Information
This smaller version of 'Work' was commissioned by James Leathart in 1859 for £315. It was completed in 1863, the same year as the original (now in Manchester Art Gallery). The two compositions are close though Brown notably replaced the portrait of his wife Emma, who sat for the lady holding a blue parasol on the left, with a portrait of Maria Leathart, wife of his patron.The subject for Work was thought up in 1852 and the original painting was commissioned in 1856 by T. E. Plint. The composition centres around navies laying sewage pipes in Hampstead, London. These are the heroes of modern life who represent 'the outward and visible type of work.' To the right are the 'brainworkers:' F. D. Maurice, preacher and founder of the Working Men's College, and the essayist Thomas Carlyle. Behind them lie the Irish and itinerant workers who sleep because they can find no work. To the left is an impoverished flower seller let down by the fact that he has never 'been taught to work' and a lady carrying out religious work, distributing tracts (Ford Madox Brown, The Exhibition of 'Work' and other Paintings, 1865, pp. 8-9). The painting also includes those who have no need to work including a rich man and his daughter at the back of the scene on horseback. The ideas expressed in the painting show the influence of Carlyle's writings and the sociological concepts which Henry Mayhew published in London Labour and the London Poor (1851). In 1866 Leathart lent the painting to the Mechanics' Institute in Newcastle where it was unfavourably described as 'one of the extraordinary mistakes of the present day' in the 'Newcastle Daily Journal.'LM The subject, of work in all its forms, was inspired by Brown seeing navvies at work laying drains. Each character or group is of symbolic significance, from the navvies representing physical work to the gentleman and his daughter on horseback who are rich enough not to have to work. The young lady giving out religious tracts is doing 'God's work', while the itinerant farm workers fall asleep under the trees are destitute for the want of work.The two gentlemen on the right were described by the artist as the 'brainworkers' who seem to be idle, but they are the source of social reform and prosperity. The potboy with his beer tray carries a copy of 'The Times' under his arm. Literacy was seen as the key to social improvement and political power for the working class. The Masonic symbols of trowel and set-square in the foreground represent another means of advancement for tradesmen.
- Bequeathed by James Richardson Holliday, 1927.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
Association |
Artist |
Organisation |
Artist |
Ford Madox Brown |
- |
Inscriptions
Type |
Position(s) |
Method |
Date(s) |
Notes |
F Madox Brown 1863 |
Signature and date |
bottom right |
Painted |
1863 |
Red paint. |
|
Exhibitions
Catalogue No. |
Venue |
Date(s) |
Loan Collection of Works by English Pre-Raphaelite Painters lent by the Art Gallery Committee of the Birmingham Corporation |
27 |
National Gallery British Art (now Tate Gallery, London) |
1911-12 - 1912-03 |
|
Cartwright Memorial Hall: Coming of Age |
56 |
Cartwright Memorial Hall, Bradford |
1925 - 1925 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood |
11 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
1947 - 1947 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites - Their Friends and their Followers |
11 |
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Liverpool |
1948-06-14 - 1948-08-29 |
|
English Paintings from Birmingham |
58 |
Agnew's, London |
1957 - 1957 |
|
Primitives to Picasso |
198 |
Royal Academy, London |
1962 - 1962 |
|
Peintures et Aquarelles Anglaises, 1700-1900, du Musée de Birmingham |
89 |
Musée des Beaux Arts, Lyons |
1966-10-23 - 1966-11-20 |
|
British Royal Family Exhibition |
89 |
Seibu Department Store, Tokyo |
1967-10-06 - 1967-10-18 |
|
Paintings from the Leathart Collection |
20 |
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle |
1968-10-07 - 1968-11-18 |
|
Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881 |
11 |
National Portrait Gallery, London |
1981-09-25 - 1981-01-10 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Art from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
3 |
Hong Kong Museum of Art |
1984 - 1984 |
|
Londoners |
- |
Museum of London |
1987-04-28 - 1987-08-02 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Painters and Patrons in the North East |
13 |
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne |
1989 - 1990 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
74 |
Seattle Art Museum |
1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07 |
74 |
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16 |
74 |
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington |
1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15 |
74 |
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas |
1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02 |
74 |
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia |
1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10 |
74 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
1996-05-26 - 1996-09-29 |
|
Work, Rest and Play |
- |
Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery |
2007-01-27 - 2007-04-15 |
- |
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne |
2007-04-28 - 2007-07-15 |
- |
National Gallery, London |
2007-07-26 - 2007-10-14 |
|
British Vision: Observation and Imagination in British Art 1750-1950 |
22 |
Ghent Museum of Fine Arts |
2007 - 2008 |
|
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite |
39 |
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery |
2008-08-27 - 2008-12-14 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
57 |
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
2009-02-26 - 2009-05-24 |
|
Literature
Author(s) |
Date(s) |
Publisher |
Pages |
Loan Collection of Works by English Pre-Raphaelite Painters lent by the Art Gallery Committee of the Birmingham Corporation |
|
1911 |
National Gallery British Art, London |
pp. 9-10 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites - Their Friends and their Followers |
|
1948 |
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight |
p. 6 |
|
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham: Catalogue of Paintings |
|
1960 |
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham |
- |
|
The Listener |
Michael Kitson |
1965-09-09 |
- |
pp. 382-383 |
|
Paintings from the Leathart Collection |
|
1968 |
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle |
pp. 10-11 |
|
Victorian Artists in the City |
E. D. H. Johnson |
1980 |
Pergamon Press, New York, Oxford |
pp. 142-151 |
|
Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881 |
Richard Ormond |
1981 |
National Portrait Gallery, London |
pp. 12-13 |
|
Londoners |
Celina Fox |
1987 |
Museum of London |
pp. 180-262; repr. p. 180 |
|
Classroom Gallery |
John West, Linda Burridge |
1992 |
Elm Publications, Huntingdon, Cambrigdeshire |
pp. 290-294; repr. p. 290 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Painters and Patrons in the North East |
|
1989 |
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne |
- |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
Stephen Wildman |
1995 |
Art Services International |
pp. 233-234, ill. p. 235 |
|
Re-framing the Pre-Raphaelites |
Colin Trodd |
1996 |
Scolar Press, Aldershot |
pp. 61-80 |
|
The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites |
Elizabeth Prettejohn |
2000 |
Tate Publishing, London |
pp. 233 ff.; repr. Fig. 184, details 232, Fig. 199 |
|
Work: Ford Madox Brown's Painting and Victorian Life |
John Walker |
2006 |
Francis Boutle Publishers, London |
pp.34 ff.; repr. p. 43 |
|
Work, Rest and Play |
|
2007 |
National Gallery Company, London |
p. 10; repr. p. 10 |
|
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite |
Laura MacCulloch, Tessa Sidey |
2008 |
D. Giles Limited |
pp. 29-30, 58; repr. p. 17 |
|
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite |
Tim Barringer |
2008 |
D. Giles Limited |
pp. 29-30 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
|
2009 |
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
Cat.57, p.179; fig.40 |
Provenance
Commissioned from the artist by James Leathart in November 1859; Harry Quilter; his sale Christie's 7 April 1906 (22); bought by Whitworth Wallis for J. R. Holliday. |
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