This is a study for the head of the widow in Brown's cartoon 'The Spirit of Justice'. The allegorical subject depicted a widow, whose husband has been murdered by a baron, appealing to Justice, who is depicted seated on high and surrounded by her counsellors. Brown completed most of the cartoon in Paris in 1844 and entered it in the 1845 competition to decorate six arched spaces in the House of Lords. The committee limited the subjects to three allegorical subjects, Religion, Justice and the Spirit of Chivalry, and three histories illustrating these themes: the Baptism of Ethelbert, Prince Henry acknowledging the authority of Chief Justice Gascoigne, and Edward the Black Prince receiving the Order of the Garter from Edward III. These subjects were chosen to reflect the functions of the House of Lords and the relation in which it stands to the Sovereign.In this drawing Brown has studied the light and shade of each fold of the widow's head scarf and the foreshortening needed to portray her head as she looks up to the assembled figures pleading for justice. On the back of a study for one of the apostles in The Ascension is a sketch of a young child, standing upright and looking up (1906P696). This appears to be the Widow's child who is depicted clinging to her skirts in the final cartoon. LM

• Presented by Harold Hartley, 1905.
• © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery