Information
This portrait study of Emma was made around Christmas 1852 with Emma continuing to model for The Last of England well into the New Year. Brown records Emma 'at the beginning of /53 ... coming to sit ... in the most inhuman weather from Highgate. This work representing an out door scene without sunlight I painted at it chiefly out of doors when snow was lieing [sic] on the ground' (Virginia Surtees, ed., 'The Diary of Ford Madox Brown,' p. 80).LMWhilst working on the painting in 1853 Brown spent four weeks on 'the madder ribbons of the bonnet' which are depicted being blown by the fierce wind. However, in this early head study of Emma, her ribbons are neatly tied and her hair lacks the windswept strands found in both the cartoon (1906P795) and the painting, suggesting that this study was done purely to capture Emma's likeness, which Brown was intent on portraying faithfully. However, capturing it in paint seems to cause him a considerable amount of trouble, with references in his diary to alterations made because the head appeared to be 'very bad & made [him] miserable' (Virginia Surtees, ed., 'The Diary of Ford Madox Brown,' pp. 129, 134). A preparatory sketch for the oil painting 'The Last of England'. Brown met Matilda Hill, known as Emma, by 1848. She was the daughter of a bricklayer who had moved to London during the 1830s. Although a child, Catherine, was born in 1850, Emma and Brown did not marry until 1853.
- Purchased and presented by subscribers, 1906.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
Association |
Artist |
Organisation |
Artist |
Ford Madox Brown |
- |
Inscriptions
Type |
Position(s) |
Method |
Date(s) |
Notes |
FMB Dec 52 |
Monogram |
bottom left |
Handwritten |
1852 |
Chalk. |
|
Exhibitions
Catalogue No. |
Venue |
Date(s) |
Exhibition of British Art c. 1000-1860 |
1251 |
Royal Academy of Arts, London |
1934-01-06 - 1934-03-10 |
|
English Drawings and Engravings |
37 |
Museum Toma Stelian, Bucharest |
1935 - 1935 |
37 |
Vienna |
1936 - 1936 |
37 |
Prague |
1936 - 1936 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings |
42 |
Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London |
1947-09 - 1947-09 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings and Watercolours |
6 |
Cambridge Arts Council Gallery |
1953-05-16 - 1953-10-24 |
6 |
Norwich Assembly Rooms |
1953-05-16 - 1953-10-24 |
6 |
Hatton Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne |
1953-05-16 - 1953-10-24 |
|
British Portraits |
738 |
Royal Academy of Arts, London |
1956 - 1957 |
|
Ford Madox Brown 1821-1893 |
72 |
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
1964 - 1964 |
|
- |
- |
Midlands Arts Centre |
1968 - 1968 |
|
British Portraits |
- |
Museum of Art of the Socialist Republic of Romania |
1972 - 1972 |
- |
Hungary |
1972 - 1973 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
179 |
Tate Gallery, London |
1984-03 - 1984 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Women |
4 |
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery |
1985-10-09 - 1986-01-02 |
4 |
Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery |
1986-09-13 - 1986-10-19 |
|
Sacred Bond: images of motherhood |
- |
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery |
1990-09-22 - 1990-11-18 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, EnglandVisions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
21 |
Seattle Art Museum |
1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07 |
21 |
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16 |
21 |
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington |
1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15 |
21 |
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas |
1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02 |
21 |
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia |
1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10 |
21 |
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery |
1996-05-26 - 1996-09-29 |
|
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite |
29 |
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery |
2008-08-27 - 2008-12-14 |
|
Literature
Author(s) |
Date(s) |
Publisher |
Pages |
Ford Madox Brown: A Record of his Life and Works |
F M Hueffer |
1896 |
Longmans, Green and Co., London |
repr. p. 447 et seq |
|
Twelve English Pre-Raphaelite Drawings |
Unknown |
1925 |
Methuen & Company, London |
pl. 3 |
|
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings |
A E Whitley |
1939 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
p. 42 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings |
|
1947 |
Roland, Browse & Delbanco, London |
p. 11 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings and Watercolours |
|
1953 |
Arts Council of Great Britain, London |
p. 6 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Portraits |
Andrea Rose |
1981 |
The Oxford Illustrated Press, Oxford |
p. 21; repr. p. 21 |
|
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite |
Laura MacCulloch, Tessa Sidey |
2008 |
D. Giles Limited, London |
p. 55, 67; repr. p. 18 |
|
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite |
Angela Thirlwell |
2008 |
D. Giles Limited, London |
p. 12 |
Associated people
Related work & resources
Discuss this work
|