Chaucer at the Court of Edward III - Early compositional Study / Study for the Figure of Milton and two Designs for Tombstones1845 Accession number: 1906P680 Pencil with iron gall ink on paper. Width: 185 mm Height: 254 mm InformationIn 1845 Ford Madox Brown was in Rome having brought his wife to a gentler climate for health reasons. Inspired by competitions back in England to redecorate the Houses of Parliament in a medieval style, and the nineteenth-century Northern Italian tradition of venerating literary figures, Brown came up with the idea of painting a triptych in honour of English poetry. The original design was to have a central scene of Chaucer reading to Edward III and his Court and two side wings filled with the figures and names of famous British poets. In the end the wings were abandoned as the project had become to big to complete. This is one of two very early compositional studies for the central panel at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Many of the figures in this early drawing appear in the final painting and it is interesting to see how soon Brown had settled on a composition. On the back of the drawing is a sketch for the figure of Milton for the left wing and two tomb designs which are likely to be designs for the headstone of his wife Elizabeth who died in 1846 shortly after Brown made this drawing.LM
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