Information

The nude figure of a boy holding a triangle is an early study for a similar figure which can be seen in the final painting (1851, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney) sitting on the right of the troubadour but with his head hanging backwards to look at Chaucer. Likewise the standing figure appears in the finished picture but in a slightly different pose holding a sword as well as a shield. The pose of this nude boy is the same as that in the oil study for the abandoned triptych 'The Seeds and Fruits of English Poetry' (1845-51, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) and the two must have been done around the same time. LM

  • 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
Ford M Brown Rome/45
Signature and date bottom right Handwritten 1845 Brown ink.
 

Literature

Author(s) Date(s) Publisher Pages
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings
A E Whitley 1939 Bemrose & Sons Ltd, Derby p. 34
 
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite
Laura MacCulloch, Tessa Sidey 2008 D. Giles Limited, London p. 64

Associated people

Name Type
Geoffrey Chaucer -
King Edward III Relates to
- Relates to

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