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 |
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