ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

much annoyance.' 27 During the late 1840s and early 1850s Brown seems to have
worked for the Dickinsons on a regular basis. But, as Virginia Surtees notes
it is difficult to come to any clear understanding of Brown's work for the
Dickinson's. He regarded it as hackwork … while his grandson referred
to it as being "not actually degrading. Brown's part was to 'pull the
pictures together' another artist doing the actual enlarging". In the portrait
of Lord John Russell (National Portrait Gallery) … signed by Lowes
Dickinson [a dealer and portraitist] and dated '1855,' Brown did more than
pull it together, he appears to have designed and painted the
composition. 28
However, in 1849 they commissioned him to paint an historical portrait, of his own
design, of William Shakespeare (1850, oil on canvas, Manchester City Art Gallery)
'for lithographic reproduction.' 29 Both artist and employer appear to have been
pleased with the results of this collaboration. To celebrate the brothers held a private
view of the portrait at their premises at 114 New Bond Street. As Brown recalled in
his diary he 'designed a card for Dickinson Exhibition of Shakespear [sic] on which I
worked several days for no renumeration.' 30 The Birmingham collection holds a copy
of this wood engraved invitation (cat. no. 131) which shows greater confidence and
fluidity than the etching but perhaps this is not surprising as Brown would not have
engraved the design himself but would have relied upon a trained wood engraver to
27 Op. cit. at note 19, p. 72.
28 Ibid., p. 162.
29 Ibid, p. 69.
30 Ibid., p. 72.
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