally. I 
 hear that Whistler has had the portrait of his mother turned out. If 
 so, it is a shame, because I saw the picture, and know it to be good 
 and beautiful, though I suppose not to the taste of Messrs. Ansdell 
 and Dobson. Rossetti's pupil, Dunn, has also had a fine work 
 rejected. However, it may not be fair to speak about it yet, seeing 
 that they may alter their minds and take them in yet. Leyland, the 
 Rossettis, and one or two others, dined here last night. I wish you 
 had been there. We were jolly. 
 
 Of the children's work we hear in July : — 
 
 To the same. 
 
 Nolly has written a novel and is engaged on another ; but this 
 is strictly a secret betwixt us. He has developed an astounding 
 genius in this line. He is only, you know, seventeen. Cathy is to 
 be married the first week in September. We are all pretty well in 
 
KELMSCOTT 
 
 281 
 
 health, but I have not found time to go to a single exhibition- yours 
 included. 
 
 Following upon a year of interruptions and little 
 work, 1873 proved one of comparative industry. 
 
 January saw the completion of the large oil Don 
 Juan ; during February largish cartoons were made of 
 the Jacopo Dose art and Byron and Mary Chaivorth 
 subjects, as w r ell as a duplicate of the chalk Convalescent. 
 The very large oil version of Sardanapahis was put in 
 in outline in the same month. It was not completed 
 for some eighteen years. 
 
 Another instance of deferred completion occurred 
 in 1872, when Mr. Brockbank, of Manchester, gave a 
 commission for the picture of Cromwell on Ins Darin. 
 This was the picture formerly called St. Des, for the 
 background of which Madox Brown made the journey 
 into Huntingdonshire described in his Diary for 
 
 1856. 
 
 This picture, to the painting of which Madox Brown 
 devoted almost as much care and labour as he would 
 have done in the Pre-Raphaelite days of its concep- 
 tion, occupied him during the greater part of the time 
 between June and October. A good deal of it was 
 painted in the open air at Kelmscott, whither he had 
 gone on a visit to Rossetti and the Morrises, and 
 where we find him bewailing the difficulty of getting 
 white pigs, though the horse and the sheep were easily 
 procurable. 
 
 The change brought about by this greater devotion 
 
282 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1872- 
 
 to Nature in the open air was extremely noticeable. 
 As Rossetti says : — 
 
 Your picture of Cromwell shows that, working direct from Nature, 
 you are capable of making an advance in execution on anything you 
 have yet done, and I think, if you now do this kind of work for a 
 while, there is a very good chance of its opening some eyes which 
 are shut at present. 
 
 In October, Madox Brown went to Llandinian to 
 paint the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. David Davies, a 
 work which occupied him until the end of November, 
 the rest of the year being given to the picture of 
 Cromwell. Among other designs of the year, mention 
 may be made of that for a Lohengrin Piano, which, 
 as its name implies, was intended to embody the story 
 of the Wagnerian opera. This was to have been 
 executed in inlaid ebony and ivory. It proved, how- 
 ever, too costly for execution and remains a design. 
 
 A great deal of work, of a different order, was 
 devoted to the preparation of two lectures on Art, to 
 be delivered at the Birmingham and Midland Insti- 
 tute in February of the following year. They were, 
 however, commenced in August. They contain a 
 great deal of very pithy argument of one kind and 
 another, but I must content myself with quoting Madox 
 Brown's own terse description of them : — 
 
 In the first, 1 I propose to show that the so-called innovations of 
 myself and others are nothing more than is the rule at present with 
 
 1 On ' The Latest Phase of Modern Art, Style and Realism.' 
 
i8 74 
 
 A HOMILY 
 
 all leading European artists. In the second, 1 I wish to call attention 
 to the difference between historic {so-called), that is, elevated and 
 elevating art, and the commonplace so affected by our blessed 
 English public, plebeian and patrician. 
 
 In April of this year, after a life of almost extreme 
 hardship, died William Davis, the landscape painter, 
 of whom I had occasion to make frequent mention 
 during the fifties. He left his family in very straitened 
 circumstances, and Madox Brown devoted a great 
 deal of time to furthering the scheme for benefiting 
 them. 
 
 Charitable matters of this sort really engrossed a 
 very considerable portion of the artist's time ; to such 
 an extent, indeed, that Rossetti several times found it 
 incumbent upon him to write and remonstrate : — 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 I am glad to know so good a haul was made for the poor Davises, 
 and quite as glad to know that the matter is well off your hands. I 
 certainly think it is a very serious necessity for you to stop this kind 
 of preoccupation rigorously. I should never dream myself of going, 
 as you do, into such a matter, willing as I am to help if able. (Then 
 follows the passage already quoted about the picture of Cromwell) 
 [Your work] is of more consequence to you than the inevitable 
 destinies of the families of deceased artists ; besides, after all, if one 
 makes one's work answer, one can be of use without giving one's 
 time to extraneous matters. 
 
 Pardon this homily, which strikes me after writing as somewhat 
 cheeky. 
 
 Rossetti, however, in spite of this burst of worldly 
 wisdom, was by no means disinclined to admit Davis's 
 
 1 On ' Style in Painting.' 
 
284 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1872- 
 
 special claims as an artist, upon which he dwells in 
 several of his letters on the subject. 
 
 Others of the miscellaneous letters of the year are 
 interesting, perhaps particularly so the following letter 
 to W. M. Rossetti : — 
 
 January 19. 
 
 My dear William, — I have been confined to my room for 
 three or four days with gout and neuralgia, and to-day I have taken 
 the opportunity to read a great deal of your 1 Fine Art, Chiefly Con- 
 temporary,' which, I am ashamed to say, I had never well read. I 
 thought I had, and a great part of it, of course, was familiar to me 
 from having read it when it came out, but much of it, it seems, I had 
 never seen then nor since. 
 
 First let me acknowledge the priority of your claim 1 to the 
 Hogarth parentage of modern art. You pointed it out to me at your 
 house the other evening, but briefly. I now find that you most 
 systematically insist upon it in a large paragraph. This I have read 
 for the first time this morning, and it looks as though I was a gigantic 
 prig ; but it is not so ; simply, we have both seen the same fact. 
 But you should undoubtedly claim this priority, and to this I should 
 have no objection. 
 
 In all I have to teach, you may perhaps observe that I set k truth 
 above originality,' and wish chiefly to be true, no matter whence the 
 truth comes. 
 
 But now, what I want to say chiefly is, that I am very much 
 struck with the completeness of your views as a critic generally — 
 allowing for certain matters which I differ from you in, and which do 
 not require specifying at present — and that it seems to me you only 
 want to make your labours take a more connected form, and go on 
 with what you have begun so well, in order to take rank as one of 
 the most eminent authorities in Europe. 
 
 No doubt they would be glad to have an English expounder of 
 the rights of international art law 2 as well as French or Germans — 
 
 1 A claim which Madox Brown had made in his Address to the 
 V.C., &c. 
 
 2 This, of course, does not mean statutory law. 
 
i8 74 
 
 1 GABRIEL DENVER ' 
 
 hut the English won't give them one. (Of course I reckon John 
 Ruskin as out of count, for I do not call his work criticism, but 
 rather brilliant poetic rhapsody.) The English, in fact, don't 
 criticise, they express opinions quite regardless of anything that may 
 have been long ago settled and ascertained to the contrary. 
 
 It seems to me that it is almost your duty now to set to work 
 upon some serious part of the history of art, such as may add on to 
 what you have written, and gradually round it into a whole — either 
 the Life of Titian, or anything else you may care for in the precincts 
 of art. 
 
 There is no reason that it should be in eighteen volumes, like 
 Mr. Snaase's — only a German could do that, and nobody would read 
 it till some one had rewritten it — but on such a plan as to make 
 five or six volumes, to go with Grimm's ' Michelangelo.' 
 
 The only other event of any consequence in the 
 year was the publication of Oliver Madox Brown's 
 ' Gabriel Denver,' which met with a somewhat cold 
 reception from Press and public, though its merits are 
 really extremely considerable. 
 
 Rossetti writes in November : — 
 
 I got Nolly's book, read it and wrote him, so need not say much 
 here. It is, of course, quite an extraordinary achievement, and I 
 have no doubt that, with the original tragic ending, no want would 
 have been felt at all. Nevertheless, I think he w T as quite right to 
 make the change for expediency's sake, and he has even managed it 
 excellently, but, in execution as well as in conception, the new parts 
 seem to be below what I presume to be the untouched old parts. 
 
 The middle of the book, ship on fire, &c., seems perfect. What 
 he may achieve after such a beginning at so early an age is beyond 
 calculation. 
 
 Rossetti's extremely numerous letters during" the 
 year 1873 are nearly all occupied with business matters 
 — schemes for cajoling purchasers — in which, it must 
 
285 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1872- 
 
 be confessed, D. G. Rossetti succeeded infinitely better 
 than Madox Brown. 
 
 Occasionally — much more so than had of old been 
 the case — he breaks out into some such jocular vein as 
 the following : — 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 My dear Brown, — Allow me to point out to you that you are 
 becoming demented ; your conduct and telegrams are alike helpless 
 and fatuous. 
 
 When I found you, on Monday morning, in the character of a 
 torso, parting your hair down the middle, I laid the cheque in. an 
 envelope on your portmanteau, and three times before leaving you 
 did I point it out to you, and did you say ' All right.' A torso has 
 certainly no pockets, but when you recovered from that character it 
 would have been much better to pocket the cheque than to shuffle it, 
 or allow it to be shuffled, into a pack of envelopes. . . . 
 
 Ergo, it becomes quite a question whether it be worth the while 
 to part the hair daily down the middle of a cranium which seems 
 daily to be becoming vacuous. 
 
 The exploits of a personage who figures very fre- 
 quently in Rossetti's correspondence formed so large 
 a stock of Madox Brown's anecdotic table-talk in later 
 days, that a brief mention of him, as seen through 
 Brunonian eyes, may not be out of place. 
 
 This was Charles Augustus Howell. According 
 to Madox Brown, his history was somewhat of this 
 kind. 
 
 Born of an English father in Portugal, his mother 
 was a Portuguese lady of title, a direct descendant of 
 Boabdil il Chico, or, as members of the circle preferred 
 
i8 7 4 
 
 C. A. HOWELL 
 
 287 
 
 to call him — the cheeky. At an early age Howell 
 and a brother supported his mother and sisters by 
 diving for the treasures of a sunken galleon that he 
 had purchased. This proving not altogether a lucra- 
 tive pursuit, he emigrated to Morocco, became the 
 sheikh of an Arab tribe, passed day and night in the 
 saddle, and after having rendered various services to 
 the Portuguese Government, returned to England and 
 became — Mr. Ruskin's secretary. 1 
 
 He then set up as a picture and z'£r/z/-dealer, 
 in which capacity he made a considerable fortune, 
 and about this period was elected as a Roman 
 Catholic representative to the School Board. One 
 feat of his that Madox Brown frequently dwelt upon 
 occurred when a railway company acquired the house 
 he occupied. Howell removed his various articles of 
 valuable bric-a-brac, using for the purpose a string of 
 forty cabs, which passed backwards and forwards for 
 several days between his old and new abodes. When 
 the railway company disputed this item of his expendi- 
 ture, Howell appeared in court, and not only was he 
 complimented by the judge upon the way in which he 
 had given his evidence, but he proved conclusively the 
 necessity of the vehicles in question as a safe means 
 of transit, and won his case. 
 
 Subsequently he increased his fortune by setting 
 up a stud of race-horses, in which his Sahara experi- 
 
 1 A selection of Howell's letters has been lately published, and 
 should certainly ensure for him a certain fame as a letter-writer. 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1872- 
 
 ences materially aided him, and finally settled down as 
 a J. P. and country gentleman in a western county. 
 
 The writer, of course, will not advance any of 
 these tales as being matters of fact. Howell was 
 looked upon as a sort of Munchausen in the circle — 
 always in request at a dinner and the like — intensely 
 amusing, generally regarded as mendacious, although 
 it was practically impossible to catch him tripping. 
 Confronted with a diving-bell manufacturer, his tech- 
 nical knowledge more than stood the proof, and no 
 African traveller could find fault with his knowledge 
 of, say, the Berber dialect, or the position of oases in 
 the Kalahari Desert. 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 Howell, by-the-by, has really (he says) got 4,000/. out of the 
 railway company as well as all the fittings of his house given in, but 
 he has to turn out of it at once, and is at his wits' end where to settle 
 till his tower flouts the firmament. Transactions with him seem to 
 be getting obscure, and I must try to lug him down here and see 
 what can be done by word of mouth. 
 
 You have doubtless heard that Howell, in spite of disclaimers, 
 has been taken from the plough, like Cincinnatus, and installed by 
 his county's need in the responsible position of Catholic representa- 
 tive on the School Board. Howell has sent telegrams within the last 
 two days to the amount (to my cost) of 16s. Hansom cabs being 
 impossible, he seems to have resorted to telegrams, which suit his 
 purse better, as / have 'to pay. ... I reopen this letter to say that 
 Howell has now sent two more telegrams, bringing it up to 2/. 14s. 
 
 Another character who excited much interest at the 
 time was Joaquin Miller, the American poet, who used 
 to arrive at the Fitzroy Square gatherings in a bright 
 
i8 74 
 
 JAMES SMETHAM 
 
 289 
 
 red cow-boy shirt, with wideawake to match it, and 
 mud-bespattered riding-boots. His tales of wild 
 exploits with Walker the filibuster in Nicaragua were 
 even more exciting than those of Howell, and con- 
 siderably more substantial, to use an expressive word. 
 James Smetham, the artist and letter-writer, a character 
 of quite a different order, also occupied a good deal of 
 attention at about this time. His letters 1 and mode of 
 living were alike eccentric, but excellent in their ways 
 — in some matters he almost resembled Blake. Retir- 
 ing, tranquil, intensely religious by nature, and some- 
 what mystic in the subjects of his pictures, he met 
 with all too little appreciation, but sometimes effected 
 a sufficient number of sales to maintain him for a 
 considerable period. ' One man's board and lodging 
 does not need a nation to know of his wants. Half a 
 dozen good friends will serve a man for life ' — as he 
 puts it — and the good solid knocks at the plug by my 
 three friends, Rossetti, Brown, and Shields, turned the 
 frozen tap, and that was enough.' His pictures reflected 
 very much of his own spirit — poetic in the extreme, 
 with a sufficiently strong bias towards the religious. 
 
 From about this time (1874) and onwards it is 
 necessary to figure to oneself Madox Brown as an 
 artist constantly subject to harassing attacks of that 
 most distressing malady, the gout. As the present 
 writer has already had occasion to say — and he is not 
 
 1 Smetham's letters, which have also been lately published, are full of 
 excellences of matter and phrase. 
 
 U 
 
290 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1872- 
 
 alone, or unsupported in his opinion — this illness, 
 although to a certain extent hereditary, was largely 
 superinduced by the exposure to the elements to 
 which he subjected himself during the years in which 
 he painted his pictures of the Last of England, Work, 
 Stages of Cruelty, and the number of landscapes exe- 
 cuted in and around Hendon. 
 
 The year 1874 was interrupted by a series of these 
 attacks. During January and February they prevented 
 him from so much as holding a brush, though during 
 the latter half of the second month he contrived, by 
 working at times with his left hand, to finish the 
 Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Davis. The time spent in 
 bed was devoted to putting the finishing touches to 
 the lectures that he delivered at Birmingham and Man- 
 chester in March. 
 
 In March was finished the great picture of Crom- 
 well 011 his Farm. 
 
 I quote an excellent description of the picture 
 from the pen of Mr. Forbes Robertson, senior, which, 
 in all but the wording, was inspired by the artist 
 himself : — 
 
 On a white horse, which grazes leisurely by the roadside before 
 us, sits a stalwart man of saturnine visage, in the prime of lusty 
 manhood. 
 
 He is attired in the sober costume worn by thoughtful men in 
 the early part of Charles I.'s reign, is booted in buff, and his beaver 
 is slouched. His coat is dark brown, and his cloak is sage green in 
 colour. On his brow there is a palpable wart, and on the scant 
 white bands which adorn his neck is a red spot as of blood. Before 
 him burns a heap of weeds and stubble, which those two labourers 
 
' CROMWELL ON HIS FARM ' 
 
 (Painted 1874) 
 
 (From the picture in the possession of Mr, Brockbank) 
 
i8 74 
 
 'CROMWELL ON HLS FARM' 
 
 291 
 
 have grubbed from the hedges they have been trimming, and it is the 
 flames thereof that have arrested the attention of their master, and on 
 which he now gazes so earnestly yet so absently. 
 
 In vain may the buxom wench, sent by her mistress, who stands 
 with her two children by the garden terrace in front of the goodly 
 manor-house yonder to the right, raise her voice above the lowing of 
 cattle, the grunting of pigs, and the quacking duck which she holds 
 in her lusty grasp, to tell the master that dinner waits. 
 
 He hears, and heeds her no more than the little lamb does that 
 nibbles contentedly the herbage by the horse's nose, or than the pig 
 that fancies something good is going on in her neighbourhood, and 
 comes scampering up, with her squeaking litter, among the very 
 horse's feet. 
 
 By the consenting fall of the lines of the mouth and the weird 
 speculation in those eyes, he of the white horse sits evidently spell- 
 bound ; and that which fixes him is no fairy dance, no pleasing 
 phantasy, but the soul-sobering vision of the prophet or seer. 
 
 We have seen where we are in time ; but where are we in place, 
 and who is he ? 
 
 The level landscape, then, which lies so sunny before us, with its 
 dog-roses, chamomile, and marsh-mallow, with its pollard willows 
 throwing their stumpy shadows on the luxuriant pasturage, with its 
 flat, Dutch-like horizon, is the Fen country of Old England. 
 
 We are in Huntingdonshire, and yonder in the distance rises the 
 famous tower of its capital. That is the Black Ouse beyond the 
 meadows, which, with winding equivocation, loiters lazily towards the 
 Wash. 
 
 Could we turn our heads away from the dreamer of day-dreams 
 and look a few hundred yards to the right, we should see the town of 
 St. Ives. 
 
 As it is, we are standing on the lands of the Manor of Sleep Hall ; 
 all these, to the river side, are its meadows, used, as Ave see, for 
 grazing purposes, and yonder lady, with her two children, is its 
 mistress. She is the daughter of Sir James Bourchier, and was 
 married at St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate, some nine or ten years 
 ago. Her husband is the melancholy man before us on the white 
 horse, and his name is Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1872- 
 
 He has not been long back from Parliament, and it will be ten or 
 eleven years before he sits there again. In the meanwhile his notions 
 about kingcraft have been sadly shaken, and he has made up his 
 mind to devote himself to the interests of his family and of his grazing 
 farm, and, above all, of his soul. Accordingly, he associates only 
 with such earnest neighbours as Hampden and Pym, Lords Brook, 
 Say, and Montague. 
 
 ' Living neither in any considerable height nor yet in obscurity, I 
 did endeavour,' said he afterwards in a famous speech in Parliament, 
 ' to discharge the duty of an honest man.' 
 
 Oliver Cromwell, as we see him here, is supposed by the artist to 
 be returning from a neighbourly visit, and, on his homeward road, to 
 have opened his Bible at these passages : 
 
 ' Lord, how long ? Wilt thou hide Thyself for ever ? ' 
 
 ' And shall Thy wrath burn like fire ? ' 
 
 Pondering on the texts, he comes all at once on the burning 
 stubble, and the concrete fact, so palpable to his outward eyes, 
 answers readily to the vision within, and the man lapses, in the 
 saddle where he sits, into a religious trance. . . . 
 
 In the middle months of the year a good deal of 
 time was devoted to the picture of Byron and Mary 
 Chaworth. The water-colour of the same picture was 
 begun in June. 
 
 These and two more portraits, the one of /. O. 
 Riches, Esq., for presentation by the Ocean Steam- 
 ship Company, and the other of Joseph Allot, Esq., 
 for a building society, make up the tale of the year's 
 work as far as pictures are concerned. Otherwise, 
 Madox Brown was engaged upon two more lectures 
 for delivery at Manchester in December. 
 
 The events of the year were not many, but two 
 were sufficiently far-reaching in their results — the 
 marriage of Lucy Madox Brown to W. M. Rossetti, 
 
i8 7 4 
 
 OLIVER MADOX BROWN 
 
 2 93 
 
 which took place on March 31, and the death, on 
 November 5, of Oliver Madox Brown. With both 
 daughters married, the death of their son left the 
 
 Oliver Madox Brown, 1 November 6, 1874 
 
 Madox Browns quite alone in the world. The last 
 illness was cruelly protracted, commencing, apparently, 
 with peritonitis, and changing to that subtlest and most 
 insidious of diseases — blood-poisoning. 
 
 1 From the pastel in possession of Mrs. Hueffer. 
 
294 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1872- 
 
 On October 24, writing to Mrs. Hueffer, Madox 
 Brown says : — 
 
 Above all he hates any show of sentiment. Flowers put him in 
 a rage, and if you kiss him he says, ' Don't do that again.' 
 
 He won't smoke any more again nor take tea, but he reads for 
 hours and does not speak, and one night dictated two chapters of a 
 new story ; Marshall thought it might hurt him to retain it in his 
 mind. 
 
 And later : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 October 30. 
 
 I steal a few minutes from my night watch to tell you how Nolly 
 is going on, and to speak to you about another matter. 
 
 We now have a regular hospital nurse. Nolly has been ill within 
 two days of seven weeks ; about the third week he seemed mending, 
 then he had like a relapse, which is a common feature of these fevers, 
 I am told ; then his illness assumed the form of blood-poisoning — 
 recently it is more like enteric or gastric fever. 
 
 He is no longer in pain, and to-day a slight improvement has 
 shown itself, which we trust may be the harbinger of ultimate con- 
 valescence, when he would be out of danger. 
 
 Of course I have lost three or four weeks' work, but that and 
 the expense is nothing at all in the scale. No end of people keep 
 calling and inquiring now that it is becoming known. But I can 
 scarce see any of them. I pass the night in his room, sleeping, but 
 not undressing till 6, when I wake the nurse and go to bed for two 
 or three hours. I hope that Nolly may be so improved as not to 
 stop my coming to the lectures and to see you both next month 
 (Nolly keeps talking in his sleep). ... I have done a little to my 
 Byron's Dream, and a little to a large portrait — but so little. 
 
 On November 4 there seemed some chance of a 
 recovery : — 
 
 My dearest Brown [writes Rossetti under that date], — I have 
 felt so much- depression and wretchedness since seeing you, respect- 
 
i8 74 
 
 f CUT IS THE BRANCH' 
 
 2 95 
 
 ing this dreadful calamity (never yet having been able to realise a 
 certainty of death in one so young), that even a glimpse of hope 
 held out by your letter seems a treasure as yet. Thanks many times 
 for still thinking of me at such a time. 
 
 On the 5th came the end : — 
 
 To Mr. Rae. 
 
 November 8. 
 
 I have delayed too long answering yours of the 4th, though it be 
 but for a day or two, but I determined to write to you myself, and 
 have had neither time nor heart to do so ; and now I can scarce find 
 words to convey the dreadful intelligence in : this black-bordered 
 paper will tell you better than I can that our poor dear Nolly is dead 
 — on Thursday, at about 20 minutes to 7. 
 
 Nothing that I can say can add to the impression which I know 
 these words can make on you. The loss from every point of view is 
 heavy. . . . But, being no ordinary loss, we have decided to bear it 
 if we can in no ordinary way, and not to complain. The irony of 
 fate does not display itself in this way for the first time. 
 
 Without a personal knowledge of Oliver Madox 
 Brown, without at least an intimate knowledge of his 
 personality as displayed in his works, it is difficult to 
 conceive how great a blow his son's death was to 
 Madox Brown. 
 
 To the same. 
 
 What seemed likely to turn out the crowning reward of a life not 
 overstocked with successes otherwise is suddenly turned into a 
 mockery and illusion, and yet we are strangely calm, after our 
 wont, and indeed, my belief ; it is of no use arguing with the 
 whirlwind. . . . There is nothing for it but to patch up what 
 remains of hope in other directions and get to work again ; but the 
 savour is gone, unless in the work for itself. 
 
296 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1872- 
 
 During the remainder of his life the remembrance 
 of his son was never absent, influencing Madox Brown 
 in an infinite number of the small things that go to 
 make up a life. Just before his death Oliver had 
 expressed a dislike to the smell of tobacco that hung 
 about his father, and Madox Brown had said : ' Very 
 well, my dear, 1 will never smoke again until you get 
 up to smoke with me,' and the promise thus made was 
 kept. A room was set aside in each house in which 
 the Madox Browns lived subsequently, in which such 
 little things as his books, pens, and papers were stored 
 away ; and it remained ' Nolly's Room ' to the end. 
 Such little indications were indeed numberless. 
 
 With these latter years a feeling of sadness hung 
 over the house at Fitzroy Square. As an old ser- 
 vant put it : ' The place was never the same after 
 the young ladies married and Master Nolly died. 
 Hardly a soul used to come near the great old house.' 
 
 To a large extent this was the case. For some 
 time after his son's death Madox Brown had not the 
 heart to ' see anyone,' and when the time came that 
 such diversions might have been welcome, changes 
 had occurred ; old friends had died, had gone away 
 to a distance, were perhaps alienated by circum- 
 stances, few remained, and new friends no longer came. 
 Perhaps the attractions , of Madox Brown's person and 
 entourage had largely vanished as the conviction that 
 his was ' a life not overstocked with successes ' forced 
 itself upon him. 
 
i8 7 4 AUTUMN 297 
 
 Work itself was somewhat of a trouble to him, and 
 the financial outlook at this time seemed to grow 
 darker. It was as if, with the death of Nolly, the end 
 of a short bright period had come. Madox Brown's 
 life was like what our farmers call a bad year, ' with a 
 gleam at its tail.' To a stormy spring succeeded a 
 stormy summer, and a not too mellow autumn, Late 
 in its October came that transient gleam of bright 
 weather, called St. Luke's little summer ; and then 
 the clouds closed in again as the year rolled on to its 
 close. 
 
 0. M. B. 
 
 As one who strives from some fast steamer's side 
 To note amid the backward-spinning foam 
 And keep in view some separate wreath therefrom, 
 
 That cheats him even the while he views it glide 
 
 (Merging in other foam-tracks stretching wide), 
 So strive we to keep clear that day our home 
 First saw you riven — a memory thence to roam, 
 
 A shattered blossom on the eternal tide ! 
 
 O broken promises that showed so fair ! 
 O morning sun of wit set in despair ! 
 
 O brows made smooth as with the Muse's chrism ! 
 
 O Oliver ! us too Death's cataclysm 
 Must soon o'ertake — but not in vain — not where 
 
 Some vestige of your thought outspans the abysm ! 
 
 F. M. B. 
 
298 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1875- 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 1875-1878 
 
 Work during 1875 — Byron and Mary Chaworth — Oil Cordelia's Portion, 
 suggested subjects, Rubens' Ride, &c. — Lectures at Edinburgh and 
 Newcastle — Madox Brown's popularity in Manchester — Town Hall 
 decorations — Visit to Holland — Dutch Picture Galleries and Scenery 
 — Rossetti's suggestion for a picture of Chaucer beating a Franciscan 
 Friar in Fleet Street — Work during 1876 — Supper at Emmaus — 
 Duplicate Christ and Peter — La Rose de ILnfante — Pastel Portraits — 
 Purchase of Chaucer for Sydney Gallery — Manchester Fresco 
 Project — Madox Brown and the New School of Artists and Critics— 
 Madox Brown's Research — Work during 1877 — TeWs Son — Crom- 
 well, Protector of the Vaudois — Portrait of Himself— Descriptions — 
 Deschamps' Exhibition — Nervous hysteria — Gout — Roland Gilderoy 
 — Rosetti's illness — Madox Brown with Rossetti at Herne Bay — An 
 indignant landlady — Tourgeneff — The Chloral Question — Madox 
 Brown's schemes to make Rossetti renounce the drug — Rossetti's 
 view of the case — The Manchester Frescoes — Commission given to 
 Madox Brown by Mr. Shields — Work during 1878 —Cartoons — 
 Duplicates, &c. — Gout. 
 
 January 1875 saw the completion of the oil picture 
 of Byron and Mary Chaworth, a sufficiently im- 
 portant representative of Madox Brown's style at this 
 period. The design had formed the k title-vignette ' 
 for the Moxon's ' Byron.' The treatment of the 
 subject is simple. The circumstances of the poet's 
 attachment to the beautiful Mrs. Musters, then Mary 
 Chaworth, granddaughter of the man whom Byron's 
 
1878 
 
 'BYRON'S DREAM' 
 
 299 
 
 great-uncle had killed in a duel, are sufficiently well 
 known. 
 
 Byron is represented in the picture as a somewhat 
 early matured youth of sixteen or seventeen years of 
 age. He has ridden over from Newstead to Annesley, 
 and in company with the dog Boatswain has taken a 
 stroll with the heiress of the latter place. The day is 
 a hot one, and the poet and his beloved have seated 
 themselves on a little knoll overlooking the great 
 plain in Nottinghamshire. 1 Byron has hold of Mary 
 Chaworth's hand, and is pouring out impassioned 
 nothings, whilst Mary has only ears for the distant 
 sounds of the hoofs of that sturdy Nimrod Jack 
 Musters' horse, and eyes for that scarlet-coated gentle- 
 man himself. Boatswain, too, looks in the direction 
 whence the sounds come, just preparing to cock his 
 ears and perhaps utter the bark that will bring Byron 
 to a sense of the world around him, and, to a certain 
 extent, to his own senses. 
 
 He only fully realised the unprofitableness of his 
 passion when subsequently, standing in the hall at 
 Annesley, he heard the fair Mary refer to him, speak- 
 ing to her old nurse on an upper landing, as that 
 1 lame schoolboy.' She seems, indeed, only to have 
 regarded him as an interesting and rather amusing 
 lad. On Byron, however, the attachment made a very 
 lasting impression, to which he referred not infre- 
 
 1 Madox Brown made a special journey to Newstead with the object 
 of studying the vicinity of the pictured event. 
 
3°° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1875- 
 
 quently to the day of his death, deeming- that a 
 marriage with her might have made him a better 
 man. 
 
 The early part of the year was given up to lectur- 
 ing, and perforce to illness, but, in May, an important 
 duplicate, that in oil of Cordelias Portion, was finished. 
 It had been begun eight years before. In June the 
 admonitions of the work-spirit began to grow stronger 
 and stronger, and with it the desire to strike out new 
 subjects. Two of these latter were actually com- 
 menced, the one, Surrey and the Fair Geraldine, being 
 brought as far as the cartoon stage in June. The 
 other, Rubens Ride, like it, never destined to see 
 completion, was actually commenced in Antwerp, 
 whither Madox Brown went with the intention of 
 painting the background. This background, a stretch 
 of river with, on the further side, red roofs and 
 brown-sailed barges, still exists, or did until very lately, 
 on a small wood panel inside the artist's favourite little 
 Fortuny colour-box, and the design of a bevy of riders 
 on spirited horses is still extant in the early stages of 
 a cartoon. This is as far as the work ever pro- 
 ceeded. 
 
 The subject was, until the day of his death, a 
 cherished one with the artist ; it is, however, rather a 
 difficult one to appreciate, and even in the hands of so 
 thoughtful a designer could hardly have proved much 
 more than a work of spectacular display. 
 
 October and November were occupied principally 
 
1878 
 
 WORK 
 
 with the two etched portraits of Oliver Madox Brown 
 that adorn the ' Dwale Bluth,' the posthumous and 
 unfinished novel of the young author, which, with other 
 literary remains, was published in the year following. 
 These etchings, although ultimately not eminently 
 successful as specimens of the method, occupied a 
 great deal of the artist's time, and had devoted to them 
 a very considerable amount of industry. 
 
 In December was finished the water-colour dupli- 
 cate of Cromwell on his Farm % the last work of the 
 twelvemonth. 
 
 The vicissitudes of the year's work are, as usual, 
 sufficiently indicated in the artist's letters to Mr. Shields, 
 Mr. Rae, and others. E.g. : — 
 
 To Mr. Rae. 
 
 February 6. 
 
 I did intend, and should very much wish to paint for you the 
 subject of Rubens' Ride, the same size as the Don Juan of Leyland — 
 that is, 7 feet by 5 feet, but though with such a subject I could 
 paint it smaller, it would be, it seems to me, a pity. On the larger 
 scale it ought to be 800/., frame included, for it is a troublesome 
 work to carry through, and would require a journey to Antwerp. 
 
 However, it has been my intention, as soon as I can get rid of 
 certain matters that are still occupying my time in the evenings, to 
 execute cartoons of several very important subjects that I now wish 
 to paint — Rubens' Ride being one of them. 
 
 In this case I think it would be better for you to wait a little, and 
 I will give you the pick of them when designed, for I wish you, 
 this time, to have something the very best I can do — both for sub- 
 ject and carrying out of it. I have indeed got some splendid subjects, 
 fit to make a collector's mouth water I may say, though I should not, 
 as the saying is. 
 
302 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1875- 
 
 There follows a panegyric of Turkish baths which 
 it is unnecessary to quote, and then : — 
 
 We had a very satisfactory trip to Edinburgh and Newcastle, where 
 I lectured, and I was very much satisfied with the Edinburgh 
 audience. They sat an hour and ten minutes ungrudgingly — a 
 thing that they protest they never do for anyone, however great, and 
 they afterwards gave me a vote of thanks — also quite an exceptional 
 proceeding. 
 
 The second evening (when they found I had not come to abuse 
 them) the Scotch painters gathered in great force on the platform of 
 the Philosophical Institution. At Newcastle and Manchester the 
 public was more stolid, but I was informed the lectures were con- 
 sidered successes, and there were handsome notices of them. I send 
 you a Manchester paper with an account of a lecture that was given 
 about me by a Manchester artist. 1 I have not much art news except 
 about myself, for I scarce see anyone. I have sold the cartoon of 
 'Cordelia's Portion to a Manchester man, 2 so I look upon the ice as 
 
 fairly broken now, and the A dragons as vanquished. I don't 
 
 think there is much news about Gabriel Rossetti since you were last 
 there, but he is turning out plenty of work. 
 
 The 'premonitions of awakening' in Manchester 
 are peculiarly interesting, approaching as we do the 
 time when Madox Brown received the commission to 
 paint the frescoes in the Town Hall of that city. 
 
 To Mr. Shields it is due to state that this pleasing 
 fact arose almost entirely from his unceasing efforts on 
 behalf of his friend — a fact of which Madox Brown 
 was really well aware. The number of commissions 
 that came from Manchester men of business through 
 the channel of that artist, and the number of inspired 
 
 1 Mr. Shields (see p. 146). 
 
 2 Mr. Rowley. 
 
1878 
 
 MANCHESTER 
 
 articles in this and that provincial paper, are really 
 astonishing. 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 September 14. 
 
 Swinburne writes me that he and Professor Jowett have seen 
 more than one laudation of me in some Manchester papers recently. 
 To what pitch of electric commotion have you frictioned them that 
 these sparks are elicited ! . . . . I have been thrown back in all my 
 work, however, and quite taken up with trying to etch two portraits 
 of dear Nolly for his book which is in the press ; and, as it is quite 1 
 a new process to me, and my eyes not so good as they once were, it 
 has been a great difficulty to me, and only one done as yet. 
 
 In November we hear the first whisper of sug- 
 gestions about the decorations of the Town Hall, 
 Manchester, Madox Brown being asked to draw up a 
 list of the men best suited to do the necessary work. 
 It was on the whole a disagreeable task ; as Madox 
 Brown expressed it : — 
 
 I have by no means any wish to claim the authorship of the 
 opinions given about the decorations of the Town Hall. It could 
 only add to the number of my enemies. Those mentioned would 
 feel a sort of lofty contempt, such as artists are wont to when in 
 demand, while all the others would feel bitterly neglected. 
 
 It would at this juncture be somewhat invidious to 
 quote several of the opinions expressed in the docu- 
 ment, for which reason I refrain from quoting it at all. 
 
 Of miscellaneous letters some of Madox Brown's, 
 written from Holland, have some interest as Reise- 
 bilder : — 
 
 1 This is a mistake on Madox Brown's part. He had acquired a rudi- 
 mentary knowledge of etching under Wappers ; witness the etching in 
 the ' Germ.' 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1875- 
 
 F. Madox Brown to Mrs. Hueffer. 
 
 June 24. 
 
 We 1 have been in Antwerp, at the Hotel de l'Europe, since yester- 
 day morning. ... I have already been at work on my Rubens 
 subject, examining the ground and a librarian at the Town Hall. 
 
 We have also examined the museum and the cathedral, and should 
 soon have exhausted Antwerp were it not for what I have to do. 
 To-morrow we go to Brussels, and shall spend the day there, for 
 I must have a Turkish bath. I have been with your mamma this 
 evening to discover the grave of my sister, who was buried here 
 thirty-five years ago, but we have not been successful yet. It is a 
 long time ago, but the stone ought to be there. There is another 
 cemetery in which it may be, however, as I cannot remember ; 
 everything is so changed. Antwerp is becoming an immense city, 
 and must be very wealthy. 
 
 A little later : — 
 
 To Dr. Hueffer. 
 
 July 7. 
 
 We are here at Graven Hagen, at the Hotel de Belle Vue, 
 well-named, as it has a beautiful view of a setting sun over the park, 
 Avhich is the beginning of ' Den Bosk,' where the palace in the 
 woods, with the rare and lovely Japanese furniture, is. 
 
 We have seen this to-day, and Scheveningen and the picture 
 museum. But perhaps the finest pictures are in the streets and on 
 the water-highways. 
 
 What with trees and what with water, Holland is all beauty at 
 this time of year, and the passage from Dordrecht to Rotterdam is 
 one of the most pictorial views in the world, and one of the strangest, 
 beating Andrew Marvel's poem about it. But their picture gallery 
 is a sad affair. Their Italian pictures are second- and third-rate 
 ones, all re-painted, and their Dutch and Flemish ones not equal to 
 what we have in England of them. 
 
 1 The 'we' included Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Rossetti, 
 
1878 
 
 CHAUCER AND THE FRIAR 
 
 There are, of course, a few exceptions among six or seven hundred 
 works. They have one admirable Antonio More, three very fine 
 Van Dykes, and a beautiful portrait of Paul Potter by Van der Heist, 
 one wonderful little picture by Ue Kuyper, and a landscape by Van 
 der Meer. As William said, being fine they were sure to turn out 
 to be by unknown men. 
 
 The School of Anatomy we do not much care for, and the 
 celebrated Bull is an ugly bull-calf, utterly wanting in grandeur 
 or poetry. 
 
 Again from Antwerp : — 
 
 To Mrs. Hueffer. 
 
 July 10. 
 
 The first aspect of Holland was indeed startling. We were 
 aground for an hour, by-the-by, on a sandbank in the Hollandesche 
 Deep, and a Dutch man-of-war (a turret-ship, built flat, and in shape 
 like a large turbot, to move among the shoals and shallows) steamed 
 up to pull us off They steamed very steadily along, with men 
 with long measuring-poles on either side, calling out the depth of 
 the water all the time. . . . Holland is a terrible place for charging, 
 and everybody pretends to speak every language, but they go away 
 and do the exact reverse of what you want them to. 
 
 Rossetti's letters during the year contain nothing of 
 entirely paramount importance. The following sug- 
 gestion for a picture is rather amusing : — 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to F. Madox Brown. 
 
 Undated, 1875. 
 
 I really think you ought to paint Chaucer beating a Franciscan 
 friar in Fleet Street. I find the subject recommended to Haydon 
 by C. Lamb. 
 
 'It seemeth that both these learned men (Chaucer and Gower) 
 were of the Inner Temple ; for not many years since Master Buckley 
 did see a record in the same house, where Geoffrey Chaucer was 
 
 X 
 
306 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1S75- 
 
 fined ten shillings for beating a Franciscan friar in Fleet Street' 
 (' Chaucer's Life,' by T. Spight, prefixed to the black-letter folio of 
 £ Chaucer,' 1598). 
 
 1876, a year again cut up by serious illnesses, saw 
 the completion of a number of the small works that 
 go to fill up the interstices of the edifice of an artistic 
 career. Of its first nine weeks of illness about four 
 were devoted to the water-colour of the Supper at 
 Emmaus, which, begun in February, was finished 
 towards the end of April. 
 
 The subject is treated simply enough — the Christ, 
 seated at the centre of the table, offers the wine and 
 bread to the Disciples seated with Him. They, recog- 
 nising the sign, are struck with wonder and adopt 
 attitudes of adoration. Round windows behind each 
 of the figures' heads form a kind of halo, but through 
 them the sunlit landscape is to be seen. 
 
 May was devoted to the cartoon of Rtibens Ride, 
 which was once again laid aside, never to be resumed. 
 
 June and July were largely occupied with negotia- 
 tions with the Manchester Committee of Decoration, 
 an innumerable host of letters and the like passing be- 
 tween the several correspondents. A certain amount 
 of work was also given to the picture of Chaucer at the 
 Court of Edward III., the gigantic canvas remaining* 
 in the studio. 
 
 In August the cartoon of the ill-fated Phryne sub- 
 ject was again taken in hand, to be laid down in 
 favour of the duplicate of the Christ and Peter, 
 
Mrs. W. M. Rossetti and Daughter. 1876. 
 {From pastel in possession of Mr. W. CM. T^ossettt.) 
 
1878 
 
 'CHAUCER' AT SYDNEY 
 
 executed on the commission of Mr. Rowley, of Man- 
 chester. It was finished in October, when the small 
 portrait of Mrs. Stillman's daughter, called La Rose 
 de r Infante] was painted in exchange for the picture 
 of the English Boy. 
 
 The subject of the picture, suggested by Victor 
 Hugo's poem in ' La Legende des Siecles,' deals with 
 the little daughter of Philip II., whose dropping rose- 
 leaves forecast the dismemberment of the Invincible 
 Armada, then setting sail. It is, however, a picture 
 rather of affinity to than of actual identification with 
 the subject. 
 
 Two works in a medium for which Madox Brown 
 at this time had a very considerable partiality — 
 pastels — occupied November and December in com- 
 pany with the water-colour duplicate of Cromwell on 
 his Farm. These were a portrait of Miss Blind in 
 three chalks, and a pastel portrait group of Mrs. 
 W. M. Rossetti and her daughter Olive. 
 
 This year saw the purchase by the Sydney Fine 
 Arts Committee of the picture of Chaucer at the Court 
 of Edward III. It was the first picture of his to find 
 a permanent resting-place in a public gallery, and 
 Madox Brown was proportionately pleased. 
 
 The project for the frescoes in the Manchester 
 Town Hall meanwhile showed an astonishingly Protean 
 adaptibility of shape. At times there seemed to be a 
 prospect that a considerable portion of the work would 
 be relegated to Madox Brown and his ally, Mr. 
 
 x 2 
 
3 o3 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1875- 
 
 Shields ; at another, only small wall-spaces behind 
 pillars seemed likely to be reserved for them. 
 
 There was at one time a great danger that the entire 
 building would be handed over to the tender mercies 
 of a couple of Belgian fresco-painters, Messrs. Guffins 
 and Schwertz ; but a vigorous jingo movement in the 
 Town Council turned those gentlemen to the right 
 about. The principal objection to Madox Brown was 
 that he was too old, and alas ! too conscientious to be 
 available for the work. The Manchester burghers 
 were anxious to have the entire inner wall-space of 
 their gigantic edifice covered with frescoes in seven 
 months, and at a minimum of expenditure — a desire 
 that to a large extent precluded the employment of any 
 artist of Pre-Raphaelite leanings or antecedents. Thus 
 the matter dragged itself out to an inordinate length. 
 Referring to it, Madox Brown writes in April : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 I almost begin to feel as if I should get the job. I should feel 
 so on the alert as I have not felt for long ; but it will be eighteen 
 months' toiling like a nigger, and not much richer. But we must 
 not allow the chance to slip if we can help it, for it is a kind of work 
 that, once got, we can boast about. To those who don't know the 
 niggardliness of the pay we can boast of its grandeur, and to those 
 who know how meanly it pays, we can declare that money is now 
 no object to us, but that we have grown rich enough to work for 
 our country's good and our own honour. 
 
 Later we must work upon our friends to work upon our task- 
 masters the common councilmen, to give us a little more — as dis- 
 interested public benefactors ! After this last I had better conclude, 
 as I might spoil it. 
 
878 
 
 THE NEW SCHOOL 
 
 The dragging-out of the business was certainly an 
 incentive to write bitterly — especially when the Man- 
 chester authorities ' took it into their heads to consult 
 Academicians.' 
 
 ' I can assure you things are much worse than you 
 suppose,' Maclox Brown writes in the closing days of 
 the year to a new correspondent, Mr. Rowley, 'and 
 not so much in Manchester as in London. For here 
 there is an entirely new school of men arisen, both 
 painters, critics, and R.A.s, who are far more deadly 
 and dangerous than the old opposition. For five-and- 
 twenty years I have been rashly indifferent to the 
 Academy, Tom Taylor, and Ruskin ; but now this 
 new state of things will be "too many" for me, and 
 I shall px) under.' 
 
 As Madox Brown began to discover, the new 
 school that was arising — men now arrives and 
 passes — had its own struggles to think of. The 
 battles that Madox Brown had fought against the 
 old school were matters of ancient history. The 
 fact is that very few Academicians or other artists 
 of that day knew much about Madox Brown. The 
 great majority of them, I am convinced, knew none 
 of his work, never having had any chance of seeing 
 it. Otherwise, a few slightly prominent men admired 
 his work ; but they, as a rule, considered him as a ' dog 
 that had had his day ; ' whereas Madox Brown began 
 to see that his day was never to come, and that the 
 only thing to be done was to work on as steadily as 
 
310 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1875-- 
 
 his health and strength permitted him. His industry, 
 by which I would express his desire for the elucidation 
 and thorough carrying out of the smallest points of his 
 design, was really as great as ever. In the case of the 
 third version of Christ and Peter we see him return 
 again pertinaciously to the point that purchasers had 
 decided against him years before — the question of 
 the nudity of the figure of Christ :— 
 
 To Mr. Rowley. 
 
 May 29. 
 
 I have inquired [he writes], both of Cayley and Hueffer, as to the 
 ' clothes ' matter. It would seem to be one of those disputed points 
 about which theologians would wrangle for ever, but which never 
 would have arisen but for a forced conception of the idea of modesty 
 more in accordance with modern European notions than antique 
 Asiatic. 
 
 Hueffer observed very acutely that, whatever the text might 
 mean in Greek, their expressions could mean no exact equivalent 
 for Judaic garments. 
 
 Cayley showed me this morning that in Matt. v. 40, l/xoltlov 
 (singular) means cloak ; IfxaTta (plural) is translated in Luke xv. 20 
 ' clothes.' Therefore, when again used in John xiii. 4 it probably 
 means clothes also. 
 
 Now as, according to our notion, Jesus only wore two garments— a 
 coat and a cloak — the plural must intend both. . . . (Then follow quo- 
 tations from ' Liddell and Scott,' &c.) If you like it, we are perfectly 
 justified in using the context as we choose ; and it certainly is more 
 pregnant with meaning in the nude sense, as Mr. O'Connor decides. 
 
 I have been much bothered lately, as Mr. Shields will tell you, 
 with the Supper at Fmmaus, which seems to have become the 
 subject of an even more severe contention than the Last Supper, 
 under discussion — a contention apparently between the buffers of 
 an engine and tenderness of several drunken railway navvies, so 
 smashed up did it reach its destination. 
 
1878 ' CROMWELL, PROTECTOR OF THE VAUDOLS' 311 
 
 The latter part of January 1877 was devoted to 
 the painting of the little picture of Tell 's Son, a por- 
 trait of the artist's grandson. 
 
 It represents a little boy holding the halves of an 
 apple that has been split by his father's arrow, and 
 may be regarded as a pendant to the Rose de V Infante 
 of the preceding year. 
 
 In February two of Madox Brown's most impor- 
 tant pictures were commenced ; they occupied the 
 entire middle portion of the year, and were finished 
 together in October — the one being that of Cromwell, 
 Protector of the Vaudois, and the other the portrait 
 of himself. 
 
 Cromwell's virile personality exercised a strong 
 influence on Madox Brown's mind. Apart from the 
 two pictures of Cromwell that he actually painted, he 
 planned several others illustrative of the Lord Pro- 
 tector's career. 
 
 In the present picture we have him at the height 
 of his power, protecting not only the interests of the 
 commonalty at home, but dictating to foreign sove- 
 reigns in the interests of their subjects of the reformed 
 religion. From a scrap of paper in his hand, he 
 dictates to Milton the terms of the famous despatch of 
 May 26, 1658, 1 whilst the poet Latinises them in lan- 
 guage fit to lay before the French King — though, to 
 judge from Cromwell's face, one might have thought 
 that good, broad English would have done well 
 
 1 The proclamation is to be seen in the Record Office. 
 
3 i2 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1875 
 
 enough. Andrew Marvell, in turn, writes from the 
 dictation of the blind poet. 
 
 The contrast of the three figures is as remarkable 
 as may be. The Lord Protector, a man of almost 
 colossal proportions, 1 has come in from reviewing his 
 troops in the park, and sits with his legs astride the 
 corner of the massive table. His face is full of violent 
 emotion as he turns towards Milton ; perhaps his 
 dogmatic spirit is buoyed up still more by the remem- 
 brance of the ironsided phalanxes he has just seen 
 defile before him. 
 
 Milton, his face full of the tranquillity that so 
 often ennobles the expression of the blind, is the exact 
 reverse of Cromwell. His features are delicately cut, 
 illumined with all the inward fire of genius; his clothing 
 and attitude are alike precise and calculated. His 
 leo-s are crossed in his favourite and characteristic 
 manner, and, whilst he ' mouths out his hollow o's and 
 a's ' for Marvell to set down on the parchment, he 
 motions with his hand — a delicate, poet's hand — to re- 
 strain the Protector's indignant flow of words. He is, 
 in fact, both the great poet and the merciless precisian. 
 
 In Marvell, on the other hand, we see the subtile 
 homme d'affaires, satirist and wit, who, as Milton him- 
 self said, ' is a scholar besides, and well read in Latin 
 
 1 Madox Brown was guided in this matter by the life-mask of Oliver 
 Cromwell, which is of the most singularly huge proportions. It is, how- 
 ever, to some extent certified as real by the historic wen, prominent 
 enough on its surface. The features are singularly rugged and uneven. 
 
I 
 
C£ £ "35 
 
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 O ■§ a 
 
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1878 
 
 PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF 
 
 3 J 3 
 
 and Greek, and probably of good conversation also, 
 for he comes now lately out of the house of the Lord 
 Fairfax, who was general, where he was instructed to 
 give some instructions in the languages to the lady, 
 his daughter.' 
 
 Thus they sit and make history on that May day. 
 The red afternoon sun-light strikes here and there ; on 
 Milton's face and on the wall of the room of the house 
 in Petty France, where Milton dwelt. Behind Milton 
 is his organ with its keyboard shown ; round his head 
 the carving of the organ seems to form the poet's 
 crown of laurel. At the feet of the poet lie the roses 
 he has dropped ; at the feet of the Protector the 
 proclamation of a solemn fast on the occasion of the 
 massacre of the Waldenses. At his side, beneath his 
 weighty hand, is the map of the country that the Duke 
 of Savoy has so mercilessly harried, and that Crom- 
 well now takes under his protection. 
 
 On Cromwell's arm is a band of crape — emblem of 
 mourning for the slaughtered saints of the Vaudois 
 cantons. ... 
 
 Of Madox Brown's portrait of himself, no ela- 
 borate description is necessary, though, as a por- 
 trait, it is a work of singular excellence. We see 
 the artist — a man of great handsomeness of a mas- 
 culine cast — Roman-nosed, broad of forehead, with 
 rather long, almond-shaped eyes ; the face rather 
 oval and broad at the cheeks. The profuse grey hair, 
 carefully parted in the middle, and falling mane-like on 
 
314 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1875- 
 
 each side, and the sweeping grey beard, beginning to 
 grow white, impart an almost patriarchal air to a face 
 otherwise vigorous enough. The dominant mien is a 
 rather defiant, suspicious one ; but the expression was 
 not habitual with him. In later years his face, unless 
 otherwise excited, was habitually benign — I had nearly 
 said sweet — in expression. 
 
 Of other work, a duplicate of the Cromzvell was 
 begun in December, and in the same month was com- 
 missioned and begun the design of another picture 
 never destined to be completed — 'John Brown resetting 
 Negro Slaves.' 
 
 During the winter of 1876-77 Madox Brown once 
 again exhibited in London, at M. Deschamps' Winter 
 Exhibition of Oil Paintings by British Artists, where, 
 side by side with the works of the just-dead artists, 
 Walker and Pinwell, and of the 'newly-arrived' E. J. 
 Gregory, were hung Madox Brown's pictures Don Juan 
 and Haidee and Cromwell on his Farm. The result 
 of the essay was very much what might have been 
 expected, as far as the critics went. The ' old guard ' 
 recognised contemptuously the existence of a man 
 whom they had thought to have long since annihilated. 
 The new men as a whole were indifferent, and there 
 the matter ended. One or two friends wrote more or 
 less enthusiastic reclames which served very well the 
 purpose of insertion in the artist's scrap-book ; and 
 that may perhaps have influenced the minds of the 
 wavering Manchester Town Councillors. 
 
1878 
 
 A SIDELIGHT 
 
 3*5 
 
 As far as impressing the minds of the public went, 
 the effort was a failure. 
 
 Several of Madox Brown's letters about art matters 
 at this juncture are not without interest of one kind or 
 another. Here we have the inception of the Crom- 
 well picture : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 February 13. 
 
 Rowley is off again to-day. He is a dear little man, and wishes 
 me to paint him a Milton with a Cromwell doing something together. 
 Of course, I shall do it for him straight off, but it is rather a rude 
 shaking off of all my own favourite subjects just at present. 
 
 But it does not matter ; once on the subject I shall inspire 
 myself with the feeling of it, and I designed a subject in my head 
 ten minutes later. 
 
 Another letter of almost identical date throws a 
 certain light on the subject of the picture of Cromwell 
 on his Farm, and has, besides, an interest of its own. 
 It is to a friend who has been complaining of a kind 
 of nervous hysteria : — 
 
 February 3. 
 
 I have suffered so much myself from imaginary nervousness, and 
 every friend I have has suffered so exactly in the same way, that I 
 cannot help thinking that I should be in some way helpful to you as 
 a companion. 
 
 No man ever does any good in the world without passing through 
 the phase some time between the ages of thirty and forty. This is 
 what I have endeavoured to depict in the Cromwell on his Farm, 
 which seems to be so little understood by ordinary mortals. 
 
 What I have myself suffered on this score I should 1 not like to 
 confess, but the experience now of twenty-five years forces me to the 
 conclusion at last that it is imagination and nothing more — and, like 
 you, I have been to doctors. 
 
 1 See 1849-50, et circa. 
 
3 i6 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1875- 
 
 Rossetti has been worse than any of us, because he has had dis- 
 tinct hallucinations, but even with him I believe them to be the pro- 
 duct of chloral. 
 
 A few days later a further report of artistic progress 
 under difficulties is made : — 
 
 To Mr. Rowley. 
 
 February 24. 
 
 I have been laid up with gout — indeed, we are all laid up here, or 
 I ought to have written you again to thank you for the Wedding 
 Cards, the design for which is so beautiful that every one who sees 
 it seems to form a new estimation of Shield's powers as a historical 
 painter. . . . 
 
 I have been prevented from painting but not from reading and 
 otherwise studying, and the state of the ' Milton and Cromwell ' 
 matter is now this : I find Milton was, at the date of any of the 
 Vaudois despatches, totally blind. There is a very fine one to the 
 King of France in May 1658, just a few months before the Pro- 
 tector's death. Carlyle translates it (for it was Latin) near the end 
 of his ' Letters and Speeches.' 
 
 This I propose to make Cromwell dictating, or giving directions 
 for to the blind Milton, who re-dictates it, in Latin, to Andrew 
 Marvell, his ^-secretary. It was Milton, indeed, who recommended 
 Marvell for this place. 
 
 So I think it must needs give additional interest to the scene, but 
 I have still to think a great deal about it before I begin. 
 
 In May a pamphlet by a pseudonymous Roland 
 Gilderoy excited Madox Brown's interest. Its tenor 
 was that of decrying the ' flimsy popular art of the 
 day,' and of upholding the 'more thoughtful' artists, 
 prominent — though not unduly prominent — amongst 
 whom were Madox Brown, Rossetti, and Burne 
 Jones. 
 
187S 
 
 ' ROLAND GILDEROY' 
 
 3i7 
 
 May 25. 
 
 We have been eagerly expecting the pamphlet of the year [Madox 
 Brown writes to the author]. Miss Blind was very poorly, but she 
 worked at it hard, and, I hope, got done with enough for your pur- 
 pose. The only thing she had not time for was what she wished to 
 say about myself, for, as that had got put off till the last, she had not 
 time to consult with you. She got me to jot down a few hurried 
 notes, but this was done just as the post went out. 
 
 The only part I seriously disagreed with you was about Brett's 1 
 picture. I have seen it again since, however, and have considerably 
 come round. 
 
 There is a very sweet picture by Inchbold that has been passed 
 over, and three or four others that would be worth describing, should 
 you go into a second edition. Knewstub in particular, who has a 
 beautiful head in water-colour. 
 
 I like your general views of what I have seen (I have not seen 
 the Grosvenor), and much of the writing was fine and to the point. 
 Indeed, the thing only wants persevering with to make it one of the 
 leading criticisms of the days we live in. 
 
 A few days later : — 
 
 The thing reads very well, and as a criticism, per se, I fancy it has 
 no rival. Nothing so comprehensive has been attempted, and no 
 one that writes these sort of things could compete with it, unless it 
 were W. M. Rossetti or Stephens. There are, however, some unfor- 
 tunate printer's errors which W. M. Rossetti and Miss Blind have 
 picked out, and which, should it come to a second edition, ought to 
 be corrected. I believe that, on the whole, however, it will be 
 accepted as a true and impartial criticism, and that, if persevered in, 
 next year it will take a permanent hold of the public, and ultimately 
 effect a revolution. 
 
 A resolute and fearless critic who is unbiassed and unbound by 
 commercial considerations in the first instance, is what is required to 
 effect this. 
 
 1 The picture in question was that artist's Mount's Bay, to which 
 the writer accords unqualified praise. 
 
318 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1875 
 
 What you said about myself I am much obliged to you for, and 
 it is just what I like, for it gives me the highest possible praise with- 
 out putting me into too much prominence. 
 
 There is one slip, and but one, in the critical part of it, and that 
 is in the pitch into E. M. Ward, which, I think, after looking at the 
 works, unmerited. 
 
 I wish I could work up some one to let me go on with Maclise's 
 unfilled spaces in the Peers' Corridor at Westminster. That would 
 be a work worth troubling about. 
 
 The passage which pleased Madox Brown, and 
 drew from him the naive declaration of liking for the 
 ' highest possible praise,' although written currente 
 calamo, and perhaps unduly besprinkled with the ad- 
 jectives of warm partisanship, is interesting, as being 
 the first to embody some such sentence as, ' We feel 
 that a great force, too little known, is among us 
 quietly and modestly doing solid and lasting work.' 
 The same idea is repeated in substance in almost 
 every subsequent notice of Madox Brown's work. It 
 scarcely needs an unduly enthusiastic commentator to 
 endorse it. 
 
 To turn from matters more or less strictly artistic. 
 Rossetti's health showed almost unmistakable signs of 
 breakdown during the first half of the year, and in 
 August a sudden crisis rendered an immediate change 
 of scene imperative. The office of companion fell, it 
 may be said, de jure, on Madox Brown, and at almost 
 a moment's notice, choice being made of Heme Bay, 
 they set off thither. Madox Brown's pre-eminently 
 practical faculties rendered him singularly useful in 
 
1878 
 
 HERNE BAY 
 
 3*9 
 
 such a contingency. His own account of the matter 
 is convincing : — 
 
 To Dr. Hueffer. 
 
 August 1 1. 
 
 For two or three days I have been intending writing to tell 
 you of my whereabouts, but I have had so much writing to do 
 respecting D. G. Rossetti, with whom I have come to this place, 
 that I have not found time. We are inland at about a mile and a 
 half from the sea. not far from the Reculvers and Thanet. 
 
 John Marshall has said D. G. Rossetti must be removed without 
 further delay if his life was to be saved, and poor I was selected to 
 do it. We came to Heme Bay on Friday, quite on the chance, 
 after having spent Thursday at Fitzroy Square. 
 
 Our first landlady proved a vixen, and we had to decamp, sacri- 
 ficing a week's rent. But there was no help for it, for the house was 
 small, and her tongue resounded all over it. She was indignant at 
 our having baths ; she was indignant at our late dinners ; she was 
 indignant at our wish to shut in the sound of her children's voices. 
 She was most of all indignant at eggs being poached and macaroni 
 eaten. We found this pretty house, and left. D. G. is really better 
 since, and walks and talks of painting again. 
 
 His mother and sister are to come here and remain with the 
 nurse when I am gone. 
 
 It is very dull for me, so very little to talk about, so I bully 
 Gabriel, and that does him more good than medicine, so 1 trust he 
 will be well again in a few weeks. 
 
 The hanging of the time on their hands made the 
 whole sojourn rather a weary one for Madox Brown, 
 until the discovery was made that the poet-artist had 
 ' read very little of Tourgeneff,' and a recourse to that 
 great novelist served to enliven the latter few days of 
 the stay. 
 
 On August 27 he writes to Mrs. Madox Brown : — 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1875- 
 
 I got home here yesterday rather sooner than I intended, but I 
 found Gabriel more difficult to manage after his mother and sister 
 came, for naturally I could not speak to him so freely before them, 
 so thought it best to leave him with the nurse. Shields was to go to 
 him to-day. The worst of it is, the whole matter is so involved that 
 stronger wills than any of ours would fail to see a way out of it now. 
 
 Chloral was, of course, the chief raveller of the 
 skein of mischief. Given the subjection to the drug, 
 that it is now sufficiently well known that Rossetti had 
 habituated himself to, his own attitude towards it, 
 however lamentable, was not incomprehensible. It 
 is set forth at sufficient length in the letter that I am 
 about to quote. 
 
 Madox Brown's particular function — to a large 
 extent self-imposed— was that of forcing upon D. G. 
 Rossetti a gradual abstention from the drug. By 
 means of sheer force of will — bullying, as he himself 
 puts it — as well as by means of some such subterfuges 
 as conspiring with the suppliers of the drug to reduce 
 its potency, he to some extent succeeded in this. But, 
 once allowed comparative personal freedom, Rossetti 
 became almost ungovernable in the matter, and we 
 have some such frame of mind engendered as is ex- 
 pressed in the following letter, written towards the 
 end of his stay at Heme Bay during a period of com- 
 parative return to health : — 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 I did not know that the arrangement we made for your coming 
 here again had anything to do with the chloral question. I thought 
 
1878 
 
 DISTRACTIONS 
 
 321 
 
 that your society would be as welcome and cheering towards the end 
 of my stay as at the beginning, while your superior practical energies 
 would be sure to prove most helpful to my mother and self in getting 
 ourselves together for departure. 
 
 Of course, I am well aware that every word in your last letter is 
 dictated by the warmest friendship. But when I consented to adopt 
 Marshall's experiment with respect to the chloral, I both said that I 
 had small confidence in its working to a conclusion, and that I was 
 fully resolved not to deprive myself of sleep altogether. 
 
 I was a free agent in consenting to try the plan, and must remain 
 free to adopt it only so far as it can be made at all available. At 
 present my dose is so vastly reduced that it would not have been 
 hurtful even at the outset. 
 
 I must say I cannot see what you could sanction by your pre- 
 sence, except the fact that we are old friends and like to see each 
 other. Surely you cannot be responsible for what I must do or leave 
 undone as I please, 
 
 The fact is, that any man in my case must either do as I do, or 
 cease from necessary occupation, which cannot be pursued in the 
 day when the night is stripped of its rest. 
 
 Beyond the fact that a temporary return to health 
 was effected, and that Rossetti ' looked ten years 
 younger ' on his return to town, the upshot of the 
 whole matter was unsatisfactory, and to one so emi- 
 nently devoted — as was Madpx Brown to Rossetti 
 — extremely and continuously disquieting. 
 
 Hardly less so, in its different way, was the sub- 
 ject of the Manchester frescoes, which, however, 
 before the end of the year, was very nearly a settled 
 question. I quote a passage from a letter to Mr. 
 Shields : — 
 
 February 20. 
 
 There is really no news as to the other matter, and we had better 
 try to forget all about it till there is, for otherwise we shall grow to 
 
 Y 
 
322 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1875- 
 
 take no interest in ordinary work and forget our few friends, if we 
 have any, in the vain pursuit of this ignis fatuus, that is like a lawsuit 
 or a patent invention that will not act. 
 
 In a letter of December 19 we have a specimen 
 sufficiently characteristic of Madox Brown's diplomatic 
 manner to bear quotation : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 Waterhouse (the architect) has been here. His object was to 
 ascertain, before meeting the Committee of Decoration at Manchester, 
 if we were still up to the work of the Great Hall, as he reckoned on 
 settling that for us next week. 
 
 It seems Gosse, the poet, who is an old friend of his, had told 
 him that I did not care twopence about the job, and also that from 
 his last interviews with yourself he had derived a similar impression. 
 
 I let him understand that we had both of us plenty to do, and 
 that, had we cared so very much about the matter, we might both 
 have been dead before now. 
 
 On Christmas Eve the fact that the Committee 
 had decided to entrust the various rooms to Madox 
 Brown, Mr. Shields, and three distinguished artists of 
 Academic dignity, was communicated to Madox Brown 
 by Mr. Rowley : — 
 
 To Mr. Rowley. 
 
 Christmas Day. 
 
 Yours received this morning [Madox Brown answers], and does 
 indeed convey cheering news for the season. It almost seems too 
 good to be relied on, though I hardly see how Alderman Thompson 
 could have told of it unless it was quite certain. 
 
 Whatever differences of opinion there may exist as to the pecu- 
 liar merits of the three painters now added, there can be little doubt 
 about its being honourable to be associated with them in such an 
 undertaking ; and, for my part, I had just as soon have this as our 
 larger scheme with all its responsibilities, which might have turned 
 
Homer and Shakespeare. 1871-79. 
 {From the designs for the "Worthies" series in Owen's College, Manchester. 
 
1878 
 
 MANCHESTER FRESCOES 
 
 3 2 3 
 
 out too onerous. My own object in proposing it was chiefly to 
 deprive the Committee of the excuse that no English painter would 
 undertake the work. As to price, they can pay me what they like. 
 
 If we do get the work we shall certainly owe it to you and Mr. 
 Milner. Your last move was Napoleonic in its rapid and daring 
 march to the very heart of the matter. 
 
 Apart from the cartoon for the Baptism of Ed- 
 win, of which, in connection with Manchester affairs 
 generally, I shall speak in a subsequent chapter, the 
 most important work of this year was the series of 
 cartoons representing twelve eminent worthies of the 
 world. They were destined for the ' Museum for the 
 People ' at Old Trafford, and are now at Owens 
 College, Manchester. Although only single figures of 
 no extraordinary size, and with no particular elabora- 
 tion of accessories, they yet occupied a considerable 
 amount of time in the execution, and were not all 
 •completed until the year following. 
 
 Of other works, a duplicate of Cromwell, Protector 
 of the Vaudois, and a very considerable repainting of 
 the Don Juan occupied the remainder of the months 
 up to July. 
 
 As I have said above, I propose to leave until a 
 later chapter any reference to the commission for the 
 Manchester frescoes. Matters in connection with 
 them occupied, however, a large portion of the years 
 time. I shall content myself, therefore, with quoting 
 one or two letters of miscellaneous interest. 
 
 In February Madox Brown delivered, at the 
 
 y 2 
 
324 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1875- 
 
 Birmingham and Midland Institute, two lectures — the 
 one on the ' Idea in Art ' and the other on ' The Con- 
 nection between the Fine Arts, 1 thus completing the 
 series of four lectures on Art. 
 
 The amount of work which Madox Brown got 
 through during the first half of the year was thus very 
 considerable — too considerable for his state of health. 
 In February he writes to Mr. Leathart, complaining 
 of overwork : ' I hardly ever go out now,' he says, 
 ' and work harder than ever.' 
 
 To Mrs. Madox Brown. 
 
 August 2. 
 
 I dined with Franz yesterday. It was rather puzzling to find 
 time for, but I enjoyed it much, not having been out, through 
 my foot, for ten days. But yesterday I got a large gout-slipper 
 and so managed it. Of course, I did get out to Mrs. Moulton's 
 last Sunday in a cab (and slipper). The funeral [it was that of 
 Miss Marston, who had died with distressing suddenness at Fitzroy 
 Square] is to take place to day from here. Then my troubles will 
 be somewhat diminished ; but it has got rid of all my tin except 
 a few shillings, and I must— well, we won't talk about that yet. 
 Franz played me the whole of a new French opera, Carmen^ by 
 a Frenchman called Bizet, who unfortunately died after writing it. 
 Franz says it is the finest French music ever written, and I agree 
 with him. 
 
 I hear from Lucy that her baby is better now, and has three of 
 his eye-teeth through. 
 
 Almost immediately after the writing of the above 
 letter a really terrible fit of gout suddenly attacked the 
 artist, caused the total abandonment of work, and 
 necessitated an instant change of scene, Matlock being 
 the sanatorium selected. Thence we have a string of 
 
1878 
 
 MATLOCK 
 
 325 
 
 letters such as the following, written with a pitiably 
 cramped hand : — 
 
 To W. M. Rossetti. 
 
 August 27. 
 
 I have intended writing you a line for some time past to tell you 
 how we are, but I have been so poorly that I could not brace 
 myself to the effort. Ever since the morning after we arrived here, 
 indeed, I have been in bed with the gout— with very short exceptions, 
 as at this moment, to have the bed made. The worst to put up 
 with is the want -of sleep. . . . 
 
 I had a letter from Gabriel, curiously enough, telling me he had 
 just had a letter from a man who used to be his landlord here in 
 Matlock twenty years ago, and of whose kindness I remember he 
 frequently used to speak. How the man found him out I don't 
 know, but he wrote, it seems, to Gabriel in a state of absolute desti- 
 tution from Manchester — the old story, you see — to ask for aid. 
 Gabriel thinks he has found employment for him with Leyland. I 
 cannot write more. I must go to bed. 
 
 I dwell a little upon these details of malady. They 
 played so important a part in Madox Brown's life that 
 they rendered his work heroic. Entirely so one may 
 consider his setting out upon so considerable a task 
 as the frescoes at Manchester, since the remuneration 
 for the work was altogether inadequate. 
 
326 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1879- 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 1879-1881 
 
 Work during 1879 : Cartoon and fresco of Baptism of Edwin — 
 Description of the picture — Smaller work : The cartoon of the 
 Romans — The Manchester scheme as a whole — Its scope, &c. — 
 Criticisms and replies — Madox Brown's life at Manchester — Hard 
 work — Letters, &c. — Madox Brown and Lord Derby— Return to 
 London — Reaction — Work during 1880 : The Romans design and 
 fresco, cartoon of Danes — Method of work at Manchester — Anecdote 
 of Mr. Hall Caine's — Plein air device — Results of work — Determina- 
 tion to settle in Manchester — A real 'conspiracy' — Gossip — Mr. 
 Shields' windows at Eaton Hall — Rossetti's letters: 'The White 
 Ship:' Mr. Hall Caine — The Blake designs — A fractious pig- 
 Midnight adventure— Work during 1881 : Fresco of the Expulsion 
 of the Danes — Flemish Weavers, Crab tree, and Weights and Measures 
 cartoons— Studies, &c. — Temporary return to London— Final settle- 
 ment in Manchester — Illness of D. G. Rossetti — His last letter. 
 
 From this point onwards the record of Madox Brown's 
 work, so far as it concerns itself with new pictures of 
 importance, becomes almost entirely that of the pro- 
 gress made with the twelve frescoes 1 for the decora- 
 tion of the Great Hall in the Town Hall, Manchester. 
 This is more especially the case during the first three 
 or four of the twelve years during which the artist 
 was employed upon them. Of these, the first in point 
 
 1 I allow myself the use of the word fresco in speaking of the series. 
 Properly speaking, the last four were toiles marot/flees, the early ones 
 being executed in a modified ' Gambier Parry ' process. 
 
i88i 
 
 'THE BAPTISM OF EDWIN 
 
 3 2 7 
 
 of execution was the second in chronological and 
 ' Panel ' order. It represented the Baptism of Edwi7t y 
 King of Northumbria. 
 
 The cartoon of the subject, of the same size as the 
 panel itself (10 feet by 5 feet), which had been com- 
 menced in July 1878, was finished in March of the 
 year under consideration. Meanwhile, in January, 
 Madox Brown had made, or rather begun and not 
 quite finished, the small coloured sketch of the subject, 
 and at different times, from January to April, various 
 studies of heads, &c, of which it is only necessary to 
 specify the heads of Edwin's Queen and of one of her 
 waiting-women. Thus, by the month of April, the 
 design was in a fit state for transference to the wall. 
 The outline was traced in four days, the painting 
 occupying nearly four months — from April until the 
 end of July. 
 
 Madox Brown's own exposition of the picture is 
 
 historical rather than descriptive. It is as follows : — 
 
 Edwin was King of Northumbria and Deira, and was baptized at 
 York, his capital, in the year of our Lord 627, and the next day 
 11,000 of his principal subjects were baptized together in the river 
 Swale, and his dominions became Christian. Manchester formed 
 part of the kingdom of Deira, and was, therefore, under the rule of 
 Edwin. Our authority for this subject is the Venerable Bede, a 
 monk of Jarrow-upon-Tyne, who wrote his Ecclesiastical History of 
 England about 100 years after this event. Edwin, who in his youth 
 had been a fugitive, and ' tutored in the school of sorrow,' having 
 regained his inheritance of Northumbria, and successfully annexed 
 the surrounding country, sought in marriage the hand of Ethelburga, 
 daughter of Ethelbert, the Christian King of Kent. Bertha, the 
 Queen of Ethelbert, and daughter of Clovis, the first Christian King 
 
328 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1879- 
 
 of France, had stipulated that on marrying the King of Kent she 
 should be allowed her Church, and the free exercise of her religion, 
 and, this being conceded, after a while she effected the conversion 
 of her husband. Ethelburga, their daughter, before uniting herself 
 to Edwin, demanded the same concessions, and was rewarded with a 
 like result. She and her Bishop Paulinus, whose appearance Bede 
 minutely describes, persuaded the King to be converted about six 
 years after the marriage. 
 
 Wordsworth, in his sonnet entitled ' Paulinus,' thus beautifully 
 paraphrases the elder writer :— 
 
 But, to remote Northumbrian Royal Hall, 
 Where thoughtful Edwin, tutored in the school 
 Of sorrow, still maintains a heathen rule, 
 Who comes with functions apostolical ? 
 Mark him, of shoulders curved, and stature tall, 
 * Black hair, and vivid eye and meagre cheek, 
 
 His prominent feature like an eagle's beak ; 
 A man whose aspect doth at once appal 
 And strike with reverence. . . . 
 
 A small wooden church, Bede tells us, was hastily constructed 
 for the purpose ; this being pulled down afterwards, a stone church 
 was erected in its place, on the site of the present York Minster. 
 
 A Roman mosaic pavement is represented as having been used 
 as foundation for the wooden church — as well because at this early 
 date classical remains were frequently incorporated with pagan 
 buildings, as to indicate the connection of this panel with the subject 
 of that of No. 1, which is to represent the Romans in Britain. 
 Bishops, at this date, had not yet adopted the mitre, the first 
 indications of which are only found in eleventh-century monuments. 
 
 Edwin was a wise and valiant king, who, but for his death at 
 the age of 48, in a battle with Cadwallader, King of Wales, might 
 at this early date have united all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy 
 under his dominion. 
 
 As far as conception of subject goes, this is one 
 of the simplest of Madox Brown's pictures, consider- 
 ing its scale and importance. 
 
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1 88 1 'THE BAPTISM OF EDWIN 
 
 Edwin, naked except for a waist-cloth, kneels in a 
 stone baptismal font, whilst a priest pours the holy 
 water over him from a bottle. Paulinus, with his 
 right hand raised in the benedictional position, utters a 
 fervent prayer, or perhaps the words Baptizo te. The 
 Queen, who stands at a little distance, is also praying, 
 with one of her waiting- women upon her knees be- 
 side her. She has her little daughter by the hand, 
 and the child looks* questioningly up at her mother, 
 wondering what they can be doing to her king-father. 
 The congregation kneels, half hidden behind the cloth 
 thrown over what is, perhaps, the Communion railing. 
 Their mental attitude is one compounded of mocking 
 wonder and superstitious dread. A laughing mother 
 holds up her naked baby that he may have a better 
 view of the outlandish ceremony, whilst an old man, 
 whose gouty limbs make kneeling a sad task, is most 
 occupied with the disposition of his crutch, even 
 though Baldur be come again. The Saxon warriors, 
 young and old, refuse to bow the knee to the new 
 White God. The little thurifers, after their manner, 
 are not over-reverent behind the Saint-Bishop's back 
 — one of them laughs mockingly at the other, who can 
 only keep his incense alight by blowing it. Through 
 the small windows, hewn with an axe in the wooden 
 boards forming the sides of the church, we catch a 
 glimpse of the sky and of some old Roman remains, 
 their graceful columns contrasting with the barbaric 
 attempts at pillars upholding the little new wooden 
 
33° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1879- 
 
 structure. In its main attributes the design is founded 
 upon that of the Baptism of St. Oswald, from the 
 series in the church of that saint in Durham — a suf- 
 ficiently appropriate connection, inasmuch as Oswald 
 was a precursor of Edwin, and, like him, met his 
 death at the hands of Cadwallader. Except for some 
 retouchings of the stained-glass cartoons for Peter- 
 house, and a couple of pastel heads of his grandsons, 
 in August and September, the rest of the year's work 
 was expended upon the oil study for the next fresco, 
 in which the Romans are seen building Manchester. 
 This was commenced in September. 
 
 To turn for the moment to the subject of the 
 scheme as a w T hole. At the time arrived at, Madox 
 Brown had received the commission to paint six of 
 the twelve panels in the Great Hall, the other six 
 having been entrusted to Mr. Shields. 
 
 After a number of schemes had been formulated 
 and proved abortive, the project took a definite shape. 
 
 The twelve frescoes were to be illustrative of the 
 history of the town of Manchester, a city that, speak- 
 ing loosely, has practically no history of any appre- 
 ciable antiquity. The importance of the town as a 
 manufacturing centre dates from no earlier than the 
 present century of machinery and steam, and any dis- 
 coverable events connected with it previously have 
 been almost entirely coincidental. These circumstances 
 rendered the scheme of decorations peculiarly felici- 
 tous as far as the choice of subjects was concerned. 
 
i88i 
 
 FRESCO SUBJECTS 
 
 33 1 
 
 Instead of a set of provincial events commemorated 
 narrowly, and having little general interest, we have a 
 series of pictures shadowing forth the vicissitudes of a 
 typical town during the various phases of the country's 
 development. This was a task peculiarly fitted to the 
 powers of the painter of the Last of England, a picture 
 which is to all intents and purposes inspired by exactly 
 the same spirit — that of merging individual effort 
 entirely beneath the tide of national movements. 
 
 The set of subjects originally proposed by Madox 
 Brown was accepted, with one exception, in its 
 entirety by the Committee of Decoration. The one 
 exception, that of the ' Peterloo Massacre,' however 
 desirable it may have been as a concession to party 
 feelings, is one peculiarly to be regretted, and the 
 ultimate selection of the alternate subject, ' The Open- 
 ing of the Bridgewater Canal,' proved almost equally 
 lamentable in the sequel. 
 
 The original set of subjects I quote from a copy of 
 those submitted to the Committee at the request of 
 Town Councillor Rowley in November of the year 
 previous : — 
 
 1. Agricola builds a Roman fort as a camp, a.d. 60. 
 
 2. Edwin baptized at Manchester (sic) a.d. 600. 
 
 3. The Danes take the town after an obstinate fight. 
 
 4. Edward III. induces Flemish weavers to settle in Manchester. 
 
 5. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, defends Wickliffe before 
 the Consistory of St. Paul's. 
 
 6. Weights and Measures noted and legalised. 
 
 7. Chetham founds Collegiate schools for twenty boys. 
 
332 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1879- 
 
 8. The Sun's parallax determined by an observation [Crabtree's] 
 of the passage of Venus across the sun. 
 
 9. The first blood in the Civil War shed at an attack on the 
 bridge at Manchester. 
 
 10. The Pretender reviews his adherents in a churchyard at 
 Manchester. 
 
 11. One of the first inventors of machines contemplating his 
 work destroyed by the mob. 
 
 12. The Peterloo meeting [which led to Reform, which led to 
 Free Trade, without which no steam-power could have availed] at 
 Manchester. 
 
 Although this programme underwent modification, 
 the broad outline of the scheme is sufficiently visible 
 and was adhered to. At the time of its formulation 
 it was severely criticised by antiquarians and such-like 
 incurrers of Carlylean hatred, and it remains open to 
 the same criticism. In that direction the spirit of 
 the work is, of course, to a large extent that of 
 ' Past and Present,' and as such it must stand or 
 fall. 
 
 The tone of the objectors is aptly assumed by that 
 negational genius, W. B. Scott : — 
 
 Biit pray don't say yours is the first series of illustrations of local 
 history done in this country. Indeed, how can the baptism of a 
 king at York, the building of the Roman Wall, 1 or WicklifTe at West- 
 minster, be illustrations of the history of Manchester? 
 
 I quote one of several of Madox Brown's rather 
 careless replies to such critics : — 
 
 1 This is of course inaccurate. The Romans are represented as 
 building their fort of Mancunium, or Manchester. 
 
i88i 
 
 THE TOWN HALL 
 
 333 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 Perhaps you have heard how Heywood has permitted a certain 
 
 little demon named to impugn all our ' subjects ' for the Town 
 
 Hall, on the ground that the incidents never took place. 
 
 Of course, if modern historic doubts are to be first satisfied, we 
 may wait long enough before we settle or find our subjects. 
 
 Waterhouse has shown me a copy of the precious document. 
 By its own showing there is but one subject, that of the Danes, that 
 is doubtful. The other comments and objections are mere captious 
 opinions. It is true that the Crabtree-Horrox subject will have to 
 be modified, and, as far as / can find out, Edwin (as Axon also 
 states) was baptized at York and not at Manchester. But what of 
 that ? We must have the introduction of Christianity somehow, and 
 as there are neither portraits nor views of towns in the first century, 
 we can call it any name we like — Peada or Edwin, York, or any 
 other town. But altogether I fear this critical process may again 
 cause lengthy delay. 
 
 I have accepted to dine with the Manchester Architects' Society 
 November 14, and I am to lecture at Alderley Edge about the same 
 week, and Brockbank wants to get me to lecture at the Royal Insti- 
 tution at the same time. I am quite willing, but want you to ask 
 me to stay with you, to protect me against other advances which 
 might prove fatal to my gouty tendencies. 
 
 When, in April, Madox Brown set out for Man- 
 chester, these troubles, at least, were definitely at an 
 end, though several of the later subjects remained 
 unsanctioned by the Committee. 
 
 The time spent in that city was one of unremitting- 
 hard work, and, what is more, of reasonably good 
 health. A certain amount of privacy was obtainable — 
 for the Hall itself is a public room — by resorting to 
 the device of a movable wooden booth with a plat- 
 
334 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1879- 
 
 form floor, in which the artist sat on a level with his 
 work. 
 
 A few days after arriving at Manchester he writes : 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 I date to you from this, to us, memorable place (the Town Hall). 
 How I have ever got here seems to me a puzzle and a dream. I 
 find it very comfortable ■ the only thing about my box (for it's like a 
 box at the opera) being that it is far too comfortable, and, I fear, 
 not to be abandoned often enough to see the effect of one's work at 
 a distance. 
 
 At night, when I'm all alone, with an excellent gas stand, it is 
 perfectly delightful, and by daylight I feel charmingly free from 
 household worries. 
 
 I have not yet begun work on the wall myself, because I am 
 delayed by want of more medium ; but I have given the first coating 
 to one space and rubbed down three others, all ready to coat when 
 the stuff arrives, and the man now is fit to be trusted to do the 
 others by himself. 
 
 The cartoon seems highly successful with all who have seen it, 
 and all the masters and servants at the Hall are as pleasant and 
 attentive as they can be, except Mr. - — , who is a Philister, and will 
 not let me have a room in the building. 
 
 I am getting on slowly, but satisfactorily, with the coloured 
 sketch, but have been in bed already (Sunday) with sudden gout. 
 I drove it off with colchicum, and was at work again Monday. Pray 
 say nothing about it at my house. 
 
 I am so glad to know that you have sold one of your large 
 cartoons here. The Rowleys are off to Rydal, I remaining at their 
 house, where I am lodged for the present. Remember me to D. G. 
 Rossetti when you see him, and tell him I would he could see me in 
 my box at the opera, and how I have arranged it with bits of string 
 stuck on pegs. 
 
 The last passage alludes to an uncharacteristically 
 economical habit that Madox Brown indulged in to an 
 inordinate extent, and which excited D. G. Rossetti's 
 
i88i 
 
 THE 1 CANAL ' PICTURE 
 
 335 
 
 animadversion. The smallest piece of string that came 
 under Madox Brown's hands around a parcel, or what 
 not, was sacred from the scissors or knife, and, after 
 having been carefully rolled up, was either placed in a 
 box, or, if of sufficient size, and there chanced to be a 
 nail vacant in the wall, was hung in that more exposed 
 position. 
 
 A few days later the subject of ' subjects ' crops up 
 again : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 April 30. 
 
 You will have received a communication from the Committee to 
 the effect that they have now definitively settled on the ' Opening of 
 the Bridgewater Canal' as the twelfth and last subject. 
 
 I don't know what caused their extreme tenacity on this head ; as 
 far as I could see, it resulted from one of their numbers (who ruled 
 them by reason of a certain preponderancy of nose and chin) having 
 seen somewhere a picture by a local artist, Sheffield, representing a 
 ' Canal at Amsterdam,' and having been much struck by this per- 
 formance, and, as it would appear, not having ever in his life before 
 examined any other picture, he wishes to see something like the work 
 by Sheffield on the walls of the Great Hall. 
 
 In confirmation of this theory is the fact that he once com- 
 missioned a local painter to paint some shooting grounds he owned 
 somewhere, but after paying for the same loyally, almost broke the 
 said local man's heart by steadily refusing to look at the work, 
 simply for the reason that he thought he had done enough in order- 
 ing and paying for the same. I perceived it was no use standing out, 
 and, seeing that it must be long before the canal scene need be 
 begun, I thought it best to let them have their way — after protesting. 
 If it comes to the worst I will do it instead of you. 
 
 Thompson gave the strongest reason in favour of the subject, for 
 he said that a quarter of a share in the same canal had recently 
 fetched 8,000/. in the market at Liverpool. This was unanswerable. 
 
 The Gambier Parry process I still find all that I can approve of. 
 
336 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1879- 
 
 There are difficulties with the work itself, however, that one could 
 not count on — such as shadows cast at certain hours by the pro- 
 jecting piers on either side, and sunshine. These, of course, 
 I manage to counteract, but the result is that time is wasted and 
 the difficulty of obtaining the desired result increased. I have 
 almost finished four figures of monks or priests — those to one's left 
 — but I consider I am much behind. The heating apparatus is 
 perfect. The daylight on fine days is sufficient, but without the gas 
 on many days I could do nothing. 
 
 An incident mentioned in the following letter to 
 Mrs. Hueffer is a good instance of Madox Brown's 
 hastiness when he suspected that he was being 
 ' patronised : ' — 
 
 May 30. 
 
 I am about to begin painting the head of the Queen, having 
 worked my way along the top of the picture towards her. Should 
 she be a success, the work will be made. 
 
 To-day Sir Joseph and the Mayor wanted to bring Lord Derby to 
 see the work. However, that was too much. I could not be shown 
 as one of the sights, so his lordship had to go through unenlightened 
 as to my noble self. One must draw the line somewhere. 
 
 The fact that it was just the time of Lord Derby's 
 withdrawal from the Lancashire Union of Conserva- 
 tive Associations, when that peer had gained even 
 adventitious prominence, rendered Madox Brown's 
 rather touchy action matter for a deal of comment. 
 It was most probably a merely fortuitous product of a 
 fit of anger rather than an altogether impolitic display 
 of dislike for a possessor of titles. 
 
 At the beginning of June progress is again 
 reported. 
 
i88i 
 
 ' GAMBIER PARRY' PROCESS 
 
 337 
 
 On the 26th of July was the ' private view ' of the 
 picture, and Madox Brown was released from his task. 
 The following letter to Mr. Shields had, however, been 
 written some days before : — 
 
 July 18. 
 
 Next, what I wish to say is that I intend, for the next subject — 
 The Romans — to execute a quarter-sized picture, oil or water, instead 
 of the cartoon. 
 
 I think it will offer greater opportunities for sale (for no one seems 
 to care to buy a cartoon), and at the same time it would be less 
 cumbersome and more fit for copying in many respects in which I 
 find the cartoon deficient. 
 
 I am not quite so satisfied as. I was with the Gambier Parry 
 process. I find it keeps on drying and getting paler for three or four 
 weeks, which makes it difficult to know what One's work will look 
 like, so that I may possibly do the next on water-glass and have the 
 wall roughened up. Things are looking awfully down with me, but 
 I must conclude. 
 
 The hard work at Manchester brought on a re- 
 action on Madox Brown's constitution : — 
 
 To Mr. Rowley. 
 
 September 17. 
 
 What has come over me I don't know, I seem to have exhausted 
 what little energy pertains to me while at Manchester, and here can 
 only yawn and lie on the sofa. 
 
 I cannot even summon energy to write and ask old friends like 
 Theodore Watts to come and see me. 
 
 Nevertheless, I have finished my small replica of Edwin and 
 settled my design of the Romans. This I shall begin painting 1 in a 
 day or two, but yet am terribly lazy and depressed. 
 
 1 I take it that ' painting ' is a generalising misuse of words— the 
 cartoon was announced to the Committee as finished on November 20. 
 A. comparatively small amount of colour, sufficient to give a general idea 
 of the scheme, was then added, and the picture — it is on a panel — laid by 
 until 1890. 
 
 Z 
 
338 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROUN 
 
 1879- 
 
 Before I forget, may I beg that you or Milner will ascertain for 
 me the colour or colours it was likely that the stone quarried by the 
 Romans would have been ? Whether brown sandstone, such as seen 
 at Liverpool, or the ugly grey of the stone of the Town Hall. 
 
 This is of some importance to me in colouring the design. 
 
 The design of the Romans was finished at the end 
 of November, but during the remaining months of the 
 year the gout played havoc with Madox Brown's work, 
 and not until the end of March was he able to set 
 out for Manchester. 
 
 The fresco of the Romans was commenced on 
 April 10 and finished on September 20. 
 
 It is thus described by Madox Brown : — 
 
 This subject embodies the foundation of Manchester ; for, al- 
 though the British name ' Mancenion ' seems to indicate this locality 
 as a centre for population, it is improbable that anything worthy the 
 name of a town existed before the Roman Mancunium. 
 
 Agricola was Governor of Britain at this date — a.d. 60 — and was, 
 as his son-in-law Tacitus informs us, a humane as well as an ener- 
 getic Governor. His rule was much connected with this part of 
 England, so that the general depicted may be considered as repre- 
 sentative of that Governor. 
 
 A centurion holds the parchment plan of the camp that is being 
 fortified, while his chief, who also has hold of it, gives his orders. 
 His standard-bearer, in this instance a 1 Dragonifer,' holds up the 
 silken wind-inflated Dragon standard which the Romans at this 
 period had adopted from the ' Barbarians.' 
 
 The legionaries are doing the masons' work ; but the bearers of 
 stones and cement are Britons, impressed for the occasion. 
 
 The river Medlock bounds the camp on the south ; the back- 
 ground beyond it is formed of oak forests, red with the last leaves of 
 November, while in the extreme distance is visible the blue streak of 
 the distant Peak hills. 
 
 A chilling wind is depicted as agitating the garments of the con- 
 
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i88i 
 
 THE ROMANS 
 
 339 
 
 querors, and making the work in hand more arduous to men of 
 southern nationality. 
 
 The general's wife, with her little boy, has stepped out of her 
 ' cathedra,' or litter, to take the air on the half-finished ramparts. 
 She wears a fur cloak, hooded for the cold, and on her hands are 
 muffles. Her naturally black hair is represented as dyed yellow — 
 lier eyebrows remaining black — to indicate the luxury of Roman 
 living, even in a camp. Her little son, who is attired in soldier's 
 uniform and ' caliga ' (boots), is mischievously aiming a kick at one 
 of his mother's Nubian slave chair-bearers. 
 
 The interior of the camp, with the Roman four-square tents made 
 of skins, is to be seen behind this group. 
 
 The cartoon of the Danes, the third of the series, had 
 been commenced in London in January, and was finished 
 at Manchester in the interval between the finishing of 
 the fresco of the Romans and that of the Danes itself, 
 which was commenced on September 20, the earlier 
 one having been completed seven days previously. 
 During his stays at Manchester, Madox Brown 
 worked almost continuously ; at times sitting before 
 his picture for two, or even three, stretches of five 
 hours each in one day. Not naturally a very quick 
 worker, he let his extreme conscientiousness cause 
 considerable delay. Painting on the walls of a hall 
 •did of course preclude actual working in the open 
 air as far as the picture itself was concerned, but it 
 was at this time — and indeed until the very last years 
 of his life — his invariable practice to make open- 
 air studies of every object presenting the slightest 
 unfamiliarity. For a sufficiently amusing instance of 
 this kind I am indebted to Mr. Hall Caine. 
 
 z 2 
 
34o 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1879- 
 
 In the picture of the Romans there is a large bugle 
 — similar to a cor de chasse — which Madox Brown was 
 particularly anxious to study in the open air. It was, 
 however, a matter of extreme difficulty to find a spot 
 in which buildings were not near enough to cast a 
 disturbing reflection along the curved lines of the 
 brass. At last, after several ineffectual essays, an 
 unenvironed position was found at the top of the Town 
 Hall bell-tower, a sufficiently dizzy height. Thither 
 up the tortuous winding steps the artist transported 
 himself and his painting materials, and found peace 
 of mind. 
 
 In order to secure the effect of Tight all round on 
 dull days,' it was his practice when painting in the 
 Hall to resort to a device of his own originating. 
 The model was placed beneath a sort of dais of oiled 
 paper, which diffused the light from whichever direc- 
 tion it was cast. A similar expedient, it may be re- 
 membered, was resorted to by Tintoretto, according to 
 Vasari. The Venetian artist worked from wax models 
 placed inside a little box resembling a puppet-show 
 made of transparent materials, outside which he 
 moved a candle up and down, whilst the rest of his 
 studio was in darkness. 
 
 Upon the whole, Madox Brown's work did not fail 
 to meet with a certain amount of appreciation, in spite 
 of what might be called ' a very strong opposition, 
 well supported by the local press.' Such a letter as 
 the following from Mr. Rowley could not but have 
 
i88i 
 
 < THE LAST OF LONDON 
 
 34 1 
 
 been gratifying to Madox Brown, who would, perhaps, 
 not make every allowance for the warm friendship of 
 the writer : — 
 
 January 8. 
 
 You will be glad to hear that I have daily congratulations on the. 
 immense success of your work. Only this morning a friend, who 
 never cared for your pictures, came up to me with voluntary enthu- 
 siasm, and declared it the finest thing he had ever seen. So on Friday 
 last with a couple of our local artists. 
 
 I have a character here as being crazy over your work, so much 
 so that for months I have never spoken to a soul about it, and my 
 aim is to be quite silent. Now, your splendid achievement does what 
 my poor gabble never could. 
 
 It was in the hope of an access of popularity in 
 Manchester that Madox Brown determined to leave 
 London and settle in the Northern city. There is a 
 certain pathos about his attitude towards life at this 
 stage of his career : — 
 
 To Mr. Rowley. 
 
 January 29. 
 
 Things look so gloomy that I have come to the determination to 
 get rid of this expensive house and take a small one at Marple or 
 Hayfield, and there, if possible, live within my means. Could you 
 let me know the price of season tickets, and if you can hear of some 
 pretty six or seven-roomed house not over 30/. a year. 
 
 I have written to Heywood about a studio in the Town Hall, 
 and think this the time, now or never, to make a new start in life. 
 
 With a painting-room in the Town Hall I might, perhaps, get in 
 with a fresh lot of clients, and things could not be worse than in 
 London, and will be certainly cheaper. I think it is time to begin 
 thinking of one's will and all that, having the gout almost continually, 
 and this weather making one ponder on Tophet and other pleasing 
 alternatives. 
 
342 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1879- 
 
 A certain bravery is required to enact the tragedy 
 of the Last of England, when the hero is at the age 
 of sixty. It is, however, to be doubted whether the 
 prospect of starting life anew in a strange country 
 was much more to be feared than the solitary life 
 which the Madox Browns led in Fitzroy Square at 
 that date. 
 
 In March the move to Manchester began, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Madox Brown taking lodgings in that city 
 towards the end of the month. The removal of the 
 household gods was a more complicated matter, which 
 was not to be effected until the year following — the 
 Fitzroy Square house being held on a long lease, and 
 proving almost unlettable. 
 
 They remained at Manchester during the whole 
 year, though a short visit to Chapel-en-le-Frith, a village 
 in the heart of the Peak country in Derbyshire, from 
 which Madox Brown journeyed backwards and for- 
 wards to his work, relieved the monotony of the stay. 
 The William Rossettis and Miss Blind were also spend- 
 ing the summer there, and in company with them he 
 thoroughly explored the Dale country round about. 
 As Miss Blind says : ' There was no more delightful 
 companion in the open air than Maclox Brown with 
 his childlike enjoyment of the simplest and most 
 familiar sights of Nature.' 
 
 A passage that is worthy of considering, inasmuch 
 as it gives some evidence of what Madox Brown would 
 have called ' a conspiracy,' occurs in a letter of this 
 
i88i 
 
 A CONSPIRACY 
 
 343 
 
 year, and certainly seems to afford evidence that in- 
 triguing of a kind must have existed in some quarters. 
 As I have no wish to do more than elucidate that 
 point, I take the liberty of suppressing the names of 
 the less praiseworthy participants. 
 
 To Mrs. Hueffer. 
 
 May 17. 
 
 This reminds me that Rowley told me there was some mention 
 
 of me in the some weeks ago, as if Blank were coming 
 
 round again. You must tell Frank (now that, being both on the 
 same staff, they occasionally meet) that my objection to Blank was 
 not that he abused my works evenly and consistently, but that he 
 praised them privately and spoke with enthusiasm to people whom, 
 like the Cowper-Temples, he knew to be my friends, and then went 
 in company with Dash, the great dealer, to try and dissuade such a 
 man as Craven from buying my poor works — to ruin me, in fact. 
 
 Craven told me and Shields this, and said he laughed at 
 them both. Blank is, you know, in Dash's pay. However, I have 
 had no quarrel ever with him. Fifteen years ago, when we last met, 
 we parted good friends, and, if ever I meet him in your house, I 
 shall be quite friendly and civil to him. 
 
 In July, to make atonement for former faults as a 
 correspondent, Madox Brown writes Mr. Shields a 
 longish letter containing several passages of inte- 
 rest : — 
 
 At Eaton Hall I saw your windows made up, for the first time of 
 course. I was exceedingly pleased, and I may say surprised at them. 
 None of the subtleties of detail are thrown away, but, on the con- 
 trary, these works seem to show that stained glass is particularly 
 suited for showing up these qualities, the reverse of Gabriel's maxim, 
 1 Anything will do for stained glass.' 
 
 These windows of yours are quite original in treatment, and if 
 
344 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1879- 
 
 Heaton and Butler's rendering of your colour is not always quite 
 successful, at least you have got them to execute works that, for 
 drawing and expression, are unrivalled, and that look at the same time 
 thoroughly decorative in design. The brassy yellow of some of the 
 hair they ought to be bullied for, though. 
 
 People used to ask me when you meant to favour us with a visit 
 to Manchester. Of late, however, they have left off inquiring, and 
 Sir Coutts and his wonderful conclusion that the four remaining 
 rooms ought to be dedicated to the four English Great Poets (this 
 w r ould include Swinburne) shows that the new ideas have already 
 superseded the one we tried to inculcate. 
 
 I care not ; enough and more is for me what I am about. 
 
 After a slight temporary estrangement, Madox 
 Brown resumed in March his correspondence with 
 Rossetti. ' I am very glad you have written,' the 
 latter writes, ' and never loved you better than I do 
 now, as I said to Watts before we went to bed last 
 night.' This was in answer to a letter of Madox 
 Brown's. Several of his letters to Manchester are of 
 considerable interest : — 
 
 D. G. Rossetti to F, Madox Brown. 
 
 March 21. 
 
 Lucy tells me that you have included in a lecture an interpreta- 
 tion of that design of the ' Archers,' by Michael Angelo. I have 
 been thinking of it from various points of view, and should like to 
 know what you make of it. I have not Grimm by me, and forget 
 what he says (I suppose something) on the matter. 
 
 Lucy also told me that she had made a copy of my poem, the 
 * White Ship,' and sent it you. I want just to say, don't show it 
 about at all, though I dare say you would not. I have such experi- 
 ence of the matter and phraseology of MS. being caught up before 
 
j88t 
 
 'IRAE AMANTIUM 
 
 345 
 
 the original gets published, that I feel a little anxiety on this 
 point. 
 
 And again : — 
 
 August ii. 
 
 For some twenty years or more I was your principal correspondent, 
 and now that you have written to me, let me not omit a prompt reply, 
 though with no particular news. 
 
 I am glad you took to young Caine, whom I have never set eyes 
 on, though many times on his handwriting, which is a good fist. Our 
 correspondence began by his sending me an excellent lecture on my 
 poetry which he seems to have delivered several times in Liverpool — 
 to what manner of hearers let the stars reply. He then sent me other 
 papers (a most excellent one on the ' Supernatural in Poetry,' referring 
 to the Greeks, Goethe, and Shakespeare, and a pamphlet on ' Poli- 
 tics in Art,' which I thought brilliant though rather wrong-headed). 
 He certainly has something in him, and told me he had five hours 
 enchanting talk with you. 
 
 Your pedestrian powers must indeed have improved since I last 
 wotted of them. I congratulate you. 
 
 It is fine to hear of your prime working order, to which five hours 
 seems so poor a spell as not to be worth entering the building to 
 accomplish. Well, you will leave a visible sign of yourself somewhere 
 in Great Britain, and, though the Manchesterians are too stingy to 
 pay properly, they will think they have paid too much to whitewash 
 it again — the best chance a work of art has of holding its place now 
 and here. 
 
 Mr. Hall Caine makes, at this time, rather frequent 
 appearance in Madox Brown's correspondence, sitting 
 for him also, and not infrequently paying visits to the 
 Town Hall. Rossetti took a very considerable interest 
 in his career, as indeed did Madox Brown himself. 
 Thus we find Rossetti writing in November : — 
 
 Young Caine paid me two visits when in London, and I liked 
 him extremely. He seems modest, yet not likely to miss a chance 
 
346 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 that can be duly seized. He now seems to have sufficient chance of 
 London literary employment to induce him to entertain some thoughts 
 of settling there ; but I warned him how serious a step that would 
 be. Still, I should like to know he really had any prospect in such 
 directions, as he must be much too good for his present work. 
 
 Somewhat later : — 
 
 The same to the same. 
 
 Undated. 
 
 It was very kind of you in mid-work to write me so graphic a 
 letter about that historical pig. It amused me much, though the 
 pigmentary predicament must have been no joke either to you or to 
 the organist. 
 
 I hope you will thrive at Christmas either there or here, but, if 
 here, I may hope to see you if staying on at all. I often see Lucy, 
 who certainly inherits your faculty of good talking. A conversation 
 with her never flags, and William's calmness fits in most happily. 
 
 I hear sometimes from Caine, whose project for a sonnet book 
 interests me. A collection from the living only by one Waddington 
 has just appeared. It is poorly got up and not particularly well edited, 
 so I think Caine will have the pull. I think you should let him 
 print that Boccaccio sonnet and find another if you can. 
 
 The new Blake volumes are truly splendid. Shields has made 
 the most wonderful cover from a design of Blake's, and has written 
 a long paper on ' Young's Night Thoughts ' series, which reads as if 
 he had been writing all his life. He has also drawn a most interest- 
 ing plate of Blake and his wife from Blake's sketches, and a separate 
 one of Mrs. Blake from another sketch of Blake's. In fact, he has 
 half-made the book. 
 
 William has completed his catalogue in his usual faultless way. 
 
 I forgot to say that young Gilchrist has really made a most 
 beautiful view of Blake's cottage. This is reproduced in photo- 
 intaglio. 
 
 I quite sympathise with the admiration you express for Watts's 
 sonnets. He has now done another, which I think the finest of the 
 three. He will soon make a bardic throne for himself. 
 
i88i 
 
 AD VENTURES 
 
 347 
 
 The ' incident of the pig ' was one of the 
 several happenings at the Town Hall that diversified 
 Madox Brown's stay in that building, and upon 
 which he delighted to expatiate in after years. In 
 the fresco of the Expulsion of the Danes, one of 
 the several objects depicted is the burning of a pig- 
 sty, from which the little pigs escaping get beneath 
 the feet of the routed marauders and upset them, 
 uttering the most piercing shrieks the while. One of 
 Madox Brown's porker models played him a nearly 
 similar trick, besides disturbing an organ-recital which 
 'was going on in the hall round the painting-tent. 
 
 A somewhat more serious adventure befel the 
 artist late at night in the same place. Descending 
 from his high painting-chair, he slipped into the 
 trough, which was created between the platform of 
 his tent and the wall itself. Here he remained for 
 some little time, so firmly wedged as to be unable 
 to move. The custodian, looking through the glass 
 doors at the end of the hall and seeing no one 
 about, extinguished the lights, and when at last 
 Madox Brown managed to extricate himself the pro- 
 blem was in nowise solved. Having made his way 
 out of the Great Hall, there remained the task of 
 finding his own chambers in the absolute darkness of 
 some miles of echoing corridors with dangerous stair- 
 cases yawning on each hand at every few yards. 
 This was only accomplished after having made the 
 round of the building several times, during which 
 
348 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1879- 
 
 proceeding the constant chirping of the crickets in 
 the basement, perhaps a hundred feet below, was so 
 distinctly audible as to prove a very misleading feature 
 of the situation. At last, after resorting to the ex- 
 pedient of trying with his key every keyhole of the 
 floor on which he was, he managed to discover his own 
 room. The experience was, however, a sufficiently 
 perilous one, and was long afterwards remembered 
 and enlarged on. 
 
 The fresco of the Expulsion of the Danes from 
 Manchester was finished on March 2 of the year fol- 
 lowing. 
 
 The description of the picture in Madox Brown's 
 own words is as follows : — 
 
 Rushing down the narrow and winding street of a small w r ood- 
 built city, the Danes are seen making for an open gateway that dis- 
 closes the country outside, with a Saxon church on a hill. 
 
 The Norsemen or Vikings who organised the plundering expedi- 
 tions that at this time so much harassed Europe used to begin their 
 apprenticeship to rapine very early. Fifteen is said to have been 
 about the age when they would start off in quest of adventure, and 
 of that booty on which, a few years later, they would settle down 
 upon as respectable married men and heads of houses. 
 
 The Danes are here represented, therefore, as very young men, 
 mere beardless boys in fact, with one or two better seasoned elders 
 to assist them with their experience. 
 
 • The wealth which they acquired they were wont to convert into 
 gold bracelets, wmich were worn on the right arm. 
 
 A rich and successful young chieftain, the wearer of many 
 bracelets, but now badly wounded, is being borne past on a hastily 
 constructed stretcher, his companions endeavouring to protect him 
 and themselves with their uplifted shields as they run the gauntlet of 
 the townsfolks' missiles. In front of these four men have fallen 
 
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i88i 
 
 WORK 
 
 349 
 
 confusedly, one over another, on the ground. The pavement con- 
 sists of the polygonal blocks that the Romans had formed their 
 road of which ran through Manchester. 
 
 From a house which faces this scene a young woman has thrown 
 a tile that strikes down the ' Raven ' standard-bearer. An aged 
 inmate from the same window throws a spear, the national Saxon 
 weapon, while two little boys gleefully empty a small tub of boiling 
 water on the fugitives. 
 
 The Danes, who in a group have reached the shelter of the 
 rampart gate, pause for one moment to hurl back threats of future 
 revenge on the inimical townspeople, whose chained-up dogs bark 
 fiercely at the runaways, while in the background the soldiers of 
 Edward the Elder are seen smiting the unfortunate loiterers in the 
 race for life. (About the year of our Lord 910.) 
 
 The rest of the year was devoted to designing the 
 cartoons for the next three frescoes. 
 
 That of Philippa visiting her Flemish Weavers at 
 Manchester was commenced in May and finished in 
 September, that of Crabtree watching the Transit of 
 Venus was commenced and finished in July, and that 
 of The Proclamation regarding Weights and Measttres 
 was commenced on November 28 and finished on 
 December 22. Besides these, two studies in chalks, 
 the one of Crabtree's head and hands, for which sat 
 Mr. C. B. Cayley, the translator of Homer, and 
 brother of the great mathematician, and another 
 study for the same fresco, for which the artist's 
 grandson Oliver was pressed into service. The 
 only other works that merit mention are chalk heads 
 of Mrs. Kendrick Pyne and Miss Mary Robinson, 
 and a pencil head of Mr. W. M. Rossetti. 
 
35° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1879- 
 
 On the completion of the fresco of the Danes 
 the Maclox Browns returned to London, but only with 
 a view to their ultimate removal to Manchester, which 
 took place accordingly towards the latter part of the 
 year. The move must have been prompted by few 
 other than financial reasons. 
 
 ' This place certainly does not improve by length 
 of acquaintance,' Madox Brown writes just before 
 setting out for London, ' and cotton does not become 
 livelier, at least in the market ; whatever its condition 
 may be on the townspeople's backs I can't say.' 
 
 The welcome home to Manchester, or rather to its 
 suburb Crumpsal, was a by no means inspiriting one. 
 Mrs. Madox Brown's letters tell of charming views 
 round the house, but views seen only through torrents 
 of rain, Madox Brown himself being ill in bed. 
 
 The only other matter that needs a moment's con- 
 sideration was a refusal on the part of the Corporation 
 to grant some increase of the sum paid for the frescoes, 
 250/. apiece. 
 
 From Mr. Shields. 
 
 I saw Waterhouse this week, and seized the opportunity of 
 expressing my regret that the Town Council did not deal more 
 liberally with you. You know how cautious he is, and therefore, 
 when he spoke in warm sympathy with the ill-requited and mani- 
 festly inadequate meed you received for incessant labour which 
 is publicly pursued, you will understand that he is on your side, 
 although he may find it difficult to influence the Council. 
 
 He said there ought to be a subscription to recoup you, and, 
 although I regard this as an illegitimate mode of recognising the 
 
i88i 
 
 THE LAST LETTER 
 
 35i 
 
 worth of your work, yet I should be glad to see it carried out rather 
 than know you remain a loser. It would be honourable in them to 
 contribute from their private purses if they object to vote the public 
 money for the purpose, and it could be no dishonour to you. 
 
 No such scheme was, however, even brought upon 
 the tapis. 
 
 A far greater trouble ensued before the year came 
 to an end. This was the state of health of D. G. 
 Rossetti, which, before the Madox Browns' removal 
 to Manchester, had shown unmistakable signs of 
 breakdown. I quote what is apparently the last 
 letter from him to Madox Brown. It is undated, 
 but was probably written before the end of July : — 
 
 My dear Brown, — I should be delighted if you and Emma 
 would dine with me, but we ought to fix an evening. Either 
 W ednesday, Saturday, or Sunday are open at present, if you will tell 
 me which. 
 
 I was very much pleased with Shields' report of the design for 
 your fourth picture— it will be lovely. As for the Liverpool scheme, 1 
 in my regard I fancy it may collapse. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 D. G. R. 
 
 I have written a ballad you will like on James I. of Scots. 
 
 1 It was that for the ultimately effected purchase by the Liverpool 
 Corporation of the picture of Dante's Dream. 
 
352 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1882- 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 1882-1885 
 
 Work during 1882 : Flemish Weavers fresco— Commencement of Crabtree 
 fresco— Death of D. G. Rossetti — Its effects on Madox Brown — 
 Efforts to help Dan Casey — French appreciation of Madox Brown 
 — Madox Brown's view of his position — Fire at Sydney Art Gallery 
 — Work during 1883 : Crabtree fresco— Commission for remaining 
 six frescoes given to Madox Brown — Madox Brown 'on strike' — 
 Increase of payment — Royal Academy exhibition of Rossetti's works 
 — Design for Rossetti's gravestone — Work during 1884 : Weights and 
 Measures fresco — Application — Madox Brown on Picture-buyers — 
 Work during 1885 : Pastels — Bust of Rossetti — Purchase of Work 
 by Manchester Corporation. 
 
 The fresco of Pkilippa visiting her Colony of Flemish 
 Weavers established at Manchester occupied more time 
 in the painting than had been the case with any of the 
 former works. This was as much owing to the com- 
 plication of the design as to any extraneous distrac- 
 tions. Begun in September 1 88 1, it was finished on 
 May 27 of the year following. 
 
 This subject commemorates the foundation of Lancashire supre- 
 macy in textile manufactures. 
 
 Philippa of Hainault, Queen of Edward III., is said to have 
 advised the introduction of the Flemish weavers into England, and 
 tradition mentions yearly visits which it was her custom to pay them. 
 John of Gaunt, the seat of whose government as Earl Palatine of 
 Lancashire was at Lancaster Castle, was the son of Philippa. Flemish 
 
i88 5 
 
 'THE FLEMISH WEAVERS 
 
 353 
 
 weavers are said to have been established in Manchester ; hence the 
 connection of the Queen with this subject. 
 
 The season chosen is spring, still the finest part of the year in 
 Lancashire, at which season Chaucer tells us the English people 
 delighted ' to gon on pilgrimages.' 
 
 The Queen and her attendant ladies have been in the woods 
 ' maying,' according to the old English custom, and each has broken 
 a branch of flowering hawthorn, or may. They are habited in 
 'Lincoln green' for the occasion. To the left, a Fleming, of some- 
 what careworn aspect, his Flemish beaver slung over his back, exhibits 
 to the Queen a piece of cloth the same in colour as that she wears. 
 He is assisted to unroll it by his wife, their child, and a workman. 
 Behind him stands his aged father, ready with a roll of cloth of a 
 different shade. The Queen tries the texture and substance of what 
 is submitted to her with scrutinising finger. 
 
 On the same side of the composition a row of street children have 
 been tutored to kneel in presence of Royalty. One little girl, for- 
 getting her baby's crying, all the same ventures to make faces at the 
 Flemish girl with the wooden shoes to the right of the picture, while 
 a ragged little boy, comfortably seated on the steps of the market 
 •cross, is admonished to go down with the other children. 
 
 To the right of the beholder an old weaver, by the name on his 
 cloth, ' Jan Van Brugge,' is seated beside his apprentice at looms 
 which are drawn out to the front of their small shop, under the 
 shutters, raised pent-house fashion. 
 
 They are weaving, or pretending to do so, but the master is 
 eagerly looking for the Queen, while the apprentice is as eagerly 
 "looking at his master's daughter ; she, trifling with a kitten, affects 
 to see no one. In the distance are three archers of the Queen's 
 guard, and two burghers of Manchester on their knees. 
 
 The Queen's palfrey is held by a foot-page, hot with keeping up 
 beside the horses. 
 
 The sun illumes all to the left of the spectator, the figures to the 
 right being in reflected light. 
 
 . The fresco of Crabtree watching the Transit of 
 Venus was commenced shortly after the completion of 
 
 A A 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1882 
 
 its predecessor, which it equalled in point of difficulty 
 as far as the solution of problems connected with its 
 ' lighting ' are concerned. 
 
 Apart from the adding of two to a set of illustra- 
 tions that the artist had undertaken to provide for Miss 
 Mathilde Blind's fairy-tale called ' Blue Ogven,' the 
 year was entirely given up to these two frescoes, and, 
 save for the death of D. G. Rossetti, which cast it into 
 deep gloom, it was as uneventful as a year could be. 
 
 The loss of Rossetti was a blow, the effects of 
 which it would be easy to under-estimate. If we 
 except the death of his son Oliver, it was the first 
 of a series of deaths that deeply impressed the later 
 years of Madox Brown's life. The fact that some 
 such epoch must arrive for every man who reaches 
 a fairly advanced age scarcely rendered the prospect a 
 less tragic one, and Madox Brown's proneness to feel 
 new impressions made each successive loss seem a 
 more and more predominant presage, not so much of 
 his own end, as of a time when he might stand alone 
 and unbefriended. 
 
 In no case, however — not even in that at present 
 under remark — did any such loss affect his powers of 
 working. If not ' as the breath of life,' or even as his 
 ' daily bread ' to him, the work-habit was now almost 
 as indispensable as that of putting on his clothes. 
 He worked easily enough, scarcely feeling over-tired 
 after a day's painting lasting from ten in the morning 
 until eight o'clock at night. It was, indeed, only 
 
i88 5 
 
 LOSSES 
 
 355 
 
 in deference to his doctor's orders that he limited his 
 hours to the latter time. 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 February 27. 
 
 I have no time for writing letters ; going backwards and forwards, 
 if it does not interfere with painting itself, does wofully with all else 
 besides. Fortunately, here there is nothing else to occupy one. 
 
 I am not getting on fast with the Weavers, but still it grows, and 
 there must, I think, be about two-thirds done by now. 
 
 The cartoon not having so much work in it, I do much of the 
 painting from Nature and models, and this, in some respects, is an 
 advantage. 
 
 Upon the death of Rossetti, Madox Brown writes 
 to Mr. Shields : — 
 
 April 10. 
 
 I don't know how you feel this sad event ; to me it is the greatest 
 blow I have received since the loss of our dear Nolly. 
 
 I cannot at all get over the idea that I am never to speak to him 
 again. 
 
 And yet, when he was alive it seemed as though nothing I could 
 hear as to his health could surprise me ; and still it was not apparently 
 his visible ailments which proved fatal. How could one imagine 
 such a breakdown ! When I last saw him, in bed, eating sandwiches, 
 and asking for cake and grapes not three hours after his dinner, I 
 thought his ailments imaginary, and so they might have been then, 
 so little did they foreshadow this disease. 
 
 A great man is gone, and the effects of it on art in this country 
 none can tell, but we may fear. Unsubstantiality and affectation on 
 the one hand and Herkomerism on the other, make me fear it will 
 go hard with the British school when a few more are gone. 
 
 You, Jones, Poynter, and Leighton are tolerably young yet j Hunt, 
 Millais, Watts, Paton and myself are in the sere and yellow, or wrink- 
 ling stage decidedly, and what is to follow I can't foresee. 
 
 You have seen so much of poor dear Gabriel lately, you must be 
 
 a a 2 
 
356 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1882- 
 
 terribly cut up. To me it seems like a dream ; I cannot make out 
 how things are to go on, in so many directions things must be 
 changed. I trust you are well. I keep the 1 enemy ' at bay, but at 
 times only with difficulty. 
 
 Of the part which Madox Brown played in Ros- 
 setti's life it is unnecessary to say much more here. 
 It was, I think, generally believed, and very frequently 
 observed by members of Rossetti's family, that, to use 
 the "words of his mother, ' Brown was the best friend 
 he ever had ;' and Rossetti, with his splendid, Quixotic- 
 ally generous nature, was without doubt a friend of 
 friends to Madox Brown. 
 
 It is matter for some regret that, amongst the 
 many documents left by Madox Brown, none has been 
 forthcoming in which he attempted anything approach- 
 ing a study of his friend. 
 
 Perhaps his most effectual summing up of the 
 poet-artist's character was the frequency with which he 
 figured in Madox Brown's later conversation. ' Rossetti 
 used to say this,' or, ' I think this, but Rossetti used to 
 say that,' were constantly occurring remarks, uttered 
 in a tone that was meant to convey the assurance of 
 Rossetti's correct judgment. Almost as frequently 
 Madox Brown would conclude some anecdote illustra- 
 tive of Rossetti's obstinate eccentricity by saying : 
 * But it is a shame to tell such stories about him ; he 
 was a splendid fellow and a glorious artist.' 
 
 Madox Brown was not forgetful of the claims of 
 the oldest of friendships. I have before me a letter 
 
i88 5 
 
 OLD FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 357 
 
 of the same year, in which he makes an effort to 
 help his old fellow-student, Dan Casey. On account 
 of its interest of an extraneous kind, I make no scruple 
 of quoting it : — 
 
 To Mr. Stephens. 
 
 January I r. 
 
 I see by this morning's paper that there is a chance of Sir Charles 
 Dilke's returning to his negotiations with Gambetta. The latter, at 
 the request of Lady Ponsonby, with the greatest kindness and feeling, 
 provided a consulship for a worthy member of the Paris Coi?imune 1 
 who was proscribed and starving over here. I wonder if, by an 
 appeal of extreme audacity, your friend Sir Charles Dilke could be 
 got to intercede with Gambetta on behalf of a French artist, a man of 
 genius and early fellow-student of mine, one M. Dan Casey, of no 
 particular shade in politics. 
 
 Casey must be tolerably known to the French Government, as it 
 has more than two or three times purchased works of his for pro- 
 vincial museums. 
 
 But you know how ill this pays, and he does not belong to the 
 popular Gerome set. Ingres and Flandrin some years back insisted 
 on his claims, saying to the Napoleon Ministry : ' Si vous demandez 
 de la grande peinture, en voila.' And they commissioned his large 
 picture of the Martyrdom of St. Hippolytus for the museum of 
 Auxerre for a price that did not cover the costs of it. Theophile 
 Gautier and the Press generally applauded his work, but no 
 decoration, no permanent reward followed. 
 
 It is perhaps a wild dream to think, but might it not be possible 
 that Sir Charles, in the jubilation of a successful treaty, could slip in a 
 word with the Master of France, and so save from ruin one whom I 
 still regard as a great painter, but one neglected and sinking gradually 
 to distress with his wife and children ? 
 
 It is perhaps hardly necessary to say that the 
 application was not crowned with success. 
 
 1 M. Andrieu. 
 
358 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1882- 
 
 Madox Brown's work at about this time attracted 
 a certain amount of attention in France ; he was in- 
 deed claimed as a French painter. A biographical 
 notice, by Chesneau, the distinguished critic, appeared 
 in ' L'Art,' and gave Madox Brown some pleasure. 
 By his old friends in Paris he was affectionately 
 remembered. 
 
 E. Chesneau to Madox Brown. 
 
 The old dear Casey me disait dimanche qu'il vous avait ecrit 
 pour Noel et nous etions heureux de causer de vous. 
 
 Depuis ma derniere lettre je suis entre en correspondance avec 
 M. P. G. Hamerton du ' Portfolio ' qui incidemment m'ecrit : 
 
 'Tout dernierement j'ai eu le plaisir de lire vos articles dans 
 " L'Art " sur F. Madox Brown et j'ai vu a ma grande satisfaction que 
 vous avez tache de lui rendre justice.' 
 
 J'ai lu aussi un interessant article dans le 'Magazine of Art' sur 
 la collection de M. Trist de Brighton et vu avec la plus sympathique 
 curiosite votre Roi Rene ! 
 
 A bientot, tres cher Madox Brown. 
 
 Maugre this slight outbreak of praise on the 
 Continent, Madox Brown with considerable justice did 
 not regard his position at home as an enviable one. 
 
 As to beginning or taking part in some action against the 
 powers that be [he writes to a friend who asked him to join in a final 
 assault on the Royal Academy], I am only too glad to be allowed 
 to go to bed each night with both ears on, at the rate I see English- 
 men going. 
 
 As to the spirit of the Press in these northern regions, I never 
 read anything but the articles on myself. 
 
 I only know (and that not at all intimately) two of the critics. 
 One of these, that of the ' Courier,' did not deign to notice my last 
 mural. The ' Guardian ' did so generously, but I never see Scott, 
 the editor. The third paper, the ' Examiner,' although the property 
 
!88 5 
 
 THE SYDNEY FIRE 
 
 359 
 
 of Mr. Alexander Ireland, an intimate friend of mine, has been 
 against me till this year, when they asked my friend Rowley to write 
 about me, owning that I had beaten them. 
 Of the Liverpool Press I know nothing. 
 
 I do not regret letting you know (but I had better have used the 
 word ' confidential '), for to my astonishment I hear here it is re- 
 ported that I lose a thousand a year by these works ! ! 
 
 What a Crcesus or what a liar they must think me, though I am 
 one thousand pounds poorer ! 
 
 However unwilling" to show fiVht, Madox Brown 
 did not fear hard work. In the winter of the year the 
 news of the destruction by fire of part of the Sydney 
 Art Gallery gave rise to the supposition in England 
 that the picture of Chaucer at the Court of Edward 1 7 1 r . 
 had been destroyed. 
 
 Sir [he writes to the curator of the Gallery], after a week's con- 
 finement to bed, on opening letters and newspapers, I come upon — 
 you can imagine with what feelings — the enclosed notice in the 
 London ' Daily News.' 
 
 When I say ' you may imagine my feelings,' I say so under the 
 impression that it is remembered in Australia that the picture took 
 up the better part of five years of my youth, from twenty-five to thirty. 
 The immediate revulsion from the first shock of this news is the 
 natural, and perhaps inevitable resolution to paint the work over 
 again. 
 
 He goes on to add that it will probably take him 
 eight or ten years, but being provided for by his work 
 at Manchester he can afford to do the work as a labour 
 of love for less than the sum for which the original 
 had been purchased — 500/. 
 
 He was not, however, called upon to fulfil the 
 stipulations of his own offer, the picture having been 
 
3 6o 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1882- 
 
 hung in another building, and having thus escaped the 
 general holocaust. 
 
 During the winter 1882-3, Madox Brown was 
 prostrated by what was probably the most serious of 
 his many attacks of gout. It was indeed only with 
 the utmost difficulty that his life was saved, and it was 
 only after a visit to London that he was in April once 
 again able to emerge from ' my truncated form, being, 
 so to speak, without the use of my legs.' 
 
 No time was lost in the completion of the fresco 
 of Crabtrec, which, save for the difficulties already 
 alluded to, was not a work of very great complication. 
 
 The subject is thus set forth : — 
 
 Master William Crabtree, of Broughton, drapier, having been 
 requested to assist the observations of his friend Jeremiah Horrox, 
 the curate of Hool, watched the Transit of Venus over the Sun, 
 November 24th, 1639 (Old Style), our 6th December. Horrox, 
 who was poor and alone, and who died before he was two-and- 
 twenty, might never have made his world- renowned observation 
 had not Crabtree assisted him by letter as to his books of tables, 
 which were obsolete and valueless. By the aid of the new and 
 corrected tables Horrox's calculations came right. The day for 
 the expected event being a Sunday, Horrox asked his friend to 
 watch for him also, lest his clerical duties should interfere with his 
 observing the phenomenon at the right moment. 
 
 The weather being cloudy, Crabtree watched through that cold 
 winter day from 9 a.m. to close upon 4 p,m , when suddenly a 
 gleam of sunlight revealed the small figure of the planet crossing the 
 sun's disc, on the paper diagram. Crabtree was so perturbed as not to 
 be able, during the few moments the phenomenon remained visible, to 
 take measurements scientifically, but he could corroborate Horrox's 
 observation. The young curate's papers describing the modus 
 operandi were discovered in Germany early in this century. This 
 
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i88 5 
 
 THE FRESCOES 
 
 361 
 
 modus admitted of Crabtree's wife and children being present, and 
 the researches of archaeologists show us that the astronomer was 
 married some six years before the event depicted. Crabtree being 
 but an amateur, he is represented as employing for his laboratory a 
 sort of store-room over his shop, or counting-house ; a glimpse of 
 the latter is seen through the open trap-door, admitting some day- 
 light, though the scene is chiefly lighted from the sunshine on the 
 diagram. 
 
 The window-panes of the counting-house are coated with 
 December frost. 
 
 Mrs. Crabtree, who is depicted knitting, which was accounted a 
 lawful Sunday recreation in anti- Puritanical days, clutches her young 
 son by the arm, in anticipation of his possible interference with his 
 father's proceedings at such a supreme moment. 
 
 In the meantime Madox Brown had bep;un a 
 ' Portrait of Madeline Scott,' the little daughter of the 
 editor of the ' Manchester Guardian,' who is repre- 
 sented as riding on a tricycle. It was not, however, 
 finished until August. In July the sixth fresco, the 
 Proclamation regarding Weights and Measures, was 
 commenced upon the wall, and occupied the remainder 
 of the year. 
 
 Some days were, however, devoted to touching up 
 and repairing defects in one or two of the pictures that 
 Rossetti had left behind him. 
 
 By the end of the year the fact that Mr. Shields 
 would not, under any consideration, complete or even ' 
 commence the six remaining frescoes in the Town 
 Hall was made known to the Corporation. That 
 body, after considering that not even the Court of 
 Chancery could grant them power to hold the re- 
 calcitrant artist in front of the wall-spaces until he 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1882- 
 
 should have covered them with works of genius, cast 
 about for another painter to fill up the gaps, and 
 eventually decided to re-employ Madox Brown. 
 
 At this conclusion they were finally forced to arrive 
 by the encomiums which the late President of the Board 
 of Trade, Mr. Mundella, showered upon the frescoes 
 whilst they were being shown him by the then 
 Mayor. 
 
 ' The Mayor, I am glad to say, was with us, and 
 was visibly impressed,' Mr. Scott writes to Madox 
 Brown, when describing the momentous event which 
 certainly weighed down the scales. Madox Brown 
 had proved almost as recalcitrant as Mr. Shields — had, 
 in fact, 'gone out on strike,' and, presenting his 
 accounts for the consideration of the Committee, 
 proved to them conclusively that he had spent, whilst 
 devoting his time almost exclusively to the work, 
 ' 1,700/. over and above what I have received from 
 the Corporation, rather more than double the 1,640/. 
 (at 50/. per sq. yard) agreed on. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, seeing that I shall, on the completion of 
 the fresco of Weights and Measures, have honestly 
 fulfilled my bargain as to the first six paintings — 
 though a disastrously unfortunate one for me — I think 
 I cannot be expected to work for less than 100/. per 
 sq. yard, as otherwise I should only be running myself 
 in difficulties.' 
 
 The matter was ultimately compromised, the Com- 
 mittee paying the artist an extra 100/. for each of the 
 
i88 5 
 
 MR. SHIELDS 
 
 363 
 
 frescoes already executed, and raising the price paid 
 for the subsequent ones to a similar level — 375/. 
 
 To turn from such sordid considerations ; it remains 
 to be said that to the unique self-sacrifice of Mr. 
 Shields the fact that the frescoes remained to be 
 executed by Madox Brown is almost entirely due. 
 It was only with a view to subsequently resigning it 
 to Madox Brown that that artist originally accepted 
 the commission. ' I was confirmed in this view,' 
 Mr. Shields writes to me, ' by the conviction that 
 the six noble works completed spoke with irresistible 
 eloquence in favour of the whole scheme being com- 
 mitted into the hands of the painter who had so 
 powerfully justified his right to execute them all.' 
 
 During the year was published Mr. Ingram's 
 biography of Oliver Madox Brown, in the production 
 of which Madox Brown himself had taken a very con- 
 siderable interest, and which, on its appearance, gave 
 him very great pleasure. On the other hand, the 
 exhibition of Rossetti's works during the winter of 
 1882-83 caused him the utmost disquietude. 
 
 The picture getting done and you or Lucy visiting us [he writes 
 to Mrs. Hueffer] are almost the only excitements we have to look 
 forward to in this dreary exile. And yet I am glad to be away from 
 London, and the horrible fiasco of the Royal Academy swooping 
 down on poor Gabriel's works as they have. It lends a new terror 
 to death. One satisfaction is that they will never be able to borrow 
 mine off these walls. 1 
 
 1 it is consoling to consider that the Royal Academy refused to hang 
 even one of Madox Brown's pictures at the Old Masters' Exhibition 
 immediately following his death. 
 
V 
 
 364 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1882- 
 
 The emendation in the hanging, at least, of Ros- 
 setti's pictures, undertaken almost entirely because the 
 ' Times ' recorded a protest against the practically scan- 
 dalous way in which the exhibition had been arranged, 
 caused Madox Brown very considerable satisfaction. 
 
 In December Madox Brown designed the headstone 
 for Rossetti's grave at Birchington. It took the form 
 of an Irish cross, with runic bas-reliefs symbolising 
 the life and work of the painter-poet. During the year 
 he also delivered a lecture on ' Art as the Replica 
 of the Universe' at Glasgow and Newcastle. 
 
 His visit to Glasgow seems to have afforded him a 
 great deal of pleasure. He expressed particular admi- 
 ration for the Cathedral, and for the works of the 
 Glasgow architects, Thompson and Cottier. The 
 latter had been one of his pupils at the Working Men's 
 College. ' I might,' Madox Brown is reported to 
 have said, 1 ' have instructed, and doubtless did instruct, 
 Cottier in general principles, but Cottier as a colourist 
 has a range of performance beyond that of any artist. 
 Here line and colouring are suggestive of Paradise 
 itself. . . ; 
 
 During the month of August the Madox Browns 
 removed from the suburb of Crumpsall to the slightly 
 more convenient quarter known as Victoria Park, a 
 pleasant district just on the outskirts of the town. 
 
 From that place he writes on Christmas Eve 
 a letter which, as it contains his views on a variety 
 
 1 The quotation is from a ' Glasgow Evening Times/ 
 
i88 5 
 
 A CHRISTMAS LETTER 
 
 3 6 5 
 
 of topics, I quote before passing to the following 
 year : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 December 24. 
 
 Armstrong's suggestion of lectures for South Kensington I have 
 well thought over, and it seems to me to offer a tempting support to 
 an idea I have had of lecturing in America. g 
 
 There are possible drawbacks, however. I don't know if, even 
 after such a course of lectures, I should be acceptable in America. 
 I don't know if my frescoes are in a state, without much labour, 
 to negative and magic-lantern with any effect on a sheet ; and lastly, 
 I don't know if it would be at all pleasant to lecture about one's own 
 works. 
 
 Meanwhile, I have just written to Waterhouse to tell him, what 
 I am sure you will be glad to know, which is that the Decoration 
 Committee at the Town Hall have decided at length to advise that 
 the remaining six panels in the large room should be given me to 
 fill. Not exactly at what I required for doing so, but at such price 
 as would pay all round 375/. for each picture of the twelve. 
 
 This is not very pleasing, but as nothing else seems to succeed I 
 think it best to acquiesce. 
 
 It is only five years more exile in this place, and after that 
 it will not, I suppose, much matter what happens. 
 
 Altogether the idea has made me melancholy, but I must endea- 
 vour to get some place in London to come to, for otherwise it would 
 be unendurable. 
 
 I am sitting up here writing all by myself, it being now 2 a.m., 
 the ladies being in bed, and Charlotte and Maggie gone to hear 
 midnight mass at the Catholic Church. 
 
 I really think, as they have the latch-key, that I must to bed and 
 write a little more in the morning. 
 
 Christmas, Noon. 
 
 It is a damp, dark and dreary morning, as unlike seasonable 
 weather as can well be. 
 
 I have remained at home to please my wife — she is engaged I 
 don't know how. Miss Blind is writing an article to pay for her 
 
3 66 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1882- 
 
 Christmas presents to children. I am going to try and begin a sketch 
 for a book of Edwin Waugh's, having promised one long ago. 
 
 During the early part of the year following the 
 exigencies of his pocket and the prospect of possible 
 sales caused Madox Brown to recur to his old device 
 of retouching and finishing up old pictures, a kind of 
 work to which the months of April and May were 
 devoted. The works treated in this way were the 
 pictures of the Traveller, an oil replica of that work 
 of sixteen years' standing, and the portrait of Mrs. 
 Madox Brown, called May Memories. Before that 
 time, however, the fresco of Weights and Measures 
 had been completed. It is perhaps the simplest of the 
 frescoes both as regards treatment and subject. 
 
 By June the cartoon of IVickliffe on his Trial 'had 
 been taken in hand. 
 
 In October Madox Brown executed on behalf of 
 the fund in aid of the widow and children of Casey a 
 very charming study of autumn foliage, called, after the 
 place in which it was painted, Plait Lane, and, whilst 
 in London during the ' Christmas holidays,' the first 
 design for the Rossetti memorial, which now stands on 
 Chelsea Embankment. 
 
 Besides these w r orks two pastel portraits, the one 
 of his granddaughter Juliet Hueffer, and the other of 
 his granddaughter Mary Rossetti, executed severally 
 in February and December, call for passing mention. 
 
 However sad and dull Madox Brown may have 
 felt his life to be at this juncture, nothing served to 
 
i88 5 
 
 RESEARCH 
 
 3 6 7 
 
 lessen the industry that he brought to the study 
 either of his subjects or of his works themselves. I 
 shall content myself with referring to two well-crystal- 
 lised instances selected from many available. 
 
 The following is a 'list of authorities,' referred to 
 and used before the fresco of Wickliffe t was set 
 about : — 
 
 Milman's ' Latin Christianity ' and ' St. Paul's Cathedral ; ' 
 Hook's £ Archbishops of Canterbury ; ' Lechler's 'Life of Wyclif;' 
 Vaughan's 'Life of Wycliffe;' Longman's 'Life of Edward III. 
 Green's ' History of England.' 
 
 The subject is, however, chiefly elaborated from Foxe's 
 ' Acts and Monuments of the Christian Martyrs,' which 
 contains a very vigorous description of the scene in 
 Old St. Paul's, which Foxe seems to have borrowed 
 from the older ' Monachus S. Albani.' 
 
 As a pendant to this form of research we have the 
 following picture : — 
 
 Mrs. Madox Brown to Mrs. Htieffer. 
 
 October 2. 
 
 Your father is wonderfully well and hearty, and is still painting 
 away at his autumn tints [Piatt Lane] in the open air. 
 
 He has hired a cab in which he sits all through the day. The 
 man drives him there and leaves him, taking the horse away. He 
 brings him back again in the same way, so that your father is shel- 
 tered from rain and sun, and Charlotte takes him his lunch with hot 
 coffee every day. 
 
 The work was intended as a study for the fresco of 
 Chetham s Life Dream, which was not begun until the 
 
3 68 
 
 LIFE OF FOB I) MAD OX BROWN 1882- 
 
 year following. Upon the whole, the year was not 
 an unhappy one ; it had its lights and shadows, 
 but these were inevitable to a man of many projects 
 like Madox Brown : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 February 20. 
 
 When I begin on Wickliffe I mean to do it in oil for a change, so 
 as to avoid the difficulties of working from models on the walls, and 
 have the luxury of working in my nice studio with the sun and the 
 trees in front of it. 
 
 I begin to soften towards the Manchester Corporation and folk 
 generally, chiefly because I find all other peoples of the world worse 
 disposed than them. 
 
 Good-bye, old fellow. I hope you are well at work again. I 
 know of four distinct cases of good fellows who are almost starving 
 for want of it, and I've a letter from , who is never over- 
 brilliant in that line, unread in my pocket. So I must not grumble. 
 
 Then the subject of sales crops up again : — 
 To the same. 
 
 September 12. 
 
 The most curious thing to notice in this Exhibition is how all 
 the works are for sale — some for large prices, like Herkomer's, some 
 for modest ones, as are Fritlis ! — but all, whether R.A.'s or others, 
 for sale, and prices, of course, pitilessly gibbeted in the catalogue 
 Alas the day ! I do not think that no one has any money, because I 
 know of many people who launch forth more than ever, but I think 
 it is the fashion for buying pictures that is dying out. It never was 
 a genuine taste, and now people are ashamed of being sold by 
 dealers, without having any taste to buy fine things for themselves. . . . 
 
 During the year the project of erecting a memo- 
 rial to Rossetti began to take shape, resulting in an 
 enormous body of correspondence, and in little more, 
 during the year under consideration. 
 
i88 5 
 
 WORK 
 
 369 
 
 The headstone to the grave was, however, duly 
 erected in July of this year : — 
 
 W. M. Rossetti to Madox Brown. 
 
 July 26. 
 
 As I was standing before the monument yesterday, a nice-looking 
 girl of some eleven years, with a younger sister — members I should 
 suppose of one of the better shop-keeping families or the like at 
 Birchington — came up to the grave, and the elder sister, who had 
 evidently been there before, said to the younger, ' This was only set 
 up yesterday. Isn't it lovely ? ' with engaging outspokenness. 
 
 For various reasons no fresco was completed in 1 885, 
 though two, that of Wickliffe and the toile marouflee 
 of Chetham s Life Dream were begun. 
 
 The ' oil cartoon ' of the former was finished in 
 May, and the task of transferring it to the wall begun 
 on June 18. It is the most ' work full ' of all the 
 designs ; consequently, when the very end of August 
 arrived and threatened to bring cold weather in its 
 train, Madox Brown for the time abandoned the fresco 
 work in favour of the toile of Chetham s Life Dream. 
 Of this, the cartoon had been begun in March. 
 
 With the exception of one or two pastel portraits, 
 notably that of Mr. Charles Rowley, and of an experi- 
 ment in marble medium, which took the form of a 
 portrait of Helen Rossetti, these works for the wall 
 occupied the whole of the year, as far as painting is 
 concerned. 
 
 The alto-relievo of the Rossetti memorial, however, 
 made some progress, but the subscription list was very 
 slow in filling up. 
 
 B B 
 
37° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1882-85 
 
 One very considerable cause for gratulation Madox 
 Brown found in the purchase by the Manchester Cor- 
 poration of his old-time masterpiece of Work, of which 
 he had entirely lost sight for many years, and which 
 now found a lasting home besides another Pre- 
 Raphaelite masterpiece, The Shadow of the Cross, in 
 the Manchester Art Gallery. 
 
i886 
 
 37i 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 1886-1887 
 
 Work during 1886 : Chethairfs Life Dream, Wickliffe on Trial — Rossetti 
 memorial : Letter from Madox Brown on the subject — Labour Bureau 
 — -Madox Brown and the unemployed — Madox Brown's attitude 
 towards the Royal Academy and kindred bodies — Work during 1887 : 
 The decorations for the dome of the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition, 
 &c. ; John Dalton — The Boddington Group and collection — Madox 
 Brown's relations with Manchester Society — Return to London — 
 St. Edmund's Terrace. 
 
 To compensate for the fact that the preceding year 
 had seen no new fresco upon the wall of the Great 
 Hall, the year 1886 was made memorable by the com- 
 pletion of two. 
 
 Of these, the first, the toile of Chethant s Life 
 Dream, was finished in the month of February. 
 
 It affords a pleasant instance of Madox Brown's 
 intimacy with phases of boy-life, for the display of 
 which the subject affords excellent scope. 
 
 Chethams Life Dream, 
 c. a.d. 1640. 
 
 The Boys' School in Manchester which still bears the name of its 
 founder, Humphrey Chetham, was established in accordance with 
 the terms of his will in 1656. 
 
 The school (combined with the library, also his gift) forms no 
 doubt a precursor in the seventeenth century of those schemes, edu- 
 
 b b 2 
 
372 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 1886- 
 
 cational and philanthropic, which so prominently distinguish the 
 nineteenth. Like his fellow-townsman Crabtree, Chetham was a 
 drapier or cloth merchant, but his wealth, great for those days, was 
 largely supplemented by financial transactions of a nature kindred to 
 banking or money-lending. True, however, to the ideal of his life, 
 his will — which occupies four sheets of parchment, and was during 
 his life frequently altered — is chiefly taken up with directions to his 
 trustees for the purchase of the college buildings annexed to the 
 present Cathedral, and for their conversion into a school and library. 
 During his life he boarded out and educated twenty-two poor boys ; 
 after his death the number was to be augmented to forty— a number 
 which is now double, owing to the increased value of the bequest. 
 In the painting Chetham is represented as studying his will in the 
 garden of the College, which in imagination he has peopled with his 
 ' forty healthy boys ' and their pedagogue. The school-cook is im- 
 patiently awaiting the butcher. The scholars are engaged in drilling, 
 reading, leap-frog, wrestling, and a game called ' stools,' apparently 
 the forerunner of cricket. 
 
 A more remarkable instance of Madox Brown's 
 power of squeezing the very last drop of picturesque 
 juice from — or rather of infusing picturesque virus 
 into — the driest of testamentary or historic parchments 
 it would be difficult to find ; evolved from the mere 
 provision of the not unsuggestive words, ' twenty 
 healthy boys,' we find not only the boys themselves, 
 but their daily food, their games, their studies, and 
 even — foreshadowed, it is true — their chastisement. 
 
 The fresco of Wickliffe on his Trial is the 
 most ambitious and perhaps the most successful of 
 all the twelve. The subject is sufficiently alive to 
 inspire even the most Academic of artists. Madox 
 Brown, to use a cant term, has ' made it palpitate with 
 life.' The amount of subsidiary addition to the 
 
WICKLIFFE ON TRIAL 
 
 373 
 
 dramatic centre displayed is almost as enormous as 
 that which is displayed in Work. 
 
 Madox Brown describes the picture thus, allowing 
 himself the luxury of a slight historic dissertation : — 
 
 John Wickliffe, to whom we owe the first translation of the Bible, 
 was born at Spresswell, in the extreme north of Yorkshire, about the 
 year 1324. 
 
 He has been styled ' The Morning Star of the Reformation,' and 
 well deserved the appellation, for recent researches in Germany show 
 that many of the Latin tracts published by John Huss a century later 
 were in reality composed by Wickliffe ; and John Huss led the way to 
 Luther and Reformation almost another century later. But our 
 world-renowned Englishman was not only an innovator and thinker 
 of great originality, he was also one of the greatest scholars of his 
 age. Master of Balliol College, Oxford, from his thirty-seventh year 
 and possessed, seemingly, of unlimited attainments for those times, 
 he was not a mere student, but withal a man of the world much 
 employed politically by Edward III. and his Parliaments, being dele- 
 gated as Royal Commissioner, first to the Pope at Avignon, and 
 again to the Peace Conferences at Bruges. 
 
 Gradually, as his ethical views of Christianity became confirmed, 
 he gave up the pluralities with which the Court had rewarded his 
 services, retired to his rectory at Lutterworth, abandoned soft living, 
 and, going barefoot himself, began organising that company of poor 
 itinerant preachers (somewhat on the model of the Barefoot Friars) 
 which soon was to spread itself over the length and breadth of 
 England. 
 
 The Court of Rome at last thought it time to intervene, ^and 
 caused Wickliffe to be cited before Convocation in Old St. Paul's, 
 London. On February 19, 1377, he there accordingly appeared; 
 but his great patron John of Gaunt, Earl-Palatine of Lancaster — son 
 of the King, and practically Prime Minister at that time — appeared 
 by Wickliffe's side, with Lord Percy, the Earl-Marshal, and soldiers for 
 his protection. The trial, from six o'clock to nine of that winter 
 morn, was little else than an unseemly dispute between John of 
 Gaunt, the sovereign of Lancashire, on the one hand, and Courtney, 
 
374 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 886- 
 
 Bishop of London, on the other, till the citizens of London, fancying 
 they heard the Duke threatening their bishop ' to pull him out of 
 the church by the hair of his head,' began such a riot that the trial 
 had perforce to be postponed, and Wickliffe was suffered to resume 
 his duties at Lutterworth. 
 
 In the composition, near to Courtney on the dais, sits Simon 
 Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury, depicted as endeavouring, 
 in whispers, to assuage the indignation of his colleague. At Wickliffe's 
 feet are seen the five mendicant friars appointed as his counsel, 
 Wickliffe not yet having publicly differed with them. The Earl- 
 Marshal is represented as ordering a stool for the Reformer, for, said 
 he, ' An you must answer from all these books, doctor, you will 
 need a soft seat,' causing the prelate still greater indignation ; but 
 Wickliffe remained standing. Constance, John of Gaunt's second 
 duchess, a Princess of Spain, is shown plucking her spouse back by 
 his mantle, as though in fear he might in his excitement do some 
 injury to the prelate. In the background Chaucer, the Duke's 
 other protege, is seen taking notes on his tablets. 
 
 John Wickliffe died peaceably in hisirectory of Lutterworth seven 
 years later. 
 
 The picture contains in the head of the bishop an 
 admirable portrait of the artist himself. The head of 
 Wickliffe was studied from the features of Mr. Shields; 
 that of John of Gaunt from Madox Brown's pupil, 
 Mr. Harold Rathbone, of the Birkenhead Delia 
 Robbia Pottery. 
 
 *In November the oil study and the toile itself of 
 Dalton catching Jack d Lanterns, as Madox Brown 
 quaintly styles it, were begun. The sanction of the 
 Corporation for the substitution of the subject for that 
 of Charles Edivard Reviewing his Troops had been 
 given in July. The work devoted to these subjects 
 was, however, interrupted during the same month by 
 
1887 
 
 THE ROSSETTI MEMORIAL 
 
 375 
 
 the commission for the execution of a set of decora- 
 tions for the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition of the 
 year following. To these literally ' colossal ' works 
 I shall refer upon the date of their completion. 
 
 In February of the year 1886 the large model of 
 the alto-relief for the Rossetti memorial was finished. 
 
 The selection of Madox Brown to execute this 
 work was singularly appropriate in so far as personality 
 was concerned — a fact which has been made abun- 
 dantly manifest in this work's course. Madox Brown's 
 work was to a large extent a Tabour of love.' It was 
 commenced with small hope of subsequent carrying 
 out, and without the smallest hope of adequate com- 
 pensation. 
 
 Ultimately a 4 resulting balance' of 49/. lis. was 
 handed to him in 1887, an d from a consideration of 
 Madox Brown's bank pass-book I find that his own 
 disbursements in connection with the memorial 
 amounted to within 8/. of that sum. 
 
 I have dwelt for a moment upon these figures 
 because at the time one of those pestiferous and 
 anonymous gentry who ' write to the papers ' made 
 allegations of a kind that could not but prove dis- 
 tressing to a man of Madox Brown's nature. 
 
 Upon the completion of the model, and after its 
 exhibition at South Kensington, it was cast in bronze 
 in Paris. 
 
 Two very engrossing preoccupations of the early 
 part of the year were those of engineering a raffle on 
 
31 6 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1886- 
 
 behalf of the widow and children of poor Casey, who 
 had died in circumstances of almost tragic poverty, 
 and the starting of a ' labour bureau ' for the assistance 
 of the unemployed. 
 
 So far as I have been able to discover, this latter 
 was the product of Madox Brown's own brain, although 
 in putting it into practice he was aided by several 
 gentlemen of philanthropic and practical tastes : — 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 April 16. 
 
 I was at a mass meeting of the unemployed yesterday at Pomona 
 Gardens — 6,000 or 7,000 poor wretched-looking, ragged fellows. I 
 had to speechify them, for, did I tell you ? I and some others have 
 started a 'labour bureau,' to register all who want employment and 
 to invite those who want men to come to us. The workers have 
 come in numbers, but not 5 per cent, of those numbers as employers. 
 
 In fact, I believe the manufacturers look upon a good broad 
 margin of starving workmen as the necessary accompaniment of 
 cheap labour. I shall get a nice name, I expect. 
 
 The Madame Casey affair has come to a stop. About 32/. 
 I expect to have in all for her, but most of it she has had already. 
 
 Thanks for the kind things you send about the alto-relief, but 
 I fancy you could but ill judge of it in that light at the museum 
 at Westminster. I am told that at South Kensington it is well- 
 placed. 
 
 During 1886 several assaults upon the Royal 
 Academy were made, but Madox Brown consistently 
 refused to give his name to strengthen any of them, 
 giving as his reason his conviction that with few excep- 
 tions the best artists of the country were at that time 
 members either of that or of kindred bodies. The 
 same reason, with the addition of that of dislike to 
 
1887 
 
 DECORATIONS 
 
 377 
 
 almost inevitable cliquishness, he pleaded as an excuse 
 for not joining a new society which it was proposed 
 to start. He did, however, subsequently alter his 
 mino 1 in favour of the Society of Arts and Crafts. As 
 a matter of fact, his old ' fighting spirit ' had largely 
 abandoned him. A gradual conviction seemed to 
 force itself upon him that his present metier would be 
 amply fulfilled if he were allowed to finish his work 
 and die in peace, and for the rest — to go to bed each 
 night ' with both ears on.' 
 
 At the end of the year we find him writing to Mr. 
 Shields :- — 
 
 December 29. 
 
 I have been so tremendously busy that I not only have no time 
 to think of writing myself, but have scarely time to read your cordial 
 letter and greeting. But I return it with equal heartiness and 
 goodwill, and may the coming year bring you all manner of joyful 
 surprises and pleasant work. 
 
 The reason why I am more than usually employed is that I have 
 undertaken some very large (colossal) figures for their Jubilee Exhibi- 
 tion here, and they must be ready by a certain day. I have got 
 Knewstub, D. G. Rossetti's old pupil, to assist me. One of the 
 characters is a sheep-shearer. 
 
 Do you think that in London anywhere there is to be got a cast 
 of a shorn sheep. 
 
 I had one in my studio shorn on purpose, but he was a Christmas 
 one, and so fat, that taking his wool off made very little difference to 
 him or to me. 
 
 It is the back and the shoulders that I want the anatomy of. 
 
 This work is not exactly like picking up gold and silver, but I 
 hope it may a little recoup what I have lost walling at the Town 
 Hall. Excuse brevity. 
 
 The work in point was that to which I have 
 
378 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1886- 
 
 already referred. High up in the dome of the 
 entrance-hall of the Exhibition there were enormous 
 spaces, formed by spandrils, and these it was decided 
 in November were to be tilled up by canvases, upon 
 which Madox Brown was to depict Energy as sym- 
 bolised by figures of the various manufactures and 
 pursuits of the nation. This decision was only arrived 
 at in November, and as the extent of surface to be 
 filled was tremendous, and as no canvases were pro- 
 cured or procurable until the end of December, the 
 task of completing the work in time for the opening 
 day in May was no mean one. In April we find him 
 writing : — 
 
 To Miss Mathilde Blind. 
 
 You see I still retain my habits of early rising, for I can't sleep 
 well, I have such a fearful number of things to do. Thursday I 
 spent on a swing scaffolding, putting the last touches to my work, at a 
 height of 50 feet from the ground, hauled up by ten men with ropes. 
 I was determined to do it, and so, by consultation with the foreman 
 of the joiners, I managed it. I underwent nothing like real danger, 
 and could have had assistants to go up for me. But they could not 
 have done what I did. Fifty feet from the ground was a good height 
 to be swinging by a rope, and three men had fallen and been killed 
 just before. 
 
 On May 20, with hardly any interval for rest inter- 
 vening, the Dalton fresco was again taken in hand. 
 It was finished on December 21. In order, as it 
 stands upon the wall, it is the twelfth and last of the 
 series — a subject selected from comparatively modern 
 times, and one bringing the whole into touch with 
 modern methods of thought. 
 
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1887 
 
 'JOHN D ALTON' 
 
 379 
 
 Madox Brown's comments on the work are as 
 follows : — 
 
 John Dalton, 1 inventor of the Atomic Theory, was born at 
 Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, in Cumberland, September 5, 1766. 
 As early as when only twelve he started a school in partnership with 
 a brother only a few years older. The stronger pupils, it is stated, 
 would challenge Dalton to fight on his offering to correct them. 
 For many years of his life he maintained himself in Manchester 
 by school-teaching, but his laborious, if honourable, occupation did 
 not hinder him from indulging in the most abstruse and far-reaching 
 speculations and researches ; the result being that this Manchester 
 schoolmaster, alone and unassisted, made himself the father of 
 modern chemistry — that is, if chemistry is one of the exact sciences, 
 and not a succession of independent experiments. How the idea 
 of the Atomic Theory first presented itself to his mind it would be 
 interesting to know ; but we know little of it. All we hear is that 
 it occurred to him as required in order to explain certain remarkable 
 phases of matter which combine in some proportions and not in 
 others. Once that the idea had taken hold of his mind, he never 
 abandoned it till he had worked it out. The natural gases presented 
 the readiest mode of investigation • so he is represented as collecting 
 marsh-fire gas, one of the natural and primitive forms of gas. The 
 mode of getting it is the usual one of stirring-up the mud of a 
 stagnant pond, while an assistant (in this case a farmer's boy) catches 
 the bubbles as they rise in a wide-mouthed bottle, having a saucer 
 ready to close up the mouth under the water when the bottle is full. 
 A group of children are watching him, and the eldest, who has 
 charge of them, is telling the little boy, who is bent on catching 
 sticklebacks, that ' Mr. Dalton is catching Jack o' Lanterns' — marsh- 
 fire gas being, when on fire, the substance the 'Will o' the Wisp' is 
 composed of. 
 
 Dalton's great invention met with slow recognition at first, as is 
 usual in conservative England ; but the French Institute having made 
 him one of their eight foreign members, and treated him with the 
 
 1 The head of Dalton was painted from a little portrait bust in the 
 possession of Mr. Joule, of Sale. 
 
3 8o 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1886- 
 
 highest distinction while in Paris, the English Royal Society gave in 
 at length, and elected him without his consent, and he was pensioned 
 by the Government of William IV. He died in July 1844. 
 
 Upon the completion of the Dalton fresco Madox 
 Brown began a work upon which he was occupied 
 until the day of his death — the Boddington Group, a 
 portrait of the family of Mr. Henry Boddington, who 
 at about the same time acquired a collection of Madox 
 Brown's pictures, which may be considered as the most 
 representative in existence, ranging as it does from the 
 Execution of Mary Shiart, of 1 840, to the group in 
 question, and comprising pictures representative of 
 almost every stage of Madox Brown's art. 
 
 The only facts that call for attention during the 
 course of the year are the unveiling, in August, of the 
 Rossetti memorial, an event that needs no more 
 comment than the bare mention of the fact, and 
 Madox Brown's final return to London. 
 
 The principal reason for the change was the failing 
 health of Mrs. Madox Brown, whom the damp suburb, 
 Victoria Park, afflicted in a very serious manner. 
 Madox Brown, too, sighed for London, finding the 
 lack of any extended intellectual society very irksome. 
 Miss Blind, it is true, spent a portion of every year 
 with the Madox Browns in Manchester, and Madox 
 Brown took a very great interest in her conversation 
 and literary work. Indeed, her work and attention to 
 matters connected with it formed, as he was accus- 
 tomed to say, one of the chief recreations of his later 
 
i88y GOSSIP 381 
 
 years. But even to her the journey to Manchester 
 was difficult. To most of his other friends of an 
 intellectual kind it was insuperable. Nevertheless, 
 he might in the end have found Manchester less un- 
 bearable had his own imprudence not rendered him 
 suddenly unpopular. 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 May 22. 
 
 The latter part of your letter has rather startled me. I mean the 
 phrases that it grieves and vexes you that in Manchester they had 
 not grown into any true recognition of my work, nor into personal 
 esteem for my character. 
 
 For particular reasons I shall be very obliged if you will let me 
 have your authority for these statements. 
 
 Just at present I have reasons, which I will state further on, for 
 knowing. [Perhaps ' wanting to know.'] 
 
 Otherwise, hitherto, as to my art I get nothing but flattery — even 
 from the Corporation — giving himself much trouble to introduce me 
 publicly to Gladstone. The artists have made me honorary member 
 of their Academy, and the Brazenose Club one of their four honorary 
 members. We were asked and present at the lunch given at the 
 Jubilee Exhibition to the Prince and Princess [of Wales], &c. 
 
 As to personal consideration (except for a few enemies whom I 
 have wilfully created) we are not without much more than we care 
 for or can afford either in time or entertainment. I thought it was I 
 who was chiefly wanting in personal consideration to the right people 
 of the place. 
 
 I have refused the Mayor's dinner, and I could show you half a 
 dozen invitations to dinner with the best people, which we have 
 recently refused. We are not rich enough to keep up that sort of 
 thing, but we are quite on friendly terms with the only few worth, or 
 near enough for, knowing. ... 
 
 Many others I have dropped or cut. 
 
 Up till recently I have had the Press with me (Liberal and Tory), 
 and I have treated either party with too little affection. I have 
 
382 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BRO WN 1886- 
 
 certainly noticed a gradual cooling off of that estate towards me and 
 my works. 1 
 
 But now bursts on me a state of things that I am quite unpre- 
 pared for, and am quite at a loss to explain. I, however, feel it, and 
 will suffer for it, and I see that my old plan of disdaining these things 
 can be pushed too far, so I am now making every effort to find out 
 where the feeling originates, whether in London or in Manchester, 
 whether with the R.A. or with Dash. Craven assures me it is with 
 the former and not Dash. Duplicity is such an art among us 
 free-born Britons, that while Sir Blank Blank and Dash equally wring 
 one's gouty hand, equally oppress one with friendliness, and are 
 equally vouched for as friendly, it is hard to say which is not the 
 villain. 
 
 But the villains in chief, in all opinions, seem to be 
 
 Here the letter goes over the page, whither it is 
 undesirable to follow it as far as this transcription is 
 concerned. 
 
 The matter lies to all intents and purposes in 
 a nutshell. That Madox Brown had enemies who 
 did ' plot ' against him, I hold to be unde- 
 niable — have, in fact, only too certain proof — 
 but to a very large extent Madox Brown incurred 
 their hostility by an injudicious brusqueness that 
 occasionally manifested itself in his manner. I have 
 attempted to explain the matter in its London setting ; 
 the Manchester trouble was no more than a variation 
 
 1 To these offences may be added a spirited attack upon the Selecting 
 Committee of the Exhibition. This was made in a lecture in which 
 Madox Brown drew attention to the many omissions that rendered an 
 otherwise excellent collection far from a perfectly representative expo- 
 sition of the art of the Queen's reign. In the year preceding, his speeches 
 to the unemployed had caused a great deal of annoyance in a city so 
 ruled by labour-employers. Cf. p. 376. 
 
r887 
 
 ST. EDMUND'S TERRACE 
 
 383 
 
 — a provincialised one — of the same tragi-comedy. 
 It must be added, in justice to the Northern city, that 
 Madox Brown met with a great deal of kindness 
 from private individuals, and in almost every case 
 in which an individual could afford him help with his 
 work, it was very graciously accorded. 
 
 The remaining troubles of the fall of the year are 
 so intimately associated with the vicissitudes of bronze- 
 green dados and gold-embossed wall-papers, and all the 
 detrimenta of a removal, that it can scarcely be con- 
 sidered to afford subject-matter for protracted con- 
 sideration. 
 
 To Mr. Shields. 
 
 I have taken No. 1 St. Edmund's Terrace, Regent's Park, next 
 but one to the Garnett's, so now at length we shall be nearly 
 neighbours again — in fact, nearer than we were. The house is not a 
 dear one — 70/. a year — but a large fine one, and I hope high and 
 dry. I am allowed five quarters' rent for doing it up, so shall be able 
 to please myself with the decorations. 
 
384 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1888- 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 1 888-1 893 
 
 Work and sales during 1888-89 — Work during 1890 : John Kay — 1891 : 
 The Opening of the Bridgeivater Canal — 1892 : Br -ads haw 's Defence 
 of Manchester — Life at St. Edmund's Terrace — Personal appearance, 
 kindheartedness, &c. — Death of Dr. Hueffer and of Mrs. Madox 
 Brown — Reception of the Bridgewater Canal panel, &c. — Chicago 
 Exhibition— Commission for a picture to be presented to the Nation 
 — Illness and death — October 6, 1893. 
 
 Once returned to London, comparative prosperity 
 seemed to shine on Madox Brown, and expressed 
 itself in its usual form of the sale of replicas. 
 
 Thus we have the sale, to Mr. Boddington, of the 
 duplicates of the Byron and Mary Chaworth and 
 Tells Son. The former of the two was not finished 
 until February of the year following, though it had 
 been begun in 1874. The Tells Son duplicate had 
 been finished in 1879. 
 
 Besides the work upon the Byron, the year 1888 
 was taken up with work upon the Boddington Group, 
 and the frescoes thus made little progress. 
 
 The ' cartoon ' of the Kay subject was begun 
 in January, and finished, as far as design went, in 
 February. The large canvas was begun in October, 
 and occupied the rest of the year. 
 
i8 9 3 
 
 WORK 
 
 385 
 
 The year which followed was almost entirely given 
 up to work for Mr. Boddington. Fourteen of Madox 
 Brown's very earliest paintings were rescued from the 
 oblivion of cellars, and, after a certain amount of work 
 had been devoted to them, were deemed worthy and 
 sold. In February, for the same purchaser, the water- 
 colour duplicate of Byron and Mary Chazwrth was 
 duly finished, and in December the ' cartoon ' of 
 Weights and Measures was converted into an oil 
 duplicate of the fresco. 
 
 The cartoon of Chethams Life Dream was con- 
 verted into a pastel in September, at the instance of 
 Mr. Riches. 
 
 Of new work, the Boddington Gi'otip was finished 
 in February, the painting of the John Kay in 
 November, and a quaint book-plate for Mr. Edward 
 Garnett, designed in January. 
 
 In 1890 the unfinished Stages of Cruelty of 1856 
 
 was taken up and finished in the months of August 
 
 and September. In March, the toile of John Kay was 
 
 finished and exhibited at Dowdeswell's Gallery. The 
 
 subject is as follows : — 
 
 John Kay was born at Walmersley, near Bury, in Lancashire, 
 about the year 1704. His great invention of the fly shuttle seems 
 to have been perfected in 1733 at the latter place, where he resided. 
 For three thousand, or perhaps five thousand, years the peoples of the 
 East and West had been content to go on ' throwing ' the shuttle with 
 the naked hand, and even as late as the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, in order to weave wide blankets, a couple of weavers were 
 needed at the loom ' throwing ' the shuttle from one to the other. 
 Henceforth, through the unique intellect of this Lancashire gentle- 
 
 C C 
 
3 86 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 1888- 
 
 man, all was to be changed. A single one-armed weaver could now 
 get through work that before would have needed the four arms of a 
 pair of weavers, and this with the sole assistance of a string and a 
 handle thereto attached. About twenty years after, however, the 
 weaving population began to notice this fact, and rioters broke into 
 Kay's house at Bury with the most sinister intentions. Tradition 
 tells us that his wife saved him from their fury by having him hurried 
 away concealed in a wool sheet. 
 
 In the composition, to the left, the rioters are seen smashing in 
 the windows, whilst on the floor in front of them lies an exemplifica- 
 tion of the cause of the discord — the very simple invention by means 
 of which two boxes fastened to the loom fire the shuttle, so to say, 
 to and fro into each other's mouths. 
 
 Kay's son Robert, a boy about twelve, is depicted cautiously watch- 
 ing the rioters, and hastening his parents' movements ; whilst Mrs. Kay 
 and two workmen hurry the departure of their master, for whom a 
 cart waits at the door. Kay, with his still disengaged hands, draws his 
 wife towards him and imprints what may be a last kiss on her cheek. 
 His two little girls are weeping and wringing their hands. 
 
 But for Kay's simple, yet epoch-fixing invention of the shuttle 
 which, without hands, flies backwards and forwards across the loom, 
 all the wonders and achievements of steam-weaving would never 
 have been perfected. 
 
 But however disastrous to him this inroad of the men might be, 
 the combination of the masters to resist in the law courts his just 
 claims to royalties proved even more so, and Kay retired to France a 
 ruined man. 
 
 Immediately upon the completion of the John Kay, 
 the cartoon of the Bridgewater Canal subject was set 
 about, and in April of the year following the toile of 
 the subject was commenced. 
 
 The frontispiece for Miss Blind's ' Dramas in 
 Miniature,' and a couple of illustrations for a book of 
 one of his grandsons, complete the tale of work 
 for the year 1891. 
 
Design for Miss Blind's " Dramas in Miniature." 1891. 
 
'THE BRIDGE J FA TER CANAL 
 
 In February of the following year the large canvas 
 of the Bridgewater Canal subject was finished. It is 
 described as follows : — 
 
 The Duke of Bridgewater, after whom the canal was named, 
 undertook this great and, in those days, original work, under the 
 advice and direction of the eminent engineer, James Brindley. The 
 Duke was then comparatively young — twenty years younger than his 
 engineer — and he took up the work in order to facilitate the transport 
 of the coals on his estate to the city of Manchester. During the 
 progress of it he lived in a house near by, with no companions but 
 his engineer and his estate agent. Such was his enthusiasm for the 
 undertaking that his only diversion from it seemed to be, every five 
 minutes during the evening, tapping the barometer, with a view to 
 the next day's work, a pipe and a glass of water his only refresh- 
 ments. He had been engaged to one of the two beautiful Miss 
 Gunnings, great friends of George III. ; but having quarrelled with 
 his intended about her sister, he never noticed any woman again. 
 He died immensely rich, and collected the Bridgewater Gallery of 
 Old Masters. 
 
 Brindley, the engineer, used to make his calculations on a method, 
 of his own that few could understand, for he could neither read nor 
 write. When a Committee of Parliament doubted his plans for 
 carrying water across hills, he procured a hundredweight of clay, and, 
 in their presence, modelled a canal with it, which held every drop of 
 its water till next day, and so convinced them. He married a school- 
 girl of fifteen — commencing the courtship by taking her bags of 
 sweetmeats— but she made him an excellent wife. The opening of 
 the Bridgewater Canal took place at Barton Aqueduct, over the river 
 Irwell, in 1 761. It is represented in the fresco by the first barge 
 starting for coal drawn by a pair of mules. The bargee's wife steers 
 the boat, with her twin babies (got up for the occasion) tied on the 
 cabin roof in front of her. The Duke, from one of his own barges, 
 witnesses the proceedings. Brindley, who always had about him a 
 wicker-coated flask of brandy, w T ith which to lessen the severity of 
 his arduous duties, reminds his Grace (who was not of a convivial 
 turn) that he has omitted providing refreshments. 
 
 CC2 
 
388 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1888- 
 
 A boy has been sent in a boat by farm people living down the 
 canal to fetch coals. The Duke's orders were always to execute the 
 
 smaller orders first. 
 
 The rest of the year was occupied with the work 
 for the succeeding panel, which was commenced in 
 April, and with designing several scenes for Sir Henry 
 Irving's representation of ' King Lear.' 
 
 In March of the year following the last of the 
 panels was finished, and with it the whole task brought 
 to an end. 
 
 This panel represents the defence of Manchester under Bradshaw 
 the Regicide, who, with forty musketeers, defeated and put to rout 
 between three and four thousand of King Charles's troops under 
 Lords Robert Strange and Montague. 
 
 During the action, which took place on Salford Bridge, and for 
 which the town received the thanks of the Parliament, two barns 
 which were situated near the bridge took fire somehow and blazed 
 fiercely during the engagement, much to the inconvenience of the 
 combatants. 
 
 At the Salford or nearer end of the bridge is to be seen the small 
 chapel which was first built for the good of his soul by a pious and 
 wealthy yeoman of Eccles — Thomas Del Roche by name. It was 
 latterly used as a gaol or lock up house. 
 
 It is certain that the Gothic-arched bridge was built during 
 Edward III.'s reign, and stood from that early date till its destruction 
 in 1837, the year of her present Majesty's accession. 
 
 The gentleman who has been unhorsed, and is being released by 
 his retainers, may be Lord Montague, who, with Lord R. Strange, 
 aided in the abortive attempt upon Manchester. Bradshaw, who 
 with his musketeers so powerfully contributed to its defence, is seen 
 in the distance firing his musket from a gun-rest, as at this date was 
 customary. 
 
 This was Madox Brown's last finished work. Upon 
 its completion he set about the task of making a full- 
 
sized duplicate of the fresco of Wickliffe on Trial, but 
 this was destined to remain unfinished. 
 
 1 From original in possession of Mr. Edward Garnett. 
 
39° 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1888- 
 
 I have passed thus quickly over Madox Brown's 
 work during the period of his life at St. Edmund's 
 Terrace, because, as a matter of fact, so few events of 
 importance presented themselves during that period as 
 to make anything like detailed treatment of separate 
 years almost impossible. 
 
 Upon the whole, the closing years of Madox 
 Brown's life were fairly prosperous ones, and but for 
 inevitable events might have been happy. 
 
 I have touched for a moment upon the subject of 
 prosperity, because, during the last few months of his 
 life Madox Brown was troubled in his mind by the 
 fact that rumours of his extreme destitution were 
 spread abroad, and made their appearance in various 
 printed records. This fact was very largely due to 
 the zeal of Madox Brown's very good friend, Mr. Harry 
 Quilter, who, in his book on ' Preferences in Art,' has 
 represented Madox Brown as groaning under a load of 
 poverty. ' Just as if I was living in a dog-kennel,' 
 Madox Brown said, on hearing the passage in question 
 read to him. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Madox Brown was really 
 vastly pleased with his house, and regarded it as 
 extremely commodious 1 — the maligned studio, in par- 
 ticular, he considered to be comfortable and suitable 
 in the extreme. To an artist accustomed to the 
 gorgeousness of latter-day studios, the ordinary room, 
 
 1 In a letter to Miss Blind in 1887 he writes that 'when finished it 
 will be grandly picturesque,' and as such I am sure he considered his 
 abused house. 
 
HIS PERSON 
 
 39 1 
 
 with its north and east lights, and with none of the 
 customary paraphernalia of rich stuffs and 'properties,' 
 must have seemed bare and cold to a degree. But to 
 Madox Brown, who, rightly or wrongly, considered 
 anything that was not strictly useful as a trouble and a 
 hindrance, the room, with its old furniture, that had 
 accompanied him through life, presented all the appear- 
 ance of home and homeliness. 
 
 It was indeed a pleasant sight on a Sunday even- 
 ing after supper to see Madox Brown seated in his 
 famous old armchair, holding in one hand his night-cap 
 of toddy, and with the other keeping off the heat of a 
 good coal fire. 
 
 There he would sit and talk to one or other of the 
 two almost lifelong friends, Mr. Shields or Mr. Cave 
 Thomas, whose visits were periodical and society very 
 congenial. 
 
 His conversation was marvellously entertaining, 
 and his conversational mannerisms naive and charm- 
 ing. His range of subjects was almost unbounded, 
 and his faculty of throwing his whole mind into the 
 subject under consideration and of enunciating original 
 views most unusual. His speech was always distinct 
 and noticeably slow, as if he desired to attach great 
 importance to all his utterances. 
 
 His personal appearance at this period of his life 
 was singularly prepossessing. His thick hair, which 
 he kept always parted in the middle, and which Mrs. 
 Madox Brown always cut, had latterly become quite 
 
392 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1888- 
 
 white, and his beard, somewhat thinner, was of the 
 same quality of colour. His facial hue was invari- 
 ably fresh, and his face comparatively little wrinkled. 
 Until almost the last hours of his life he preserved all 
 these characteristics intact. 
 
 His personal mannerisms were rather marked. 
 When telling a story he made free use of his hands to 
 emphasise the 'points.' His ' deportment,' as a rule, 
 seemed to be derived from old-fashioned sources. He 
 had much of the elaborate courteousness of a grand 
 seigneur, but when once in the full flow of conversation 
 his absent-mindedness rendered him oblivious of every- 
 thing but the subject under discussion. He had an 
 infinite store of 'good stories ' to draw 7 upon. Indeed, 
 often as I have heard him tell a tale with one moral or 
 another during the course of three years, I hardly 
 remember to have heard him repeat the same story 
 twice. But his stories, although usually of the nature 
 of reminiscences, were, as a rule, either too highly 
 4 coloured ' or too personal, and dealt so much with 
 persons either still alive or recently deceased, that I 
 have felt reluctantly compelled to suppress all too 
 many of them. 
 
 He treated every one with whom he came in con- 
 tact as an equal, and deferred to the opinion of every 
 person however uninfluential or unproved in the battle 
 of life. To these qualities he owed the attraction for 
 young men that he possessed in a peculiar degree, 
 and it was one of the most pleasing features of that 
 
LOSSES 
 
 393 
 
 period of his life that a number of young men with 
 one talent or another frequented the house. 
 
 His reverence for youth was a most touching thing 
 to see ; the opinions of a young man, if uttered in his 
 presence or to him, were canons that almost certainly 
 ousted his own, formulated though they might have 
 been from the bitterest of experiences. 
 
 I remember — and the reminiscence may be par- 
 doned for its obtrusion in these pages — hearing Madox 
 Brown commenting upon an illustrated paper — the 
 1 Daily Graphic,' I think. 
 
 ' Ah,' he said, ' how cleverly these young men 
 sketch. I never remember to have seen such work. 
 If only / could do anything so good.' And that was his 
 attitude towards the products of such widely diversified 
 art as that produced by, let us say, the supporters of 
 the 'Century Guild Hobby Horse' and those of the 
 now extinct ' Societe des Vingt.' It is pleasant to 
 think that both bodies of young men did him honour 
 in return. 
 
 But this kind of pleasure was too much chequered 
 by sadder happenings. 
 
 In January 1889 died his son-in-law, Dr. Hueffer, 
 for whom he entertained a very sincere affection, and 
 by whose death some of the burden of a new family of 
 children was cast upon his shoulders. ' And I am con- 
 fronted with all manner of questions which I had 
 begun to think I was disengaged from for the future,' 
 he says, writing to Mr. Shields. 
 
394 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1888- 
 
 In October of the year following, after a protracted 
 and painful illness, occurred the death of Mrs. Madox 
 Brown — a very severe blow, although Madox Brown's 
 position was redeemed from solitariness by the com- 
 panionship of his daughter, Mrs. Hueffer, and the 
 proximity of the William Rossettis, who had moved 
 to St. Edmund's Terrace. 
 
 Mrs. Rossetti's precarious health was, however, more 
 matter for misgiving, only too well justified, as it proved. 
 
 In spite of all these griefs, Madox Brown continued 
 to work as quietly and unostentatiously as had ever 
 been the case. Perhaps the most cruel of all his many 
 causes for sorrow was the opprobrium with which the 
 panel of the Bridgezvater Canal was received on its 
 instalment at Manchester. The matter is not one into 
 which it is necessary to enter minutely. That the 
 work does show signs of a failing hand is without 
 doubt, and, however mortifying such a proceeding 
 might seem to the artist, the Committee of Decoration 
 were perhaps justified in demanding that the last panel 
 should be submitted for their sanction before its instal- 
 lation on the wall. It is, however, difficult not to sym- 
 pathise with Madox Brown, especially when we take 
 into consideration the exceedingly coarse manner in 
 which the work itself was spoken of by one or two of 
 the most prominent members of the Corporation. 
 
 In the event, Madox Brown was only deterred 
 from his purpose of selling the last panel to a private 
 purchaser by the representations of his friends. 
 
AN HONOUR 
 
 395 
 
 The weary task of the decoration of the buildings, 
 which had cost so many years of his life, was thus 
 brought to a very bitter end, and Madox Brown may 
 be pardoned for thinking, what there is no very great 
 reason to believe was not entirely the case, that his 
 labours had received no recognition whatever. Another 
 cause for some discomfiture to him w r as to be found 
 in the fact that, although during this period of his life 
 he attempted to gain some official recognition abroad, 
 his works, which were exhibited at Berlin and Chicago, 
 attracted no attention of any sort. It is, however, to 
 be said that the French Government meditated and 
 even commenced negotiations 1 for the purchase of the 
 picture of Romeo and Juliet. The picture had, how- 
 ever, unfortunately been previously disposed of by its 
 owner to a private person in Chicago, 
 
 An honour of an unusual kind, accorded to Madox 
 Brown during these last years of his life, became 
 latterly a matter of some cheer to him. 
 
 I refer to a commission to paint a replica of his 
 picture of Wickliffe on Trial, given him by a com- 
 mittee of artists and gentlemen. This picture was 
 intended for presentation to the nation. 
 
 A suspicion, perhaps not altogether unfounded," 
 that this honour was to some extent the outcome of 
 
 1 These negotiations were carried on through Miss Blind, then in 
 Paris. Miss Blind informs me that the French authorities still contem- 
 plate the purchase of one of Madox Brown's pictures. 
 
 ~ To Mr. F. G. Stephens and Mr. Frederick Shields, two of the 
 oldest and certainly sincerest of Madox Brown's friends, the credit of 
 
396 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 1888- 
 
 charitable motives caused Mad ox Brown such acute 
 dissatisfaction that he summarily refused the com- 
 mission. 
 
 Eventually, upon the assurance of Mr. Shields that 
 the scheme was not the outcome of, let us say, an 
 Academic plot for his humiliation, Madox Brown con- 
 sented to carry out the work. 
 
 'Three men of eminence,' says Mr. Shields, 'de- 
 clined to subscribe. Why ? ' 
 
 ' " Had you asked upon the ground of necessitous 
 circumstances, we would gladly have responded. But 
 since you ask in order that an honour of altogether 
 exceptional and unprecedented nature be rendered to 
 Mr. F. Madox Brown we cannot consent to join in the 
 tribute." ' 
 
 It was upon this commission that Madox Brown 
 was engaged until a few days before his death. 
 
 During the year immediately preceding, fits of 
 illness had begun to occur with alarming recurrence. 
 On one occasion this took the form of a mild hemipldgie, 
 depriving him for the time of the use of his right hand. 
 ' I must just set to work with my left,' he said several 
 
 ' engineering ' this testimonial is due. I feel certain that it did afford 
 Madox Brown a great deal of quiet pleasure. It was like a ray of winter 
 sunshine falling upon a traveller in a sheltered hollow, to use a well-worn 
 metaphor. As I have already mentioned in the course of this work, the 
 money raised was devoted to the purchase of the picture of Christ 
 Washing Peter's Feet, which was presented to the National Gallery, 
 and to acquiring and presenting to schools of art various cartoons and 
 designs for stained glass. The subscribers included, besides old friends 
 like Holman Hunt and William Morris, artists not of his intimate 
 acquaintance, but of extreme greatness, like Mr. G. F. Watts. 
 
DEATH 
 
 397 
 
 times, looking at his hand; and until its normal strength 
 returned he did so. 
 
 Upon the Saturday preceding his death he worked 
 until darkness intervened, and then, whilst cleaning his 
 palette, pointed to his name inscribed on the upper 
 bevelling of the frame, and laying down his brushes 
 upon his painting cabinet, said, referring to the fact 
 that the picture was* just half-finished, ' There, I've got 
 it all finished as far as the " X." I'm very glad, 
 because it seems as if I was going home.' 
 
 On the following day he felt too ill to get up, 
 though able to sit up in bed and talk with very much 
 of his accustomed vivacity, and, on the evening of the 
 following day he contrived, although with some diffi- 
 culty, to dictate to the present writer the sketch of 
 parts of his life, of which use has been made in the 
 opening chapters of this record. His last quite 
 coherent words must, I think, have been uttered whilst 
 advising some alterations to a work of Miss Blind's, 
 or perhaps in taking leave of Mrs. Rossetti, 1 who was 
 on the point of departure for the Riviera. At that time 
 he seemed no worse than he had been during many fits 
 of illness of the ten preceding years. Miss Blind writes 
 to me describing her last visit to him : — ' I found him 
 more vivacious and alert than for some months past. 
 He listened with his usual vivid sympathy to some 
 poems I had lately written, and the remarks he made 
 showed the clearness of his mind to be undimmed. At 
 
 1 Mrs. Rossetti, who was at this time seriously ill, died in the Riviera 
 in the April following. 
 
398 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1888- 
 
 his express wish I went to Tunbridge Wells to look 
 for rooms for himself, Mrs. HuefTer, and her daughter. 
 The idea of going there seemed to please him greatly.' 
 
 Almost immediately afterwards, however, the 
 seriousness of his illness became so evident that Mrs. 
 Hueffer remained to nurse him during- the niodit. At 
 some early period in the morning a stroke of an 
 apoplectic nature intervened, and on the day following 
 — October 6 — he died quite peacefully. 
 
 At his funeral, which took place on the 10th of the 
 month, a number of Madox Browns oldest friends 
 assembled. Following the custom of French unsec- 
 tarian burials, a farewell oration was delivered by Mr. 
 Moncure Conway, who had performed the same office 
 over the grave of Oliver Madox Brown. 
 
 So died Madox Brown — a man who, had his fate 
 led him nearer the seats of the mighty, would assuredly 
 have been an influential feature of his country and time. 
 I cannot help thinking that amongst a people so deeply 
 moved by ' figures ' as is ours, Madox Brown's posi- 
 tion, apart from his work, should have been to some 
 extent that of Dr. Johnson, or even of Carlyle. That 
 his influence would then have been widely stimu- 
 lating I cannot doubt. Perhaps it was so ; for the 
 circle of his acquaintance was wide. A deep thinker 
 he was not, nor in any sense a scientific or methodical 
 one ; but his utterances were nearly always trenchant, 
 and nearly always afforded ground for thought. 
 
DEATH 
 
 399 
 
 His earlier years were rather embittered, rather 
 tumultuous, rather disturbed by torrents of passion. 
 He was then distinctly rugged, perhaps a little self- 
 assertive, and even overbearing. We see as much in 
 the fragment of his diary that I have quoted, where 
 veins of harshness crop up, like boulders on a sandy 
 moorland road. 
 
 At that period, lying, perhaps, under the slightly 
 unsympathetic influence of minds like those of mem- 
 bers of the Manchester School, he was, without doubt, 
 a little over-utilitarian, didactic, and distinctly militant. 
 He had, in fact, a touch of the English Philistine 
 in his composition. 
 
 And yet, how delightfully naive-minded he was 
 even then his diary can tell — how he goes to church 
 with ' Emma looking like an angel in her new bonnet,' 
 moralises over poor humanity in a hospital basement, 
 and so forth. 
 
 As time went on his mental aspect broadened little 
 by little, and as his interests became more extended he 
 himself became less and less didactic, and thus in the 
 autumn of his life he was the most loveable, the 
 sweetest, of all men. But he seemed so only to those 
 who loved him, and this, perhaps, because his defects 
 were so much the ' defects of his qualities.' As he 
 says of Rossetti, quoting Carlyle, 1 How much easier 
 it is to note the flaw T s in a circle than to grasp the 
 whole sweep of its circumference ! ' 
 
 To a large extent he was the creature of impulse, 
 
4 oo LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 1888- 
 
 to an equally large one he was unnecessarily circum- 
 spect. To any one in an inferior position, any one 
 humble or needy, he was elaborately polite ; to any one 
 whom he suspected of patronising him he was capable 
 of being hastily and singularly disagreeable. 
 
 This sympathy with the ' humble and meek ' was 
 one of the most marked points in his character. As 
 Miss Blind has recorded, ' Out of doors the simplest 
 and most familiar natural sights and sounds infected 
 him with childlike delight.' This to some extent 
 injured his sense of proportion in all critical matters. 
 The utterances of a navvy had as much weight with 
 him as those of many distinguished philosophers, and 
 seemed to him infinitely more picturesque. 
 
 That which was near him he deemed far more im- 
 portant than things of greater weight but out of sight. 
 In this his sympathies, once engaged, led him to 
 extravagant lengths, and he would not infrequently 
 declare that the works of any young painter or poet 
 with whom he had lately been in contact were equal 
 to those of Raphael or Milton. To that extent his 
 judgment was continually distorted and his utterances 
 must be listened to with caution. 
 
 On the other hand, his sympathies led him to 
 encourage a nearly infinite number of struggling 
 workers. No one, I think, ever came to him for help 
 of any kind without his rendering all that lay in his 
 power. Of his open-handed, unconsidered charity I 
 have already spoken ; in no case could any terms 
 exaggerate this side of his character. With open eyes 
 
DEATH 
 
 401 
 
 he would assist people who had again and again 
 imposed upon him, having constantly in his mind the 
 thought that, however unneedful his help before had 
 been, it might now be really needed. 
 
 Good hater as he was, once an ' enemy ' had fallen 
 upon evil days he would go out of his way to ' do him 
 good by stealth.' Of such facts I have an intimate 
 knowledge. 
 
 Of officials, and particularly of Royal Academicians, 
 he was profoundly distrustful ; but a great portion of 
 his quite preposterous prejudices were, as he was well 
 enough aware, the mere emanations of persistent 
 wrongf-headedness. 
 
 As to his creed. In his early days he was a con- 
 ventional member of the Church of England ; in later 
 years he was an absolute Agnostic, with a great dislike 
 for anything of the nature of priestcraft. 
 
 As to his politics. In his early days he was nearly 
 a Whig ; in his later life he was by temperament a 
 good deal of a ' Tory of the old school,' but his intellect 
 made him a Socialist of an extreme type. To this, of 
 course, his desire to better the lot of the poor contri- 
 buted largely. 
 
 In conclusion, I think it is due to myself to say 
 that I have throughout this book written of my grand- 
 father in as critical and unimpassioned a manner as I 
 could command. 
 
 I commenced the work under the impression that 
 
 D D 
 
402 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 no one else would undertake it, and that since Madox 
 Brown seemed worthy of commemoration, even a 
 descendant's record would be better than none at all. 
 When I had ploughed the furrow too far to turn back 
 I heard with real regret that another person of in- 
 finitely greater worth and weight than myself had 
 contemplated a similar labour. 
 
 My personal estimate of my grandfather as an 
 artist is such, that did I attempt to fix his place in the 
 ranks of the Immortals, it would indeed be a high one. 
 Therefore I have hitherto preferred merely to chronicle 
 his works, and when, in the following chapter, I 
 attempt to criticise them, I shall restrict myself as far 
 as possible to simple analysis. 
 
 But when I come to write of Madox Brown as a 
 man, my debt of gratitude to him is so great, the 
 thought of him as he was so constantly present in my 
 mind, that did I allow myself to praise him at all my 
 emotion must carry me too far for sober print. There- 
 fore my book is a documentary one. I am aware of 
 the effect that such an attitude must have upon it 
 and its readers. But being unable to steer a better 
 course, I have preferred to the Scylla of a relative's 
 emotional praise the Charybdis of a simple chronicle. 
 
403 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 MADOX BROWN'S WORK 
 
 In the present chapter I propose to attempt to outline 
 the course of Madox Brown's art evolution — a process, 
 in his case, of more than common interest. 
 
 During the first five and twenty years of his work- 
 ing life — say from 1840 to 1865 — his work followed, or 
 rather forecast, the course of the art life of the country 
 during that period. In this he was like William Dyce 
 to some extent, but unlike any other English artist 
 that I can call to mind. After 1865 he fell out of the 
 general movement, ' working his own salvation ' in a 
 groove that led him far away from other men until, 
 at last, he stood quite alone — almost as much so as 
 ' one standing companionless on a vast moor side.' 
 
 Even when working in company with others he 
 was a solitary man, rather self-centred than easily in- 
 fluenced, once he had broken away from the trammels 
 of the schools. 
 
 This solitary habit, if good in its way, was bad 
 inasmuch as it subsequently delayed his development 
 for a time. But before this he had learnt the secrets 
 
 D d 2 
 
4 o 4 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 of the older schools — had really become a past-master 
 of the Academic styles that he afterwards did so much 
 to sweep off the face of the earth. 
 
 His first food was received at the hands of the 
 Belgians — nurses bad enough in all conscience. 
 
 In Belgium the Classical school still retained a 
 good deal of influence, even in the late thirties, after 
 Wappers had led the Romantic charge against its 
 ranks. 
 
 Wappers himself had been a pupil of the great 
 David, who, it may be remembered, had settled in 
 Brussels after the Napoleonic overthrow. But Wappers 
 had turned and overthrown the school of his old 
 master, had founded an enormous reputation 1 and 
 a ' National ' school by one picture of a patriotic 
 kind, and had then gone on to immortalise local 
 revolutions. Just at that time, too, the wave of 
 Catholic Art was making itself felt in the sluggish 
 backwater of Belgian Art. 
 
 It was, however, neither to the Classicists nor the 
 Pietists that Madox Brown was apprenticed, but to 
 the ' distinguished ' Wappers himself. 
 
 Under W 7 appers he learnt to paint on a bituminous 
 ground and to draw in a Belgian manner, and to 
 have no sense of the joy of colour ; but he learnt an 
 
 1 The Belgian school of that day was immensely popular all over the 
 world, particularly so in England, where, in after years, Madox Brown 
 gained great prestige simply because he was ' up in the Belgian school,' 
 as Mr. John Leighton expressed it. This was when he was working on his 
 cartoons for Westminster Hall at Tudor Lodge. 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 405 
 
 infinite number of the secrets of his trade — fresco, 
 encaustic, modelling in wax, etching, lithography, 
 and even, I believe, pastels. In fact, to this work- 
 ing under Wappers he owed it that in after years 
 he could turn his hand, at least in a rough and 
 ready manner, to almost every branch of the plastic 
 arts. 
 
 Whilst at Antwerp, at the age of nineteen, he com- 
 menced the enormous canvas of the Execution of Mary 
 Queen of Scots. This picture, which was finished 
 before he reached his twenty-first birthday, may be 
 regarded as the chief product of his Belgian disciple- 
 ship. 
 
 With all its defects, its heaviness of drawing, its 
 4 paintiness,' and its sombre colour, it remains a 
 remarkable work, effective and dramatic in the ex- 
 treme ; the whole scheme is engineered and carried 
 out with an amount of assurance not at all to be ex- 
 pected of such a mere youth. It was finished in 
 Paris, whither he had gone, in 1841, at the age of 
 twenty. 
 
 In Paris he did not enrol himself as a pupil at any 
 of the ateliers, for already the leaven of his independent 
 nature was beginning- to work within him. 
 
 When he was only twenty he conceived the idea 
 of lighting his pictures realistically. Whether the idea 
 was a mere analogical development by Madox Brown 
 of some other realist-idea that he had picked up 
 amongst his comrades, I cannot say ; but, whether or 
 
406 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 no, the step was a very great one — how great a one it 
 is difficult to realise nowadays. 
 
 ' Those were the days,' to quote Madox Brown 
 himself, * when my respected master, the late Baron 
 Wappers, having been commissioned by his Govern- 
 ment to paint the Belgian Revolution , had, for speed's 
 sake, two of his pupils, whose duty it was to smear in 
 with their hands, early in the morning, as muchasphal- 
 tum as he could afterwards cover in with revolutionary 
 heroes during the remainder of the long summer day.' 
 Madox Brown's own work was free from few of his 
 master's faults. His early drawing, vigorous enough, 
 was eminently Belgic, his colours dark to indistinguish- 
 ability. As he himself says : ' This all artists liked in 
 these days — even Turner, I believe — but no one who 
 was not an artist liked it. These were the days when 
 Wilkie's best works were coated with asphaltum, which 
 has since made fissures all over them ; when Hilton's 
 Sabrina was so flooded with it that it now has to be 
 hung alternately right side and wrong side upwards to 
 prevent the figures from entirely running either to the 
 top or bottom of the picture.' 
 
 On the top of the asphaltum dogma was the studio- 
 light dogma, the doctrine that proclaimed that every 
 picture must contain twice as much shadow as light, and 
 so forth ad infinitum. For an artist to declaim against 
 any of these was as dangerous in those days as it would 
 have been to decry the Host in Papal Rome ; and so 
 Madox Brown's idea— the idea of a mere boy of twenty 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 407 
 
 — was shouted down by his comrades and studio- 
 fellows and perforce abandoned. 
 
 There remain two pictures of his, two subjects 
 drawn from Byron's Manfred, in which the realistic 
 scheme of lighting is carried out, falteringly enough 
 but recognisably. As I have said, he was forced to 
 abandon the doctrine in public, although he retained 
 independence enough to work by himself as no one's 
 pupil. 
 
 He turned his attention to ' Rembrandt and the 
 Spanish masters ' at the Louvre, and copied them 
 diligently for the better part of two years, during 
 which time he turned out several pictures more or 
 less Rembrandtesque, notably a very fine Parisina s 
 Sleep, now in the possession of Mr. Henry Bodding- 
 ton. 
 
 During all this time he was an assiduous worker 
 ' from the life,' making literally innumerable studies in 
 every possible medium. 
 
 To what extent the ' French school ' 1 of the day, 
 with its cross-tides and currents, influenced him it is 
 difficult to decide. To say that he remained uninflu- 
 enced would of course be absurd. 
 
 The France of the day was the France of Dela- 
 roche, Delacroix, Gericault, and Ingres, to mention the 
 
 1 During his stay in France he executed a number of designs from 
 subjects in the Sentimental Journey which are almost Hogarthian in 
 conception, and which show signs of having been inspired by illustrations 
 by men like Nanteuil or Baron, These, however, had no ultimate 
 consequence. 
 
408 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 men whom Madox Brown especially admired in after 
 years, and he must have drawn a good deal of 
 inspiration from the three first, perhaps more than any 
 from Delaroche. 
 
 In any case Madox Brown left Paris a master of 
 his style, firm in every direction — -witness the ' West- 
 minster Hall ' cartoons, the Harold, the Spirit of 
 Justice, and the Adam and Eve. 
 
 To the French, I think, he was most indebted for 
 his choice of subject. The Parisians of that day de- 
 cidedly leaned towards the dramatically tragic in theme 
 — such subjects as Hecuba going to be Sacrificed, or 
 the Enfant s d' Edouard covered the walls of the 
 Beaux Arts year after year. The gloomily tragic 
 chords struck by the great masters of the day caused 
 a sympathetic vibration in the French public and so 
 gave the key for the entire chorus of the younger 
 men. 
 
 What part of his inspiration was not drawn from 
 such sources came, as I have said when dealing with 
 Madox Brown's life in Paris, from the works of Byron, 
 the only modern English poet of sufficiently extended 
 reputation to be known to Madox Brown. He was 
 then to all intents and purposes a foreigner, and as 
 such he regarded himself during the short stay in 
 England whilst he was actually executing his cartoons 
 and before his journey to Italy. 
 
 This Italian journey proved the turning point of 
 his career ; but it was not, I think, from Italian art 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 that the first impulse came — the violent thrust that 
 drove him clown the slope towards realism. 
 
 On the way he made the acquaintance of Holbein's 
 works at Basle, and in Holbein he found what I will 
 allow myself to call a kindred spirit. 
 
 I do not think that all the magnificence of Italian 
 art, as a whole, that he then saw spread out before 
 him touched him nearly as closely as did the sincere 
 and direct — one may call it archaic — work of Hans 
 Holbein. 
 
 Whilst in Italy he commenced a gigantic work, 
 which was to do for English poetry what Italian 
 painters had done for Italian sentiment. It afterwards 
 took shape as the Chaticer at the Court of Edward 1 7 7 r ., 
 which was only finished in 1851, six years after the 
 date of his Italian journey. 
 
 The sight of Italian pictures, en masse, quite broke 
 up the orthodox inclination of his colour-sense — just 
 as the sight of the Basle Holbeins had dispelled the 
 clouds of his hitherto orthodox technique — rendered it 
 tentative and occasionally almost bizarre, in fact. 
 
 Madox Brown returned from Italy in the following 
 year an artistic revolutionist. He deliberately deter- 
 mined to begin again and work out for himself an 
 absolutely realistic style, casting aside everything that 
 he had learned. Hence his Portrait of Mr. Bamford 
 painted in 1846, of which he says : 
 
 It is the first evidence of an entirely new direction of thought and 
 feeling on my part. ... To those who value facile completeness 
 
LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 and handling above painstaking research into nature the change 
 must appear inexplicable and provoking. Even to myself, at this 
 distance of time, this instinctive turning back to get round by another 
 road seems remarkable. But in reality it was only the inevitable 
 result of the want of principle, or rather confliction of many jarring 
 principles, under which the student had to begin in those days. 
 Wishing to substitute simple imitation for scenic effectiveness, and 
 purity of natural colour for scholastic depth of tone, I found no 
 better way of doing so than to paint what I called a Holbein of the 
 nineteenth century. I might perhaps have done so more effectively, 
 but stepping backwards is stumbling work at best. 
 
 The next two years, which were the first after his 
 final settlement in England, bring us up to the period 
 of the starting of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood ; 
 and although I am not the person to decide my grand- 
 father's claims to be considered the originator of that 
 movement, I will dwell for some moments upon the 
 subject. 1 The three most important pictures of Madox 
 Brown's which belong by date to this period — his Wick- 
 
 1 It may be asked : What about Madox Brown's connection with the 
 English school of the day. I do not myself think that he owed much 
 to its influence ; he himself in a letter (published in the Westminster 
 Gazette after his death) says that to it he owed his artistic salvation ; 
 but it is a little difficult to quite take that view of the matter unless, 
 as Madox Brown did, at the time he wrote the letter one should feel 
 ultra-patriotic. I will try to present Madox Brown's subsequent view 
 of the English artists of those times. The artists who most appealed to 
 him were without doubt Etty, Eastlake, Cope, and Haydon— afterwards 
 Dyce and Maclise, but Etty perhaps most of all. ' He taught Millais 
 and all our school to colour,' he says, in a lecture devoted to Victorian 
 Art. k We all went to him to learn flesh-painting, but so subtle was his 
 touch and exquisite the tints that he could produce with his three or four 
 pigments that the more they gazed at him the less they knew. A whole 
 school followed him— Frith, Egg, Elmore, Hook, and Poole — but at such 
 a distance that no one found it out. The only one who caught some 
 of his inspiration was William Hunt, who stippled in water colours. 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 411 
 
 liffe reading his Translation of the Bible to John of 
 Gaunt, his Bedside of Lear, and Chancer at the Court of 
 Edward III. — supply sufficient data for us to go upon. 
 
 They are all more or less incongruous and selective. 
 In the composition of two of them at least, the Wickliffe 
 and the Chaucer, we find very strong traces of the in- 
 fluence of the 'German,' Cartoon, or Architectural style. 
 That is to say — they are balanced so as to fall well within 
 a Gothic arch, the hero or heroes of the picture being 
 nearly in the exact centre and highest in the composi- 
 tion, the remainder of the figures by one device or 
 another dropping lower and lower into the body of the 
 picture. This is not so much the case with the Lear, 
 the composition of which is of later date. The 
 Chaucer, it must be remembered, was composed in 
 1845 an d altered in 1846. The Wickliffe was alto- 
 gether the product of 1847, tne Lear of 1848. 
 
 On the other hand, decided attempts at realism of 
 light and of attention to archaeological detail are made 
 in all of them, with varied success. The best way of 
 
 Millais, also, when quite a boy, watched him and extracted some of his 
 secret, which was an open one to genius.' 
 
 To Cope, Madox Brown extends high praise in saying that some 
 of his works ' are almost as fine as Maclise's.' 
 
 Eastlake Madox Brown admired for the occasional beauty of his 
 female heads. Haydon had great qualities of the 'grand style' kind, 
 but his colour and general effects were wanting in attractiveness. 
 
 Most frequently mentioned by Madox Brown were Dyce and Maclise, 
 two names that somehow seem to link themselves together for no very 
 sufficient reason. For invention and imagination, Maclise was unequalled, 
 and to make up for lack of colour he had at least eminent dramatic facul- 
 ties. (See p. 36.) 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 summing the three pictures up would be to say that 
 in them all Madox Brown made strenuous efforts to 
 be absolutely realistic, but that his early training 
 hampered him, and rendered his efforts up to this 
 point rather nugatory. 
 
 The Pre-Raphaelite movement had, of course, 
 sides other than the merely realistic. Its members 
 wished their work to exhibit minuteness of finish and a 
 certain Early Italian sentiment — the first as young men 
 wanting in technical skill ; the second as persons draw- 
 ing from the Early Italian masters their sentiments of 
 what nature-inspired art should be. 
 
 Up to this time (1851) Madox Brown's work 
 showed neither of these qualities, and though in the 
 decade following he did out-Herod Herod in the 
 matter of minuteness, his real heart was never quite 
 in accord with Early Italian sentiments. 
 
 As a Teuton, I like to think — and I feel certain — 
 that whatever of Madox Brown's art was most indi- 
 vidual was inspired by those Basle Holbeins in the 
 year 1845. I am °f course aware that his work was 
 never much more Holbeinesque in character than it 
 was Orcagnesque or Botticellian, let us say. Never- 
 theless, it was from Holbein that he drew the idea of 
 direct working from nature. 
 
 Immediately after the completion of the picture of 
 Chaucer m 185 1 Madox Brown plunged straight into 
 the study of absolute realism and of almost absolute 
 minuteness of rendering. 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 413 
 
 His first essay — a smallish picture called the Pretty 
 Baa-Lambs — is rather stiff and ugly, not at all habile 
 or masterly in any way, but a mere study of certain 
 objects under a certain light. His next, the sufficiently 
 well-known Christ and Peter, is realistic enough 
 and masterly in every way, but does not carry the 
 minuteness of its rendering of details to any great 
 lengths — at least as the picture at present stands. It 
 was, however, so much ' pulled together ' and retouched 
 during the next twenty or thirty years that its character 
 is quite altered. It is now essentially a colourist's 
 picture, very glowing and bright, but at the same time 
 harmonious and agreeable in the extreme. At the 
 time the picture was painted Madox Brown, though a 
 strong and sometimes individual colourist, was not an 
 agreeable one, nor did he become so for many years 
 subsequently ; until precisely the time when the picture 
 was last worked on. 
 
 During the eleven years or so that ensued (up to 
 1863) Madox Brown completed only two important 
 pictures. These were the Last of England and 
 Work, one of which occupied about three years, 
 the other part of eleven, in the painting. Two 
 others — Stages of Cruelty and Cromwell on his 
 Farm — although begun during this period, were not 
 completed till long afterwards. 1 There remain, there- 
 
 1 The landscapes English Autumn Afternoon, and others painted in 
 Hampstead and Hendon may also be mentioned. They belong both 
 chronologically and aesthetically to the period under consideration. 
 
4 i4 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 fore, as perfect specimens of Madox Brown's historic 
 work during this period only the Last of England and 
 Work. 
 
 Speaking more incisively than justly, I should say 
 that these monuments of industry are not, on the 
 whole, aesthetically successful. In both of them atten- 
 tion has been paid to such matters as chiaroscuro and 
 composition. In the Last of England this has been 
 done with comparative success ; but I think it is other- 
 wise with the more ambitious Work. When one 
 stands before the picture it is difficult for the eye to 
 find a point on which to settle. The colour, too, is not 
 ' colourist's colour,' at least as I understand the words ; 
 it is wanting in harmoniousness, disturbing, and what 
 not. One might almost say that both pictures had been 
 painted with the then newly discovered aniline dyes. 
 I write these words well knowing that they are an 
 indictment of the painter of Work, but I think them 
 true in substance. 
 
 On the other hand, one may be almost unbounded 
 in one's praise of the strong points of both works. 
 The Last of England, as far as its rendering of the 
 dramatic motive that the painter desired to express is 
 concerned, is surely unsurpassable. It pays its tribute 
 to the stern force of irresistible, slow-brooding Destiny 
 •quite as unmistakably as any of the great tragedies 
 have done. It is as remorseless in its own way as 
 either Lear or the Bacchcs of Euripides. In its own 
 way, too, Work is a masterpiece — as an exposition of 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 4i5 
 
 a sort of Carlylean energy and exuberance. And so, 
 perhaps, it is the very nature of the work to be want- 
 ing in repose ; rather voyant and disagreeable. 
 
 The Cromwell on his Farm has many of the quali- 
 ties of Work, but all of them modified and chastened, 
 as it were. Supposing oneself to be considering the 
 picture for the first time : once one's eye had taken in 
 the dominant figure of Crom\vell himself, one would 
 find it almost as difficult to settle upon some other 
 portion of the crowded canvas as in the case of 
 Work itself. The colour is, however, essentially that 
 of Madox Brown's i colourist ' period — the seventies, 
 or thereabouts. The exposition of the subject, the 
 maze of references and cross-references in the picture, 
 is every whit as astounding as in Work itself. 
 
 The reason for these changes is not far to seek. 
 The picture was conceived and planned out at very 
 much the same time as the Work and the Last of 
 England — namely, in 1856. It is therefore the product 
 of exactly the same train of thought. When he 
 executed the picture in 1873, Madox Brown copied 
 his old design very faithfully, but modified it in just 
 those directions that I have tried to indicate above. 
 
 The fact is that after 1863 Madox Brown's work 
 underwent a very remarkable change — change which 
 I will try to account for. 
 
 He had been in turn, as an artist, a Belgian, a 
 Frenchman, a cartoonist, and a pure realist ; all of 
 these more or less as of the nature born. He was 
 
4 i6 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 now to become an sestheticist, and it is as such pro- 
 bably that he is most widely known nowadays. But, 
 speaking candidly, I cannot say that I think this 
 stage of his art was nearly as much his own as was 
 the realistic one. 
 
 A man of an unusually open mind, he was prone 
 to see the good that was in anything, particularly in 
 whatever style of art was brought continuously under 
 his notice, and his singularly developed dramatic 
 powers allowed him to enter into and sympathise to 
 the full with any phase, whether of art or of human 
 life. 
 
 At this period he fell much into the society of 
 the brilliant group of men connected with the firm of 
 Morris, Marshall, Falkner, & Co. , As a matter of 
 fact, he was, as we have seen, one of the originating 
 members of the ' Firm ' whose tendency was so 
 marked. Thus he now began to pay far more atten- 
 tion to the ' sensuous ' side of his art, whereas during 
 his realistic period the 4 idea ' in his pictures had 
 triumphed. 
 
 For the next decade and a half (from r 865 to 1880 
 or thereabouts) his pictures became rather essentially 
 decorative than essentially realist. He aimed at pro- 
 ducing poetic subjects harmoniously, and, as I have 
 said, sensuously. 1 But it should be remembered that, 
 
 1 In a letter to Mr. Shields, written in 1876, Madox Brown angrily 
 and reiteratively insists that his works are all { essentially sensuous ' and 
 not ' intellectual.' 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 4i7 
 
 throughout all its phases, his art was absolutely dra- 
 matic — he was, in fact, a dramatist expressing himself 
 plastically. 
 
 Thus we have pictures, like the Entombment and 
 Romeo and Juliet, or the Cromwell Protector of the 
 Vandois — works all masterly in colour and massing, 
 and as mystically, amorously, or physically dramatic as 
 can be. 
 
 He himself set his progress in colour down to the 
 example of his daughters, both excellent colourists. 
 I think they themselves were strongly influenced by 
 the colour of Rossetti and of members of the ' Firm.' 
 Apart from this matter of colour, his pictures now 
 became pictures of balanced masses as opposed to 
 pictures of combined details. This is of course to be 
 accounted for in two ways — one that the natural course 
 of time brought about a mellowing of the painter's 
 vigour, he having now reached the age of forty-three 
 or so. The years between 1852 and, 1865 had been 
 dedicated to such very hard and unremunerative studies 
 (as I will call the pictures, finished and unfinished 
 works, of that period) that, having reached such an 
 age, it was natural that he should wish to harvest, as it 
 were, the fruits of his labours, It was, in fact, partly 
 a natural process. 
 
 On the other hand, there is so close a connection 
 between the styles of his designs for the Brothers 
 Dalziels' Bible, his cartoons for stained glass, and of 
 his latter pictures — all three kinds of work exhibit to 
 
 E E 
 
4i8 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 such a degree the same feeling and quality of line and 
 mass — that I think the connection between them is 
 obvious. 
 
 The designs for Messrs. Dalziel were nearly all 
 studies from Nature of the most rigorous kind, but the 
 cartoons were frequently products of the painter's ex- 
 perience. They were, too, definitely intended to have 
 a certain style, or ' look,' if I may use the word. They 
 were meant 1 to exhibit strength and beauty of line and 
 effectiveness of composition, and at the same time 
 to be slightly archaic in appearance — in fact, to be 
 diametrically opposed in style to pictures like Work. 
 
 Madox Brown designed an immense number of 
 these cartoons, many of them complicated compo- 
 sitions, others single figures, but all latterly in much 
 
 1 A very excellent example of how Madox Brown deliberately forced 
 himself to adopt a particular style is afforded by the picture of the 
 death of Sir Tristram. This, as he avows, is intended to imitate, or to 
 account for, the style of missal illuminations and illustrations. For this 
 reason the scene is a room with windows on all sides, which provides an 
 effect of light which might, as I have said, account for the entirely 
 artlessly arrived at lighting of the mediaeval workers. 
 
 At the same time, the attitudes and characterisation are as grotesquely 
 exaggerated as possible. In this case I think the picture is deliberately 
 and recklessly intended ' to touch the Philistine on the raw,' to use a 
 phrase then in favour with members of the ' Firm.' The fact is that a 
 development is quite as observable in Madox Brown's stained-glass 
 cartoons as in all the rest of his work. 
 
 In the early days of his work of this kind he strove to render his 
 designs ' mediaeval ' in appearance, but gradually his sympathy with the 
 mediaevali-sts among his friends gave way before the drift of his own 
 individuality, and his work became once more intensely personal. 
 
 If we consider in turn his Sir Tristram, 1864, his King Rene's 
 Honeymoo7i of a month later, his St. Oswald series of the year following, 
 and his St. Anne of 1865, and his Christ Blessing Little Children of 1870 
 — we see the drift of his work of this kind very plainly. 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 419 
 
 the same style. I suppose if I put the number at two 
 hundred in all I shall not be much over- or under- 
 estimating it ; this during the twelve years, 1862 to 
 1874. 
 
 The result was that, being continually before his 
 mind's eye, this peculiar type of figure and style 
 communicated itself to the larger pictures that he was 
 executing during the same period. The figures in 
 such pictures as Elijah and the Widow s Son, the 
 Entombment, or the Cordelia s Portion are obviously 
 either studied from the cartoons or inspired by exactly 
 the same spirit. In many cases the cartoons served 
 as studies for the pictures. 
 
 All the works of Madox Brown's third period, as I 
 will call it, may thus be said to form one great sym- 
 phony — splendid in all those ' sensuous ' qualities that 
 he aimed at attaining. It would be difficult to find 
 a picture more forceful in composition, splendid in 
 colour, or fervently dramatic, than the Elijah and the 
 Widow s Son, now in South Kensington, and as much 
 may be said for the Cordelia s Portion. Yet the 
 Entombment, with its wonderful interlacing folds, its 
 rich colour, and its intense fervour, does undoubtedly 
 surpass both pictures in all three directions ; and the 
 Romeo and Juliet rises beyond any of them in its 
 exposition of what Madox Brown delighted to call the 
 ' amorous line.' 
 
 Until the day of his death there was not any very 
 appreciable change of style in his work. 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MAD OX BROWN 
 
 The Manchester frescoes, as it is convenient to 
 call them, presented an opportunity for decorative 
 historic work of precisely the kind that now came most 
 naturally to his hand, and he fully grasped the oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 The series, as a whole, is undoubtedly distinguished 
 by unity of decorative conception, which it was at times 
 no easy matter not to disturb. Speaking of the Crab- 
 tree panel, Madox Brown frequently said that he was 
 at first undetermined whether or not to produce a 
 strong and perfectly legitimately Rembrandt-effect of 
 lights, as most artists would have done. In the end, 
 the fear of spoiling the effect of the whole series by a 
 dark patch at one end of the hall led him to introduce 
 as much light as he could into the composition, thus 
 enormously increasing the difficulty of the work. 
 
 Each of the pictures gives evidence of to how 
 great an extent Madox Brown was content to remain 
 a student of Nature to the end of his life. In very few 
 of them are there discoverable any of the ' mannerisms' 
 born of previous study, to which most painters addict 
 themselves. As far as 1 open-air effect ' is concerned, 
 I should say that few of Madox Brown's pictures 
 equal the fresco of the Romans, and as much may be 
 said for the rendering of the complicated cross-lights 
 of the afore-mentioned Crabtree panel. Even the 
 unsuccessful Bridgewater Canal picture is in these 
 respects an advance on many of its predecessors. 
 
 The series as a whole, too, is singularly instinct with 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 Madox Brown's personality. In the setting forth of 
 the subject each of the pictures shows to the full his 
 naive directness and ingenuity of imagination. They 
 are full of sympathy with human life — almost Chau- 
 cerian in that direction — and they abound with 
 humorous by-play. One might say that Madox Brown's 
 humorous sense, which in the pictures of the preceding 
 decade and a half had been rather submerged, once 
 more appeared on the surface. 
 
 In the Romeo and Juliet, the Don Juan, or the 
 Cordelia s Portion there are none of the touches of 
 purposely bathotic humour that so strongly distin- 
 guishes Madox Brown's work. There are no girls 
 with ducks under their arms to call the Cromwells 
 from their grim musings to the immediate necessity 
 of the dinner that waits. 
 
 The frescoes, on the other hand, are full of such 
 episodes. Roman children kick litter-bearers, thurifers 
 deride each other, pigs upset ferocious warriors, or 
 children mock great scientists, and seem to utter the 
 continual ' after all ' of Nature herself. 
 
 In his art Madox Brown's attitude towards life was 
 twofold. 
 
 In the conception of his pictures he entirely identi- 
 fied himself with the hero of the picture, and seemed 
 to become for the time a grim mystic, a pas- 
 sionate lover, or an abstracted scientist. But once 
 the central idea was evolved and embodied, he sym- 
 pathised with the unsympathetic outer world — the un- 
 
422 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 concerned, wondering child of the Entombment, or the 
 laughing, ignorant cook-maid of the Cromwell on his 
 Farm. Madox Brown himself had, throughout his life, 
 very much of the ' little child' in his composition. His 
 attitude towards life was as sincere, as naive, as direct, 
 and not infrequently as embarrassingly penetrating, as 
 any child's. In addition to this, he had his dramatic 
 power and his almost Titanic virility. His work was 
 never suave, never quite complete ; but it was vigorous 
 and honest to the end, always instinct with a noble 
 feeling for style, and within its wide but well-defined 
 limit as thorough as possible. His incompleteness 
 was always personal, and that is surely no small 
 deodand, in an age whose general tendency is towards 
 mechanical finish and the concealment of the in- 
 dividual, and which is apt to feel disgusted if a touch 
 of individuality peep through the veneer that happens 
 to be in fashion. 
 
 It was Madox Brown's misfortune, as it has been 
 the misfortune of too many a good worker, to antici- 
 pate the ' psychical moment ' with everything that he 
 did. 
 
 He was inclined to claim that he had started the 
 ' Plein Air' school in France. I do not think that 
 the claim can be substantiated ; yet, as a mere boy, he 
 evolved the theory which gave life to that school. 
 
 He never claimed to have started the Pre- 
 Raphaelite Brotherhood, but he certainly did herald 
 
INFLUENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS 423 
 
 the movement — played the part of John the Baptist to 
 it, let us say. 
 
 In the same way he anticipated the idea of the 
 ' Arts and Crafts Society.' 
 
 During a long life he received little honour, and few 
 honours, and was in some ways a singularly unlucky 
 man. But he managed to work on, to do good work, 
 and, as he quaintly phrased it, ' to go to bed with 
 both ears on.' 
 
 Moreover, he remained to the end of his life young 
 in his mind, and, that being so, perhaps the gods loved 
 him after all. 
 
 1 He has outsoared the shadow of our night ; 
 Envy, and calumny, and hate, and pain, 
 And that unrest which men miscall delight, 
 Can touch him not, and torture not again.' 
 
425 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 MADOX BROWN AS A TEACHER 
 I. 
 
 THE following note with regard to Madox Brown as a teacher, 
 and his relations^with the Working Men's College, has been 
 kindly furnished me by Mr. J. Phillips Emslie. 
 
 ' In the evening meeting with which the term opened, IVJr. 
 Ruskin, speaking of the advent of Mr. Brown in succession 
 to Mr. Rossetti, said that he was equal to him as a painter, 
 but would probably be superior as a teacher, as he had given 
 more attention to the teaching than Mr. Rossetti had. We 
 students became almost immediately aware of the justice of 
 Mr. Ruskin's remarks, for Mr. Brown's teaching was as sys- 
 tematic and precise as Mr. Rossetti's had been free. Mr. 
 Rossetti always objected to students making a firm outline ; 
 he wished their work to be free. Mr. Brown, on the other 
 hand, insisted on a firm outline. He has said to me, and I 
 have often heard him say to others, " Always know exactly 
 what you mean by every line you draw on the paper ; have a 
 thorough idea as to which form of the model you intend to 
 represent by the line you are drawing. Don't scuffle about 
 with a great number of random lines, as so many do, trusting 
 to get something out of them by some chance, but be clear 
 in your own mind and you'll best advance your work." 
 
426 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 ' To this end he introduced two old practices which had 
 never been seen in the class in Rossetti's days. He would 
 tell the students to hold up a plumb line to see where different 
 parts of the model fell below each other, and he would also 
 tell the students to hold out their pencils at arm's length and 
 measure with the thumb-nail on the pencil the length of the 
 model's head and compare it with the measurement of the 
 arm or body taken in a similar manner, so as to get the pro- 
 portion. These things came rather hard upon students who 
 had been accustomed to Mr. Rossetti's free style of drawing, 
 but Mr. Brown not only insisted on his directions being carried 
 out but would himself work as he had been instructing others 
 to work, and decisively show a student where his drawing was 
 wrong by the application of the practices which the student 
 had neglected. I suppose all of us students have upon some 
 occasions felt depressed when a drawing, which we flattered 
 ourselves had a good deal of " go " in it, has been proved, by 
 the application of the plumb-line and of measurement, to be 
 wrong both in character and proportion. 
 
 ' But though a disciplinarian he was no martinet. He would 
 say that it was of no use to be free without being accurate, 
 and that students must first learn to make a faithful repre- 
 sentation of what was before them. 
 
 ' He took a great personal interest in his pupils, and this, 
 together with his very genial manner, caused him to be very 
 much liked by them. He would ask a new student why he 
 was studying drawing, whether as an accomplishment, with a 
 view to becoming an artist, as an assistance to his own daily 
 occupation, &c, and would do his best to assist the student 
 in the special study of art which the student wished for. I 
 remember his telling us of a drawing-class at some institution 
 in Camden Town, in which class was a man (a mason, I think), 
 whose only object in learning drawing was that he might be 
 able to draw a lion. A sculptured lion that was (and, for all 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 427 
 
 I know, still is) the most prominent statue in the show-yard 
 of a sculptor and monumental mason in the New (now Mary- 
 lebone) Road was the special incitement to his ambition, and 
 Mr. Brown, with much gusto, told us how he was asked by 
 him, " Can you teach me to be able to draw a lion ? — a lion 
 like that one in the New Road ? I should so like to be able 
 to draw a lion like that." 
 
 ' In October 1859, Mr. Brown made me a pupil-teacher in 
 his class and had my name placed by the side of his on the 
 college prospectus. Messrs. Allen and Ward had long been 
 pupil-teachers under Mr. Ruskin, but Mr. Brown was the first 
 to have his assistant's name placed on the prospectus beside 
 his own. His recommendation obtained for me permission to 
 draw in the sculpture galleries of the British Museum, and he 
 overlooked and corrected a drawing I made as a candidate 
 for a probationary studentship at the Royal Academy. 
 
 ' Mr. Brown several times invited us to his studio when 
 there was an exhibition of works by himself and friends. 
 Here we saw the Work while it was in progress, also Lear 
 and Cordelia, Out of lozvn, Autumn Afternoon! 
 
 II. 
 
 I add some extracts from a letter to myself from Madox 
 Brown's solitary pupil of a later date, Mr. Harold Rath- 
 bone : 
 
 ' About this period I used to accompany my father on his 
 visits to the various studios of our leading painters in his 
 annual errand of acquiring the best works he could lay his 
 hand on for the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition (of which, as 
 you know, he was one of the founders and the chairman) ; 
 and though many friends used to make interested inquiries 
 concerning my own progress in art, I was impressed by the 
 
428 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 fact, which determined me later in adopting Madox Brown 
 as my master, that it was from him alone that I invariably 
 received some sensible and practical suggestion, either with 
 regard to general art training or in relation to some work in 
 hand, advice which could always advantageously be put at 
 once into practice. Before taking this step, however, I con- 
 sulted Sir E. Burne-Jones, who at that time, with a generosity 
 which has endeared him to other eager students besides my- 
 self, had kindly consented to look at and criticise my work 
 from time to time, and he most heartily agreed with the idea, 
 alluding to his old friend Madox Brown, as I well remember, 
 as one of the very few real " masters," in the proper signifi- 
 cance of the word, of the present day, and as one who had 
 both inherited and developed a most excellent method and 
 tradition in painting, which might most beneficially be 
 adopted, until by natural tendencies one formed a style of 
 one's own. At this time Madox Brown was engaged upon 
 the first of his famous series of frescoes in the Manchester 
 Town Hall, and I was, as you are aware, more or less in his 
 company during the whole of the period he was at work on 
 this noble municipal commission, and I never knew any man 
 who combined to a like extent the gift of not being in a hurry 
 with a greater sense of the true value of time and the necessity 
 of making the most of opportunity. 
 
 ' Deliberation and reason in his case effectively prevented 
 his being unduly carried away by his powerful dramatic gifts 
 and the romance of poetic sentiment, and it was the rare 
 combination of these qualities which used to make me think 
 of Madox Brown, amongst all my circle of acquaintance 
 of business, professional, or political vocation, as most truly 
 entitled to the attribute of the " practical " man ; and that 
 to a degree infinitely beyond the conventional limit which 
 is usually conveyed by the term. In the same way his 
 generosity and largeness of heart were brought into fine pro- 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 429 
 
 minence by his abhorrence of waste, either of material or 
 occasion. 
 
 1 With regard to opportunity, he possessed a most extra- 
 ordinary faculty of recognising amongst his immediate circle 
 of friends the exact type he was in need of to serve as model 
 for some fresh historic creation, and though comparatively 
 rarely seeking to introduce an exact likeness, his discriminat- 
 ing genius would adopt just what he required from the features 
 so brought into use, to suit the conception at hand. 
 
 ' His advice tc me as a pupil was precisely that contained 
 in his early article in the " Germ." Care in selection of a 
 suitable subject, and a treatment of that subject which would 
 conclusively manifest itself to the ordinary observer without 
 further explanation. To be in this respect ever direct and 
 typical in representation, rather than err on the side of sub- 
 tlety and obscurity by dwelling unduly upon unimportant 
 accident. To impart some definite scheme of lighting or effect 
 to the work, and, in the case of a landscape especially, always 
 to be on the look-out for some unusual and suggestive effect 
 rather than the everyday aspect. To choose a subject well 
 within one's range, and not too complicated in dramatic action 
 or movement — to make proper and sufficient use of Nature 
 and scientific laws, but on no account to subordinate detri- 
 mentally any essential in the artistic conception to some arbi- 
 trary imposition of scientific doctrine. 
 
 1 He attributed great importance to the preparatory stages 
 of an historical work, saying that it always saved time in the 
 long run to spend a little time in marshalling things into 
 proper working order at the commencement of any fresh 
 undertaking. He would then advise the work to be carried 
 on (as he had done in his own case) in systematic stages from 
 the earliest record of the idea, which he was ever most 
 careful not to tamper with, fearing often to lose some faint, 
 but valuable suggestion which might later be developed, to 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 the cartoon stage, which he made either the required size or 
 often smaller, in which he included all possible reference to 
 Nature, so long as she served his purpose and did not assume 
 any tyrannical attitude with regard to expression, effect, 
 colour, or disposition of line — which interfered unduly with 
 his original conceptions. 
 
 ' As a painter, Madox Brown believed in keeping one's 
 work in such a condition that it could always bear to be 
 shown in any stage to a person of moderate intelligence, and 
 he was in the habit of saying, if there was any portion in the 
 picture which prevented one's being able to do this, that one 
 should, for the sake of the work as a whole, render that 
 particular portion sightly with all possible promptitude. He 
 thought a great deal about brilliance and transparent richness 
 of colour, in contrast to the heavy and opaque method of 
 " premier coup" painting which is adopted in France, and to 
 a very large extent in this country, dwelling upon the necessity 
 of making one's flesh painting luminous, after the manner of 
 his favourite models, Rubens, Titian, Etty, and Gainsborough, 
 or even old William Hunt, or his friend Dante Rossetti, 
 whom he used to hold up in contradistinction to what he 
 called the " leather " painters of the latter day. He possessed 
 endless resource, of a simply scientific and inventive kind, for 
 getting over any difficulties of costume, in which Mrs. Madox 
 Brown (without exception the gentlest and sweetest-natured 
 woman I ever met) most amply assisted him, or the compli- 
 cations of lighting and effect. Most ample proof of this is to 
 be found in the fact that the major portion of these frescoes 
 were painted, with the assistance of Nature in the worst 
 possible of lights, with equal aptitude, either through the 
 dense fogs of winter or the conflicting cross lights that 
 streamed into the hall during the summer months. He was 
 ever patient in explaining his own reasons for any arrange- 
 ment of composition or effect, but as a master apt to 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 43i 
 
 be annoyed if suggestions made were not absolutely 
 adopted. 
 
 1 Taking into consideration the various endowments of my 
 master, which one might sum up as his epic quality or his 
 gift of telling a story lucidly, his almost Michael Angelesque 
 gift of massing figures and the details of composition, his 
 faculty of line (which was developed through his admiration 
 of Raphael), his immense knowledge and gift of depicting 
 type, his mastery of costume and aesthetic invention of orna- 
 ment, the luminosity and depth of his colour, united to a 
 remarkable degree of dramatic force and poetic intensity, I 
 began, after a time, to think of Madox Brown on account of 
 these universal qualities on the same high plane that is occu- 
 pied when pondering of such creative giants as Shakespeare, 
 Homer, Dante, or Hogarth, on account of his astounding 
 invention allied to a wealth and rarity of the truths of Nature ; 
 and despite his occasional eccentricities of manner I constantly 
 think of him in this light, believing him, with everything that 
 can be advanced against him by those who are out of 
 sympathy with his style, to be one of the great English 
 masters of painting of the present generation. Whatever 
 artistic and practical success I have had with the Delia 
 Robbia pottery which has been lately started I attribute 
 mainly to his influence, and I consider it constantly a duty 
 to hand on those traditions to my pupils.' 
 
2 
 
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APPENDIX C 
 
 CATALOGUE 1 OF SOME OF MADOX BROWN'S DESIGNS 
 FOR STAINED GLASS 
 
 EXECUTED BY MORRIS AND CO. 
 
 1862 
 
 Design for Crucifixion. 
 , , , , Nativity. 
 
 ,, ,, Archangels Uriel and 
 Michael. 
 „ St. Mark (May 31). 
 ,, ,, Gideon (June 14). 
 Cartoon for Adam (June 15). 
 
 „ Eve (July). 
 Design for Christ and Little Children 
 (Cartoon, October) 
 ,, ,, ^vS. Jerome and John, for 
 
 Pulpit (August 25). 
 ,, ,, Death of Sir Tristram (Sep- 
 tember). 
 ,, ,, Nativity (November 2). 
 , , ,, Lady with Hawk, for tiles 
 
 (November 17). 
 , , , , Cutting Trees Down, for 
 tiles. 
 
 ,, ,, Sowing, for tiles. 
 
 ,, Sheep -shearing, for tiles. 
 
 1S63 
 
 Designs for Abram (March). 
 
 ,, Isaac (March). 
 
 ,, ,, SS. Paul, Elizabeth, John 
 and Matthew, at Brad- 
 ford (June). 
 
 Design for St. Martin and Beggar, 
 St. Martin in Heaven, at 
 St. Mark's Church, Scar- 
 borough (February). 
 Adam and Noah (March). 
 Constantine (March). 
 St. Helena (March). 
 Charlemagne ( March ) . 
 St. Louis (March). 
 Alfred the Great (March). 
 Edward the Confessor 
 
 (March). 
 Paeda, King of Mercia 
 (March). 
 
 1 This is by no means a complete list of Madox Brown's cartoons. Four out 
 of half a dozen cartoons in my possession — a Gray writing his Elegy, a. Martha, a 
 very fine St. Andrew, and an Escape of Peter— axe. not numbered among those 
 mentioned above, and I have no doubt that others exist in various quarters. The 
 catalogue is, however, extracted from Madox Brown's account with Morris & Co. , 
 and should be complete. 
 
446 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MA I) OX BROWN 
 
 Design for Ethelbert, King of Kent 
 (April). 
 
 ,, ,, Christ and Disciples in a 
 Ship in a Storm (August). 
 
 ,, ,, Christ and Peter on the 
 Sea (August). 
 
 , , , , i . Baptism of St. Oswald, 
 St. Oswald's Church, 
 Durham (September). 
 
 ,, ,,2. Coronation of St. Oswald, 
 St. Oswald's Church, 
 Durham (September). 
 
 ,, ,, 3. St. Oswald kills Cad- 
 wallader, St. Oswald's 
 Church, Durham (Dec.) 
 
 1865 
 
 Design for 4. St. Oswald sends out 
 Missionaries to Scotland, 
 St. Oswald's Church, 
 Durham (January). 
 ,,5. Death of St. Oswald, Si. 
 Oswald's Church, Dur- 
 ham (June). 
 ,, ,,6. Enshrining of St. 
 
 Oswald, St. Oswald's 
 Church, Durham (Aug.). 
 
 1866 
 
 Design for David and Goliath (First). 
 ,, ,, Early English Bishop. 
 ,, ,, Cain and Abel. 
 ,, „ Melchisedec. 
 ,, ,, Zachariah. 
 
 1868 
 
 1 )i sign for St. Anne. 
 ,, ,, Nehemiah. 
 
 1869 
 
 Design for Edward I. 
 ,, ,, Bishop of Ely. 
 ,, ,, Expulsion from Garden of 
 Eden. 
 
 ,, ,, Samuel and Eli. 
 ,, ,, Burning Bush . 
 
 Design for Binding of Moses. 
 ,, ,, SS. Luke and Peter. 
 ,, ,, Good Shepherd. 
 
 1870 
 
 Design for Feed my Sheep (September). 
 ,, ,, Homer (October). 
 ,, ,, Newton (October). 
 ,, ,, Roger Bacon (October). 
 ,, ,, Aristotle (November). 
 ,, ,, Queen Eleanor (November). 
 ,, ,, Lord Bacon (November). 
 ,, Cicero (November). 
 
 1871 
 
 Design for St. Etheldreda (May). 
 ,, ,, Hugo de Balsham (May). 
 , , , , Incredulity of Thomas ( Nov. ) 
 ,, ,, Bishop Cosiu (December). 
 ,, ,, Whitgift (December). 
 , , , , Supper at Emmaus (Dec. ) 
 
 1872 
 
 Design for Christ bearing Cross (Jan.) 
 ,, ,, Isaac bearing Wood (Jan.) 
 ,, ,, Crashaw (January). 
 ,, ,, The Brazen Serpent { March). 
 ,, ,, Zachai'iah (May). 
 ,, ,, Elkanah (May). 
 ,, ,, Hannah (May). 
 ,, ,, Philip the Deacon (May!)". 
 ,, ,, Cavendish (May) 
 ,, ,, Cardinal Beaufort (July). 
 
 ,, Warkworth (July). 
 ,, ,, Solomon building Temple 
 
 (August). 
 ,, ,, Holbrook (August). 
 ,, ,, The Scourging at the Pillar 
 
 (August). 
 
 ,, ,, The Agony in the Garden 
 (August). 
 
 ,, ,, David and Goliath, Jesus 
 College (November 2). 
 
 ,, ,, Young Milton and Spenser, 
 Peterhouse. 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 447 
 
 1873 
 
 12 Cartoons for Tamworth (April) : 
 
 King Atheistane\ ., , 
 P l~ t ] I Afterwards 
 
 . . J worked upon and 
 
 Sigtrtg King of)- ^ ^ d 
 
 Northumbria 7 
 . , of St. Edith. 
 
 Bishop / 7 
 
 Stgtrig'.s Gaily. 
 
 William the Conqueror. 
 
 Marmion. 
 
 Marmion Asleep. 
 
 Edith with Nimbus. 
 
 Tamworth Castle, cvx. 
 Design for Simeon, Knaresboro' (May). 
 
 ,, Anne Prophesying, Knares- 
 
 boro' (May). 
 
 ,, ,, Elizabeth PVoodville, 
 Queens' College, Cam- 
 bridge (June). 
 
 Design for Queen Margaret, Queens' 
 College, Cambridge 
 (June). 
 
 ,, ,, Christ healing Women 
 
 (August). 
 ,, ,, Gray (August). 
 
 1874 
 
 Design for Jude, Llandaff (April). 
 
 ,, ,, Simon, Llandaff (April). 
 
 ,, ,, Shipwreck of Paul, Llan- 
 daff (April) 
 
 ,, ,, Miraculous Draught of 
 Fishes, Llandaff (April). 
 
 ,, ,, Duke of Grafton (July). 
 
 ,, Noli me Tangere, Jesus 
 College (July). 
 
 ,, ,, Incredulity of Thomas, 
 Jesus College (July). 
 
 Note. — A very fairly representative set of Madox Brown's stained-glass 
 cartoons, most excellently reproduced, has been published by Mr. Harold 
 Rathbone, through the Autotype Company, of New Oxford Street. 
 
" Romeo and Juliet." 1876. 
 
 (From an autotype reproduction.) 
 
Design for Stained-Glass, "The Transfiguration." 1857. 
 (Fiom the original in possession of Messrs. Powell & Co ) 
 
Sketches and Studies. Paris, 1844. 
 
 (From original in possession of Mr. Fairfax Murray.) 
 
First Sketch'for "Chaucer." 1845. 
 {From original in possession of Mr. Fairfax ^Murray.) 
 
Study for "Wickliffe." 1847, 
 {From original in possession of [Mr. Fairfax Murray.) 
 
Study. 1847. 
 (From original in possession of [Mr. Fairfax <M array.) 
 
Study for " Last of England." 1852. 
 (From original in possession of Mr. Fairfax Murray) 
 
Unfinished Painting: "Take your Son, Sir." 1857. 
 
 (From original in possession of Mr. Harold Rathbonc.) 
 
" Christ Blessing little Children." 1862. 
 
 (From the series of reproductions published by Mr. I^atbbonc. Reproduced from a "Firm," or 
 working copy of Mad ox Brown's cartoon.) 
 
The Archangels Uriel and Michael. 1862. 
 {From Mr. Harold Ratbbone's series of reproductions of stained-glass cartoons ) 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aberdare, Lord (Bruce), 277 
 Academy, The Royal, 24, 27, 49, 51, 
 62, 69, 73, H 86, 93, in, 125, 
 144, 158, 169, 179, 188, 280, 309, 
 
 358, 363, 364 
 'Address to the Vice-Chancellor 
 
 of Cambridge,' 277, 278 
 Aix, 40 
 
 Alderley Edge, 333 
 
 'Alice in Wonderland,' 261 
 
 Allingham, W., 126 
 
 America, 83, 145, 365 
 
 Anthony, Mark, 65, 77, 9 1 , io 9, 1 19> 
 
 179, 215, 244, 276 
 Antwerp, 15, 18-24, 25, 405 
 Antwerp Academy, 2c, 24 
 ' Arethusa, The,' 9 
 Armitage, Edwin, 28, 38 
 Armstrong, E., 365 
 ' Art Journal,' 35 
 'Arts and Crafts Society,' 377 
 'Athenaeum, The,' 24, 49, 50, 76, 
 
 in, 180 
 
 B. V., 241 
 Bale, 40, 41 
 Balzac, H. de, 228 
 Barber, Burton, 57 
 Bartolozzi, 13 
 Beddoes, Dr., 6 
 Berwickshire, 2 
 
 | Beyle, H., 228 
 I Birchington, 364 
 
 Birmingham and Midland Insti- 
 tute, 282, 290, 323 
 
 Bizet's ' Carmen,' 324 
 
 Blackmore, Mary, 268 
 
 Blake, W., 7, 34, 346 
 
 — Gilchrist's Life of, 346 
 
 Blind, Miss M., 241, 267, 268, 307, 
 317, 342, 354, 365, 378, 380, 386, 
 39o, 395, 397, 400 
 
 — ' Dramas in Miniature,' 386 
 Boddington, H., 28, 380, 385 
 Bologna, 40 
 
 Booth, ' Puggy,' 103 
 Boyce, G. P., 123, 276 
 Brett, J., 317 
 Bristol, 84 
 
 Brown, Catherine Madox (see 
 Hueffer, Mrs.) 
 
 — Eliza Coffin, 10, 20, 27 
 
 — Mrs. Eliz. Madox, 26, 27, 37, 
 46 
 
 — Mrs. Emma Madox, 59 ct scq. 
 to 393 W 
 
 — Ford (sen.), 1, 9, 10, 24 
 
 — Mrs. Ford (sen.), 9, 20-24 
 
 — Ford Madox, Works of : 
 Adam and Eve, 33, 408 
 Baptism of Edwin, 323, 327, 328, 
 
 329, 33o 
 
 G G 
 
LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 Brown, Ford Madox, Works of — 
 {continued) 
 Beauty before she beca7ne ac- 
 quainted with the Beast, 57, 98 
 Blind Beggar a7id his Child, 15, 19 
 Brads haw *s Defence of Manches- 
 ter, 388 
 
 Bridgewater Ca7ial, 387, 388, 394, [ 
 421 
 
 Byron 's Dream (Byron and Mary 
 Chaworth), 281, 292, 298, 299, | 
 300, 384 
 
 Cheihant's Life Dream, 369, 371, 
 372, 385 
 
 Chaucer at the Court of Edward 
 III, 41, 42, 43, 49, 62, 63, 67, 
 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 98, 
 in, 158, 232, 234, 306, 307, 
 
 359, 4°9, 4ii, 412 
 
 Christ Washing Peter's Feet, 8o, 
 81, 82, 85, no, 130, 132, 134, 
 141, 146, 151, 152, 153, 154, 
 156, 159, 160, 306, 395, 413 
 
 Coat of Many Colours, 197, 204, 
 205, 206, 207, 208, 213, 214, 
 
 221, 232, 234, 247 
 Colonel Kirke, 20 
 Co7ivalescent, 271, 281 
 Cordelia at the Bedside of Lear, 
 
 55, 56, 57, 58, 97, ii4, 4n 
 
 Cordelids Portion, 197, 207, 221, 
 
 222, 223, 232, 420, 422 
 Corsairs Return, the, 255, 262 
 Crabtree watching the Transit of \ 
 
 Venus, 349, 353, 360, 361, 421 
 Cro77twell 071 his Far77i [St. Ives], 1 
 
 92, 93, 94, 107, 116, 117, 122, 
 
 141,281,282,290,291,292,301, 
 
 307, 315, 413, 415, 423 
 — Protector of the Vaudois, 311, 
 
 312, 313, 323, 417, 418 
 Dalto7i collecti7ig Marsh Gas, 
 
 374, 378, 379, 380 
 
 Brown, Ford Madox, Works of — 
 (co7iti7iued) 
 Death of Sir Tristram, 197, 200, 
 419 
 
 Do77iestique qui rit, 19 
 
 Don Juan, 245, 246, 255, 272, 
 
 281, 323, 422 
 Dow7i Strea77i, 263, 264 
 Ehud and Eglon, 197, 204, 205 
 Elijah and the Widow's Son, 197, 
 
 201, 234, 420 
 Elizabeth at the Deathbed of the 
 
 Coimtess of Nottingha77i, 19 
 E7iglish Autit77in Afternoon, 82, 
 
 83, 97, 180, 413 
 E7iglish Boy, the, 168 
 Ento77ib77ie7it, the, 221, 232, 234, 
 
 247, 262, 417, 420, 423 
 Expulsio7i of the Danes fro77i 
 
 Ma7ichester, the, 339, 347, 348, 
 
 349 
 
 Flamand voyant passer le Due 
 
 dAlbe, 19 
 Fle77iish Fish Wife, Head of, 
 
 15 
 
 — Weavers, the \Philippa visit- 
 i7ig her Fle77iish Weavers at 
 Ma7ichester\ 349, 35 2, 353 
 Friday of the Poor, 1 9 
 Giaour's Co7tfessio7t, 24, 26, 51 
 Harold at Hasti7igs, 33, 34, 35, 
 408 
 
 Hai7ipstead fro7n 77iy Window, 
 157 
 
 Hay field, the, 10 1, 114, 133 
 
 I7ifa7i?s Repast, 57,84 
 
 Irish Girl, the, ]68 
 
 Jacopo Foscari, 245, 246, 281 
 
 Job a77iong the Ashes, 19 
 
 Kay saved fro7ii the Rioters, 384, 
 385, 386 
 
 King Re7te's Ho7ieymoon, 199, 
 419 
 
INDEX 
 
 45i 
 
 Brown, Ford Madox, Works of — 
 {continued) 
 Last of England, 32, 91, 92, 94, 
 96,97,98, 100, no, 160, 169, 
 413, 4H 
 
 Lear, Ki?ig, Sketches for 16 
 
 designs from, 37 
 — Parting of Cordelia and her j 
 
 sisters, 74, 98 
 Manchester Exhibition Decora- j 
 
 Hons, 375, 377, 378 
 Manfred on the Jungfrau, 28, 29, ' 
 
 407 
 
 Mary Queen of Scots, Execution 1 
 
 of 26, 51, 405 
 Mauvais Sujet, 1 84 
 May Me7nories, 255, 366 
 Nosegay, the, 207, 208, 209, 213, 
 
 214, 215 
 
 On the Brent near Hendon, 1 o 1 
 Oure Ladye of Good Children 
 [Saturday Night], 48, 49, 51, 
 68, 157, 172, 207, 223 
 Parisinds Sleep, 29, 30, 51, 407 
 Phryne and Apelles, 263, 306 
 Piatt Lane, 366, 367 
 Portraits : 
 
 Allot, Joseph, 292 
 Bamford, Mr., 48, 49, 409, 410 
 Blind, Miss M. [pastel], 307 [ 
 Boddington Group, 380, 384, ■ 
 385 
 
 Bromley, Augustus, 37 
 - Helen, 37 
 
 Brown, Eliza Coffin, 14 
 
 — Ford, 14 
 
 Madox [' Himself], 313, 
 
 314 
 
 — Lucy Madox, 57 
 
 — Oliver Madox [2 etchings], 
 301 
 
 Davis, Mr. and Mrs. D., 290 
 Fawcett, Prof, and Mrs., 271 
 
 Brown, Ford Madox, Works of — 
 
 {continued) 
 Halliday, — , 23 
 Pendleton, Rev., 23 
 Pyne, Mrs. Kendrick (pastel), 
 
 35o 
 
 Riches, T. O., 292 
 Robinson, Miss Mary (pastel), 
 35o 
 
 Rossetti, Helen, 369 
 
 — Mrs. W. M., and daughter 
 
 (pastel), 307 
 Rowley, Chas., 369 
 Seddon, Thomas, 57 
 Shakespeare, William, 57, 68, 
 
 73 
 
 Pretty Baa Lambs, 74, 83, 84, 
 
 141, 160, 413 
 Prisoner of Chillon (1), 30 
 
 — (2) on Wood, 118, 121, 130, 
 156 
 
 Romans building Manchester, 
 
 the, 338, 339, 421 
 Romeo and Juliet, 228, 229, 230, 
 
 231, 247, 255, 263, 395, 417, 
 
 420, 422 
 Rose de V Infante, La, 307 
 Rossetti Headstone, Design for, 
 
 369 
 
 — Memorial, 369, 375 
 Rubens' 1 Ride, 300, 301, 306 
 Sardanapalus 1 Dream, 255, 262, 
 
 272, 281 
 Seraphs' 1 Watch, the, 43, 52, 57 
 Shorn Ridgway, View from, 57 
 Showing the Way, 1 5 
 Spirit of Justice, 33, 35, 51, 73, 
 
 408 
 
 Stages of Cruelty, 107, 113, 129, 
 
 154, 169, 385, 413 
 St. Ives {see Cromwell on his 
 
 Farm) 
 Supper at Emmaus, 306 
 
 G G 2 
 
LIFE OF FORD 
 
 MAD OX BROWN 
 
 Brown, Ford Madox, Works of — 
 
 (continued) 
 Take your S 'on, Sir, 74, 14 2 ? 169 
 TelPs Son, 311, 384 
 Transfiguration, the, 142, 148 
 Traveller, the, 160, 229, 230, 234, 
 
 366 
 
 Waiting [English Fireside], 98 
 Walton-on-the-Naze, 160 
 Weights and Measures, 349, 361, 
 366, 385 
 
 Wickliffe on his Trial, 366, 367, 
 
 369, 372, 373, 374, 389, 395 
 — reading his Translation of 
 
 the Bible to John of Gaunt, 49, 
 
 50, 84, 86, 160, 41 1 
 Wilhehnus Conquistator, 34, 172, 
 
 174, 180 
 
 Windermere Lithograph, 92, 98, 
 207 
 
 Work, 82, 88, 90, 91, 94, 965 106, 
 in, 113, 142, 148, 152, 153, 
 154, 155, 156, 163, 164, 165, 
 173, 175, 176, 183, 189, 190, 
 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 
 197, 209, 227, 370, 413, 414, 
 
 415 
 
 Brown, Dr. John, 1-10, 13, 257 
 
 — Lucy Madox {see Rossetti, Mrs. 
 W. M.) 
 
 Brown, Oliver Madox, 149, 168, 
 188, 219, 220, 238, 243, 244, 250, 
 252-256, 259, 25i, 267, 276, 280, 
 285, 293-297, 301, 354, 355, 398 
 
 — ' Dwale Bluth,' 301 
 
 — ' Gabriel Denver,' 285 
 Brown, O. M., Ingram's Life of, 363 
 
 — William Cullen, 6, 8, 9 
 Bruges, 14 
 
 Brummell, Beau, 10, 11 
 Brussels, 40, 48 
 Buchanan, R., 272 
 
 — ' Fleshly School of Poetry,' 272 
 
 ' Bullion, Thomas,' 217 
 Burne-Jones, Sir E., 147, 153, 158,. 
 
 162, 171, 177, 203, 215, 236, 239,. 
 
 244, 276, 316, 355 
 
 — Merciful Knight, 203 
 Byron, Lord, 30, 31, 298, 299 
 
 Caine, T. Hall, 340, 345, 346 
 Calais, 1, 10, 11, 13, 20, 21, 234 
 Calderon, P. H., 250 
 Cambridge, 128 
 Campbell, A., 171 
 Cardiff, 1 1 8 
 
 Carlyle, T., 94, 112, 127, 131, 135, 
 139, 153, 163^165, 195, 196 
 
 — ' Past and Present,' 195, 332 
 Cary, F. S., 79 
 
 Casey, D., 16, 17, 25, 26, 28, 29, 47- 
 
 49, 88, 93, 95, 357, 358, 376 
 Cayley, C. B., 81, 310, 349 
 Chamier, Capt., 9 
 Chapel-en-le-Frith, 342 
 Chapman, G. F., 216 
 Charlotte Street, 50 
 Chaucer, 42, 305, 306 
 Chaworth, Mary, 298, 299 
 Cheapside, 48 
 Chelsea, 103 
 Chesneau, E., 358 
 Cheyne Walk, 209, 261 
 ' Christie's,' 101 
 Civita Vecchia, 46 
 Clipstone Street, 49 el seq. 
 Coffin, Sir Isaac, 13 
 Collins, C, 77, 87 
 Colvin, S., 276 
 Compton, Earl, 38 
 Conway, Moncure, 398 
 Cope, F., 78, 41 1 
 Copland, Dr., 8 
 Cornelius, 35, 44 
 Correggio, 13 
 Cottier, C, 364 
 
INDEX 
 
 453 
 
 Cotton Famine, The, 184 
 Cox, David, 280 
 
 Craven, F., 207, 214, 228, 243, 245, 
 252,253, 262-264, 266, 268, 269, 
 280, 315, 316, 343, 382 
 
 Crayford Farm, 23 
 
 Creighton, Dr., 9 
 
 Cremorne, 103 
 
 Creswick, T., 65 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 94, 126 et seq., 
 
 3II-3I3 
 Cross, John, 28, 38, 71, 125 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 40, 41 
 Cruickshank, 3 
 -G., 38 
 
 Crumpsal, 350 et seq. 
 Crystal Palace, 122 
 Cullen, Dr., 5 
 
 ' Daily Graphic,' 393 
 
 Dalziel Bros., &c, 118, 122, 130, 
 
 197, 221 
 Damascus, 93 
 Dante, 42, 237 
 4 Dark Blue,' 263, 264 
 David, 14, 15, 46, 404 
 Davis, W., 125, 137, 159, 170, 171, 
 
 186, 187, 198, 203, 224, 225, 283 
 Delacroix, E., 407, 408 
 Delaroche, P., 407, 408 
 Derby, Earl, 336 
 Deverell, W., 72, 75, 81, 87, 136 
 Dickinson, Lowes, 55, 58, 62, 69, 
 
 7i, 73, 75, 89, 109, 114, 117, 118, , 
 
 120, 150, 152, 185, 247, 252 
 
 — Robert, 55, 58, 62, 69, 106, 114, 
 
 121, 126 
 
 4 Dictionary of National Biography,' 
 9 
 
 ' Dictionnaire Universelle Biogra- 
 
 phique,' 7 
 Dilke, Sir C, 271, 273, 357 
 
 Dinan, 88 
 Dixon, T., 165 
 Dombinsky, Capt., 23 
 Dresden, 18 
 Dublin, 84 
 Dumas, A., 31, 32 
 Dunn, H. T., 274, 276, 280 
 Dunse School, 3 
 
 Dyce, W., 30, 65, 77, 78, 403, 410, 
 411 
 
 Eastlake, Sir C, 78, 410, 411 
 Edinburgh, 4, 302 
 Egg, A. L., 65, 78, 179, 216 
 Egypt, 95, 99 
 Ellis, F. S., 258, 259 
 Emerson's 'English Traits,' 136 
 Emslie, J. P., 159, 425, 426, 427 
 ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' 8 
 Eulenspiegel, Till, 31 
 Exhibitions : 
 
 Berlin (1 891), 395 
 
 Chicago (1892), 395 
 
 Deschamps', 314 
 
 Dowdes well's, 385 
 
 Dudley Gallery, 232, 250 
 
 Edinburgh, 169, 178, 197 
 
 - — ' Free,' 49 
 
 Hogarth Club, 159, 178 
 
 International, London (1852), 98 
 Paris (1853), 98 
 „ London (1862), 
 
 178, 185, 186, 187 
 
 International, Manchester (1857), 
 
 145, 146, 153, 155 
 Jubilee, Manchester (1887), 374, 
 
 378 
 Leeds, 235 
 
 Madox Brown's, at Piccadilly 
 
 (1865), 209 et seq. 
 Manchester Academy, 247, 257 
 1 Rejected Pictures,' 198 
 
454 
 
 LIFE OF FOED MADOX BROWN 
 
 Exhibitions — {continued) 
 Russell Place, 143, 152 
 Sketches, 68 
 
 Falkner, C, 238 
 Faubourg Broussel, 47 
 Fawcett, H., 273 
 Finchley, 98 et scq. 
 Fitzroy Square, 218 et scq. 
 Flandrin, H., 357 
 Florence, 40 
 Foot's Cray, 26 
 Fortess Terrace, 215^/ scq. 
 Fra Angelico, 41 
 ' Fraser,' 212 
 Frederick the Great, 6 
 Frith, W. P., 77, 78,218, 363 
 
 Gambart, E., 174, 216, 217, 224, 
 
 225, 233. 
 Gambetta, L., 357 
 ' Gambier Parry Process,' 326, 335, 
 
 337 
 
 Garnett, E., 385 
 - R., 241, 383 
 Garrick Club, 218, 248 
 Gautier, T., 357 
 Geneva, 48 
 
 ' Germ, The,' 75, 76, 98, 429 
 
 Ghent, 14, 19, 23 
 
 Gilbert, Sir J., 118 
 
 Gilchrist, H., 346 
 
 Gilderoy, R., 316 
 
 Gillum, Major, 169, 186, 196 
 
 Giotto, 41, 122 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., 211, 380 
 
 Glasgow, 364 
 
 Godwin, E., 214 
 
 Goodall, F., 78 
 
 Gosse, E., 322 
 
 Gottingen, 7 
 
 Grant, Sir F., 84, 85, 279 
 
 Gregorius, Prof., 14 
 Grouckel, De, 28, 48 
 Grove Villas, 98 et seq. 
 
 Hake, Dr., 233, 269, 272, 273, 274 
 
 — George, 272 
 Halliday, H., 119, 132, 149 
 Halswelle, K., 247 
 Hamerton, P. G., 358 
 Hampstead, 60, 61, 83, 87, 88, 93 
 Hannay, David, 87, 91 
 Hanselaer, Van, 14 
 
 Hardy, Sir D., 239 
 Hastings, 87, 258 
 Haydon, B., 35, 410, 411 
 Hendon, 101 et seq. 
 Herbert, J. P., 65, 78 
 
 — Miss, 118 
 
 Heme Bay, 318, 319, 320, 321 
 
 Heron, Sir J., 336 
 
 Heywood, Aid., 333, 341 
 
 Hill, Emma {see Mrs. .Emma Madox 
 
 Brown) 
 ' Hobby Horse, The,' 393 
 Hogarth Club, 158, 161, 182 
 Hogarth, Wm., 264, 284 
 Holbein, Hans, 41, 409 
 Holding, C, 275, 276 
 Holland, 303, 304, 305 
 Hook, J. C, 125 
 Home, R. H., 214 
 Horsley, J. C, 78 
 ' Hotel du Pot d'Etain,' 16 
 Houghton, A. B., 241 
 Howard, F., 38 
 
 Howell, C. A., 214, 239, 243, 286, 
 287, 288 
 
 Hueffer, Mrs. Catherine, 98, 113, 
 118, 160, 167, 181, 214, 219, 238, 
 250, 252, 253, 267, 276, 280, 293, 
 294, 304, 305, 336, 343, 363, 367, 
 392 
 
INDEX 
 
 455 
 
 Hueffer, Dr. (Hiiffer, Franz), 234, j 
 241, 267, 269, 276, 304, 310, 319, 
 
 324, 343, 393 
 
 — Miss, 366 
 
 — O., 349 
 
 Hughes, Arthur, 69, 203, 215,216, 
 237, 243, 253, 276 
 
 — E. R., 276 
 
 Hugo, V., 31, 296, 307 
 
 Hume's ' History of England,' 33 
 
 Hunt, Alfred, 171, 249 
 
 — William, 410 
 
 — W. Holman, 52, 54, 63, 64, 65, 
 73, 75, 77, 81, 85, 86, 87, 90, 93, 99, 
 109,110,118,119,120, 122, 125, 
 130, 131, 132, 136, 145, 153, 15s, 
 161, 164, 174, 181, 198, 210, 214, 
 216, 276, 355, 395 
 
 Christ i7i the Temple, 1 20, 
 
 174, 210 
 
 — Lanthorn Maker, 120, 132 
 
 ■ — Scapegoat, 130 
 
 Shadoiu of the Cross, 370 
 
 — Two Gentlemen of Verona, 
 
 76, 77, 86 
 
 Haunted Manor, 144 
 
 Huntingdon, 126 ct seq. 
 
 Iceland, 83 
 Inchbold, J. T., 203, 317 
 Ingram, J. H., 363 
 Ingres, 357, 407 
 Institution, British, 30 
 Ionides, L., 204, 239 
 Ireland, A., 358 
 Irving, Sir H., 388 
 Italy, 39-47 
 
 James, M., 28, 48 
 Jen-old, Douglas, 38, 39 
 Jerusalem, 99 
 Jones, William, 20 
 Jowett, Prof., 303 
 
 Kay, John, 7 
 
 £ Edinburgh Portraits,' 7 
 
 Kelmscott, 268, 280 
 King's Bench, 7 
 Kingsley, Charles, 112 
 Kirby, Miss C, 365, 367 
 Kirke, Col., 20 
 Knewstub, W. J., 317, 377 
 Knight, Jos., 274 
 
 ' Laicus,' 257, 258 
 Landseer, Sir E., 78 
 Leatherhead, 181 
 
 Leathart, J., 162, 172, 180, 183, i86 r 
 
 197, 229, 232, 255, 324 
 Leghorn, 46 
 Legros, A., 214 
 Leighton, Sir F., 125, 355 
 
 Triumph of Music, 125 
 
 — John, 38, 223, 403 
 
 ' Lyra Germanica,' 223 
 
 Leon, E., 261 
 
 Leyland, F. R., 232, 233, 243, 272, 
 
 280, 325 
 Lindsay, Sir C, 344 
 Linnell, W., 77, 78, 137 
 Lintlaws, 2 
 Lionardo da Vinci, 41 
 Liverpool, 136 ct seq. 
 Llandaff, 118 
 Llangollen, 12 
 Longfellow, H. W., 75 
 Louis Philippe, 30 
 Louvre, The, 28, 29 
 Lucy, C, 38, 62, 75, 90 
 Luini, 41 
 
 Lushington, V., 101, 111 
 Luxembourg, The, 232, 395 
 Luxemburg, G. D., 22 
 Lynmouth, 266, 267, 268 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 126 
 
 Maclise, D., 65, 77, 78, 280, 410, 41 1 
 
45 6 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 Madoc, Prince, 9 
 Madox, Caroline, 9, 20-24 
 
 — James, 20, 23, 26 
 
 — Tristram, 23 
 Marochetti, Baron, 151, 187 
 Marseilles, 46 
 
 Marshall, John, 38, 71, 91, 93, 
 94, 109, 119, 140, 155, 239, 294, 
 319 
 
 — P. P., 171, 177, 214 
 Marston, Miss E., 324 
 
 — P. B., 241 
 
 — Dr. W., 239 
 
 Martineau, R. B., 152, 197, 215, 239 
 Marvell, Andrew, 304, 312 
 Marzials, Theo., 241 
 Masaccio, 41 
 Matlock, 324, 325 
 Matthews, C, 95 
 
 Maurice, F. D., 151, 152, 153, 155, 
 
 195, 198 
 Mazzini, 241 
 
 McCracken, F., 68, 84, 85, 93, 101 
 Meopham, 26, 37, 48 
 Meredith, George, 182 
 Michel Angelo, 41 
 
 Archers, 344 
 
 Grimm's Life of, 285, 344 
 
 Millais, Sir J. E., 65, 73, 76, 77, 78, 
 
 79, 86, 87, 90, 109, in, 118, 120, 
 
 121, 122, 123, 125, 144, 153, 218, 
 
 355, 410, 411 
 
 Autumn Leaves, 120 
 
 Blind Girl, 1 1 1, 120 
 
 Carpenter's Shop, 79 
 
 Convent Thoughts, 77 
 
 Huguenots, 86 
 
 Lorenzo a?id Isabella, 65 
 
 — Rescue, 1 1 1 
 
 Return of the Dove to the 
 
 Ark, 77 
 
 Wedding Cards, 1 44 
 
 Woodmarts Daughter, 77 
 
 Miller, Joaquin, 288 
 
 — Peter, 126, T37, 138, 143, 150, 
 
 151, 166 
 Milner, J., 323, 338 
 Milton, J., 311, 312, 313, 315, 316 
 Modena, 40 
 
 Monmouth, Duke of, 20 
 
 Moore, Albert, 203 
 
 More, Antonio, 305 
 
 Morris, W., 133, 147, 153, 158, 166, 
 175, 180, 181, 203, 215, 216, 236, 
 237, 238, 253, 267, 268, 269, 281, 
 395 
 
 Earthly Paradise, 253 
 
 Tristram and Isult, 1 7 5 
 
 Morris, Marshall, Falkner & Co., 
 
 161, 177, 183, 188, 215, 232, 252 
 Moulton, Mrs. L. C, 324 
 Mount's Bay, 317 
 Moxon's ' Poets, 5 121, 245, 255 
 I Mullins, Miss M., 365 
 ! Mulready, W., 65, 77, 137 
 ] Mundella, A. J., 362 
 Munro, A., 69, 151, 155 
 Murray, C. Fairfax, 61 
 Murray's Handbook (Italy), 40 
 
 Napoleon I., 8 
 
 Napoleon III., 88 
 
 National Gallery, 395 
 I Newcastle, 162, 166, 302 
 
 Newman Street, 60, 67 et seq. 
 
 Newstead Abbey, 299 
 1 Nicholson, Sir C, 108 
 i North London School of Design, 
 68, 78, 79, ii7 
 
 I ' Once a Week,' 233 
 Orcagna, 41, 63 
 O'Shaughnessy, A., 241 
 Overbeck, 44, 45 
 Owens College, 323 
 Oxford, 147, 148 
 
INDEX 
 
 457 
 
 Oxford Museum (Woodward's), 147 I 
 
 „ Union Club, 147, 153 
 'Oxford and Cambridge Magazine,' 
 101 
 
 Palestine, 93 
 Pal grave, F. T., 187 
 Paris, 25-37, 46, 88, 114 
 Patmore, C, 126 
 Paton, Sir N., 355 
 Pavia, 7 
 
 Pegwell Bay, 59 
 Pendleton, Rev., 17, 23 
 Penkill, 241 
 Peru, 13 
 
 Pettigrew's ' Physicians of Emi- 
 nence,' 8 
 Pinwell, F., 21 t, 241, 314 
 Pisa, 41, 63 
 Pitti Palace, 41 
 Pizarro, 13 
 
 Plint, T., 101, in, 112, 141, 146, 
 153, 156, 162, 166, 172, 173, 174, 
 175, 180, 203 
 
 Poole, R., 78 
 
 Powell & Co., 142, 148, 177 
 
 Poynter, E. J., 250,355 
 
 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Ger- 
 man), 43-45 
 
 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, &c. 
 (English), 49, 55, 59-67, 73, 76, 
 77, 88, 109, no, 113, 142, 143, 
 144, 158, 227 
 
 Preston, 2 
 
 Prince Consort, The, 36 
 Prinsep, Val, 166, 182, 215,216, 
 236, 241 
 
 QUILTER, H., 44, 390 
 ' Preferences,' &c, 390 
 
 Rae, G., 40, 180, 181, 186, 197, 198, ! 
 207, 208, 215, 216, 217, 224, 225, 
 236, 243, 253, 280, 295, 301 
 
 ! Raphael, 13, 37, 41 
 Rathbone, H. S., 374, 417 ct seq. 
 Red Lion Square, 75 
 Rembrandt, 28, 29 
 Rhine, The, 40 
 Riviera, 39 
 
 Robertson, Forbes (sen.), 290, 291, 
 292 
 
 Robinson, Miss M., 350 
 Rome, 39-46, 62 
 Rose, J. A., 182 
 
 Rossetti, Christina, 65, 81, 131, 
 239, 241 
 
 Rossetti, D. G., 31, 49-56, 68, 69, 
 75, 77, 79, 81, 87, 88, 90, 91, 
 93, 94, 95, 98, 99, 112, 113, 115, 
 117, 118, IT9, 120-126, 132-136 
 140, 141, 147, 148, 150, 151, 153, 
 159, 165, 166, 171, 181, 182, 204, 
 209, 214,215,216, 218,225-228, 
 237, 238, 241, 242, 243, 253, 257, 
 258, 259, 260, 261, 263, 264, 268, 
 269, 270, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 
 277, 278, 281, 283, 284, 285, 286, 
 288, 289, 294, 302, 305, 315, 318, 
 319, 320, 321, 325, 334, 344, 345, 
 346, 361, 363, 364, 399 
 
 Annunciation, 86 
 
 — Bhce Bower, 216, 217 
 
 — Bride, 2 1 5 
 
 Dante's Dream, 258, 259 
 
 Found, 99 
 
 Paolo and Fra?icesca, 1 2 1 
 
 -- St. Cecilia, 141 
 
 — Poems : 
 
 ' Down Stream,' 263, 264 
 ' Italian Poets,' 259 
 ' King's Tragedy,' 351 
 Poems ( 1 87 1 ), 258 ct seq. 
 1 Rosemary,' 269 
 ' White Ship, The,' 345 
 Rossetti, Mrs. I). G. (see Siddall) 
 — Mrs. W. M., 43, 114, 117, 131, 
 
458 
 
 LIFE OF FORD MADOX BROWN 
 
 153, 172, 203, 214, 219, 238, 250, j 
 
 252, 253, 267, 276, 292, 304, 307, ! 
 324, 344, 346, 363, 393, 397 
 
 Rossetti, Miss O. F., 307 
 - Miss Mary, 366 
 
 — Miss H., 369 
 
 — W. M., 20, 41, 50-56, 65, 
 70, 71, 81, 87, in, 114, 117, 118, 
 119, 130, 139, 140, 148, 149, 157, 
 169, 177, 182, 212, 227, 228, 234, 
 245, 267, 273, 274, 276, 284, 292, 
 305, 317, 325, 342, 346 
 
 ' Fine Art, Chiefly Contem- 
 porary,' 284 
 
 Rossetti Memorial, The, 366, 368, 
 375, 380 
 
 ' Rouge et le Noir, Le,' Stendahl, 
 228 
 
 Rowley, Charles, 302, 307, 309, 310, 
 315, 316, 322, 324, 337, 341, 343, 
 
 359, 369 
 Rue des Peignes (Antwerp), 16 
 Rue Marche au Lait, 2 1 
 Ruskin, John, 78, 114, 118, 123, 
 
 144, 150, 151, 152, 159, 285, 287, 
 
 319 
 
 Russell, Lord J., 106, 124, 126 
 
 Salon, The, 30 
 Sandys, F., 182 
 * Sass's,' 79 
 
 'Saturday Review,' 212 
 Scott, C. P., 358, 361,362 
 Scott, Sir W., 8 
 
 Scott, W. B., 78, 115, 129, 166, 181, 
 
 242, 272, 332 
 Seddon, J. P., 79, 87, 97, 109, 114, 
 
 151, 237, 239 
 
 — Thomas, 57, 79, 87, 88, 89, 90, 
 93, 99, 120, 122, 131, 132, 133, 
 149 el seq., 206, 210 
 
 Sevastopol, t 17 
 Sheffield, G., 335 
 
 Shelley, P. B., 94, 266, 267, 268 
 Shields, F., 146, 207, 238, 242, 243, 
 250, 253, 257, 258, 264, 270, 272, 
 273, 274, 276, 294, 301, 302, 303, 
 307, 308, 310, 313, 315, 316, 320, 
 321, 322, 330, 333, 334, 335, 337, 
 343, 346, 35o, 355, 356, 361, 362, 
 363, 365, 368, 374, 376, 381, 39i, 
 393, 395, 396 
 Eaton Hall, Stained Glass at, 
 
 343, 344 
 
 Hide, 252 
 
 Solomon Eagle, 252 
 
 Siddall, Miss E., 113, 123,124, 150, 
 
 151, 181, 188 
 Skelton's 'Table-Talk of Shirley,' 
 
 124 
 
 Slade Professorship, 276 et seq. 
 Slepe Hall, 126 
 Smetham, J., 270, 288 
 Snoox, Athanasius, 194, 196 
 South London School of Art, 35 
 Southend, 48 
 
 Spartali, Miss M., 204, 214, 253, 
 
 267, 307 
 ' Spectator,' 84 
 Stanhope, S., 165, 216 
 Stanley, E., 84 
 
 St. Edmund's Terrace, 382, 390 
 
 et seq. 
 St. Helena, 8 
 
 Stephens, F. G., 65, 81, 87, 109, 
 119, 214, 237, 241, 250, 317, 357, 
 395 
 
 Sterling, John, J55 
 
 Stillman (Mrs.) {see Spartali, Miss) 
 
 St. Ives, 126 et seq. 
 
 Stockwell, 74 
 
 Stone, Frank, 78, 85, 180 
 
 Stratford-on-Avon, 57, 59 
 
 Swinburne, A. C, 147, 210, 214, 
 
 241, 258, 270, 303, 344 
 Sydney Art Gallery, 240, 307, 359 
 
INDEX 
 
 459 
 
 Taylor, Thomas, 95, 224, 309 
 Tebbs, H. V., 215 
 Tenniel, Sir J., 38 
 Tennyson, Lord Alfred, 118, 121, 
 258 
 
 Thierry, Auguste, 33 
 Thomas, W. Cave, 53, 55, 62, 78, 
 90,91, 109, 119, 125, 151, 166, 
 
 214, 391 
 Tintoretto, 340 
 Titian, 44, 285 
 Tonge, 137 
 
 Tourgeneff, J., 241, 319 
 
 Tudor Lodge, 37, 38 
 
 Turner, J. M. W., 65, 102, 104, 128, 
 
 237, 406 
 ' Twain, Mark,' 241 
 
 * Universal Review,' 45 
 Upton, 180, 216 
 
 Valencia, 85 
 Vanderhelst, 305 
 Vandermeer, 305 
 Vandyke, 305 
 Vasari, 340 
 
 Vaudois, The, 311, 312, 313 
 Venice, 41 
 
 Victoria Park (Manchester), 364 et 
 seq. 
 
 i Vi?igt, Soc. des,' 392 
 Volunteers, Artists' Camp, 166 
 Von Hoist, 51 
 
 Wales, 9, 12 
 
 Wales, Prince of, 211, 381 
 
 Walker, F., 241, 314 
 
 Wappers, Baron G., 15, 22, 29, 30, 
 
 38, 93, 403, 404, 405 
 Ward, E. M., 318 
 W r arren, F., 117 
 
 Waterhouse, E., 322, 333, 350, 365 
 Watson, J. D., 144 
 Watts, G. F., 355, 395 
 Watts-Dunton, W. T., 174, 337, 
 
 344, 347 
 Waugh, E., 366 
 Webb, P., 177, 215 
 Westminster Hall Competition, &c, 
 
 32-36 
 
 Westminster Technical Institute, 33 
 W 7 histler, J. McN., 241, 280 
 Whitcomb, Mr., 23 
 White, D., 67, 101, 106, 114, 115, 
 
 116, 118, 120, 129, 136, 181, 214 
 Whitman, Walt, 264 
 WicklifTe, Lives of, 367 
 Windus, G. B., 101, 120, 137, 151 
 — W. L., no, 124, 129, 138, 
 
 159, *7i 
 
 ' Bard Helen ' 
 
 Woodward, 147, 153 
 
 Woolner, Thomas, 91, 93, 99, 108, 
 
 109, 114, 121, 124, 126, 130, 133, 
 
 134, 135, 137, 150, 153 
 
 Tennyson, 121, 150 
 
 Bacon, 134, 135, 150 
 
 The Father Curbing the Pas- 
 sions o f the Boy, 1 24 
 ! Woolstonecraft, Mary, 130 
 Working Men's College, 151, 159, 
 196, 364, 425 etscq. 
 
 Yarmouth, 238, 239 
 
 Spottisxvoode & C0. Printers, New-street Square, London. 
 
REPRODUCTIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CARTOONS 
 
 BY 
 
 FORD MADOX BROWN. 
 
 Mr. Harold Rathbone having secured, at the sale of the effects of the 
 late Ford Madox Brown, a valuable series of his original Cartoons, has 
 had a selection of them reproduced by the Autotype Company, London. 
 
 The Portfolio consists of 20 Plates, measuring 18 by 24 inches. 
 
 Price Ten Guineas. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS, &c . 
 
 THE A THEN AH U M . 
 
 1 These reproductions are remarkably successful, and exhibit the painter in a thoroughly 
 characteristic manner. They are instinct with style — that rare element in modern decor -rive 
 art — vigour, and originality ; and when grace is demanded, grace of a stately kind. They 
 are, in fact, models in their way, and we recommend them to the study of all who care for 
 what is Fine Art in our own time, and as excellently adapted for use in art factories and 
 schools of all sorts ; and particularly for the walls of painters' studios.' 
 
 THE MAGAZINE OF ART. 
 
 ' There is in them a display, not only of originality and breadth, but of a sense of 
 decoration at once dramatic and discreet, that renders the possession of a portfolio of these 
 reproductions a desideratum in all our schools of drawing and design.' 
 
 ' Department of Prints and Drawings, 
 Dear Mr. Rathbone, 'British Museum, London, W.C. 
 
 ' I am much obliged to you for letting me see the series of Autotype Reproductions 
 which you propose to publish after a selection of Cartoons for stained glass by the late Ford 
 Madox Brown. I have at once ordered a copy for this department, and hope that all the 
 libraries and art institutions through the country may do likewise. 
 
 Yours sincerely, SIDNEY COLVIN.' 
 
 ' My Dear Mr. Rathbone. 
 
 ' I think your scheme excellent of issuing a series of photographic reproductions of 
 the very valuable and interesting Cartoons of that most original and individual of modern 
 English artists. Ford Madox Brown. 
 
 ' It will give opportunities to his admirers to possess some of his finest and most 
 characteristic designs in convenient form, and should be most useful to all students and 
 schools of art. 'Wishing you every success to your enterprise, 
 
 ' Believe me, very truly yours. 
 
 'WALTER CRANE.' 
 ' I am delighted to see that you had some of the admirable Cartoons of Madox Brown 
 reproduced ; they are very representative, and I trust that they will spread the knowledge of 
 an art we all respect so much. ' Yours sincerely, L. ALMA TADEMA.' 
 
 ' The designs for stained-glass windows made by Ford Madox Brown for execution by 
 M r. William Morris I regard as eminently fine examples of invention and composition, full 
 of breadth of originality. No finer examples could be found for the study of art students in 
 Government Schools. ' W. HOLMAN HUNT.' 
 
 ' I think it would be a great pity if some public body were not to secure the Brown 
 Cartoons now they are to be had, being such characteristic work of such a characteristic 
 master. ' Yours very truly, WILLIAM MORRIS.' 
 
 MAY BE OBTAINED FROM 
 
 The AUTOTYPE COMPANY, 74 New Oxford Street, London, W.C. 
 
 OR FROM 
 
 Mr. HAROLD RATHBONE, 58 PIamilton Square, Birkenhead. 
 
ft/ 1 7 1 C 
 
GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 
 
 3 3125 00759 3540