Information

Ford Madox Brown made two illustrations for 'Downstream' a poem by Rossetti published in 1871 in the short-lived magazine 'The Dark Blue.' The poem tells the tale of a woman seduced and left pregnant by a man on the first of May. By the first of June the next year she has drowned herself and her baby in desperation. Rossetti was evidently very pleased with the illustrations and wrote to tell his brother William: 'I'm Dark Blued at last, owing to Brown, who was asked to illustrate something of mine for them if I would contribute' (Letter dated September 10, 1871 in W. M. Rossetti, ed., Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family-Letters, vol. 2, p. 246). To Brown he enthused, 'I expect to see you in a few days, but must meanwhile write to say how very excellent I think your drawing in 'Dark Blue.' It is like a tenderer kind of Hogarth and seems to me the most successful of your book illustrations' (F. M. Hueffer, Ford Madox Brown: A Record of his life and Works, pp. 263-64). The main illustration shows the scene of seduction and for Hueffer was 'by far the most powerful-perhaps the most powerful of Madox Brown's 'amorous' designs.'LM

  • Presented by Charles Fairfax Murray, 1912.
  • © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Makers

Association Artist Organisation
After a design by Ford Madox Brown -
Engraver C M Jenkin -
Publisher - British and Colonial Publishing Company

Inscriptions

Type Position(s) Method Date(s) Notes
Insc bl image: Jenkin Sc/ br image: FMB [monogram] / bl below image: DRAWN BY F. MADOX BROWN / bc below image: 'DOW[NS]TREAM' [SOME LETTERS WORN AWAY] / br below image: ENGRAVED BY C. M. JENKIN
Inscription body Engraved 1871
 

Exhibitions

Catalogue No. Venue Date(s)
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite
47 Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery 2008-08-27 - 2008-12-14
 

Literature

Author(s) Date(s) Publisher Pages
The Dark Blue
October 1871, vol.ii British and Colonial Publishing Company, Limited pp. 211-212
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family Letters
William Michael Rossetti 1895 Ellis & Elvey, London vol. 2 p. 246
 
Ford Madox Brown: A Record of his Life and Works
F M Hueffer 1896 Longmans, Green and Co., London pp. 263-264
 
English Illustration: 'The Sixties 1855-70'
Gleeson White 1897 Archibald Constable and Co., London p. 81
 
The Victorian Woodblock Illustrators
Eric de Maré 1980 Gordon Fraser, London p. 113; repr. p. 114
 
Pocket Cathedrals: Pre-Raphaelite Book Illustration
Susan P Casteras 1991 Yale Center for British Art, New Haven p. 15
 
Pre-Raphaelite Prints
Rodney Engen 1995 Lund Humphries, London p. 109
 
Victorian Illustration: the Pre-Raphaelites, the Idyllic School and the High Victorians
Paul Goldman 1996 Scolar Press, Aldershot pp. 9-10, 274, 370
 
Resuscitating Ophelia: Images of Suicide and suicidal Insanity in nineteenth-century England
Lisa Nicoletti 1999 Univeristy of Wisconsin, USA pp. 169-170
 
Resuscitating Ophelia: Images of Suicide and suicidal Insanity in nineteenth-century England
Lisa Nicoletti 1999 Univeristy of Wisconsin, USA pp. 169-270
 
The British Pre-Raphaelite Illustrators
Gregory Suriano 2005 Oak Knell Press and the British Library, Newcastle, USA, and London, UK pp. 65, 306; repr. p. 69
 
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite
Laura MacCulloch, Tessa Sidey 2008 D. Giles Limited, London pp. 59-60, 66; repr. p. 21
 
Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite
2008 D. Giles Limited, London p. 13

Associated people

Name Type
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Author

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