ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

From these suggestions the obscure subject of The Death of Eglon was agreed (cat.
nos. 62-64). Brown completed Elijah and the Widow's Son by early March 1864 and
Joseph's Coat by early October of the same year. 79 After this he told the Dalziel
Brothers, 'If you wish it I can now go on & do you 2 or 3 off hand without stopping.
The subject I should like to begin would be Rahab letting the spies down from the
window Joshua II.15, or Ehud saying to Eglon King Moab, "I have a message to thee
from God" Judges III 17.20.' 80 Despite his enthusiasm they must have asked him to
complete only The Death of Eglon as the subject of Rahab letting the spies down from
the window did not appear in the Bible Gallery. The three completed illustrations
certainly impressed the Dalziels, who wrote in their memoirs:
Of Ford Madox Brown’s three contributions we have chosen “Elijah and
the Widow’s Son,” as being not only an original conception of the subject,
but perhaps one of the most beautiful specimens of manipulative skill he
ever produced. He called it an etching, and so it was to all intents, it being
perfectly pure line work. Although more beautiful, it is in no way finer
than “Joseph’s Coat,” or “The Death of Eglon.” 81
The earlier German bible inspired several of the artists hired by the Dalziels.
Frederick Richard Pickersgill (1820-1900) was particularly impressed by Schnorr's
designs and the classical simplicity of his illustration Rahab and the Spies (Fig. 145)
mirrors that found in The Bible in Pictures. At least one of the illustrations Brown
chose to design had a predecessor in Schnorr's bible. In Elijah reviving the Son of the
79
Letters from Ford Madox Brown to the Dalziel Brothers dated 9 March and 12 October 1864 (British
Library ADD/MSS/39168H53-54).
80
Letter from Ford Madox Brown to the Dalziel Brothers dated 12 October 1864 (British Library
ADD/MSS/39168H54)
81
Op. cit. at note 43, p. 252.
167