Information

This is a nude study for the lady being courted by 'a youthful squire' at the extreme left of Brown's huge painting 'Chaucer at the Court of Edward III' (1851, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney). Brown was brought up on the continent and was trained at several art academies in Belguim. Here he was taught to make nude studies before drawing the model clothed. This allowed artists to get the correct pose of the figure before the added complexity of drapery and it was a practice which had been passed down from the Renaissance. There are several female nude 'outlines,' in the collection all signed 1847. These may well have been made from the same professional model, perhaps Miss Chamberlayne. In his diary Brown records her visits to his studio; on 12 October he writes, 'had Miss Chamberlayne all day, a very devil, a very devil, made outlines of the nudes of several female figures.' Two days later she sat for him again and he recorded that this session had gone a little better: 'Miss Chamberlayne come [sic]. ... Made outlines of the nude of the two figures of 'Muses'& several other center figures' (Virginia Surtees, ed., 'The Diary of Ford Madox Brown,' pp. 9-10). The female model who posed for the outlines for the Muses has the same hairstyle as this nude study (see 1906P775 and 1907P776) and is therefore it is likely to be the same person. 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 London/47
Signature and date bottom right Handwritten 1847 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. 65

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