ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

studies indicate that he also planned to include more elaborate architecture below the
medallions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE ASCENSION
Related Works:
Forbes Magazine Collection
The Ascension, 1844-1845, oil on canvas
Location Unknown
The Ascension: Study for the Figure of Christ, insc. in pencil: FMB Paris/43
National Gallery of Art, Washington
The Ascension: Study of an Apostle, 1844, black chalk, 1987.73.1
Cat. no. 4 The Ascension, 1844 - 1900
Albumen print; 175 x 80 mm
Lit.: Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite, p. 64
Found unaccessioned (1978P512)
This is a photograph of an oil sketch of The Ascension (Fig. 43) begun by Brown whilst
living in Paris in 1844 and finished later that year when he moved to England with his
first wife Elisabeth (1818/19-1846). He entered it into a competition to design an
altarpiece of the Ascension of Christ for the Church of St. James, Bermondsey (South
London). He was unsuccessful and the commission was given to the British artist John
Wood (1801-1877) whose winning design still hangs in the church. In 1845 Brown
submitted the painting to the British Institution but it was rejected. It remained in his
possession until the 1880s when it was bought, along with many other early works, by his
Manchester patron Henry Boddington. 8 The exact date and purpose of this photograph
are unknown.
Cat. no. 5 The Ascension: Study of Angels and Hands, 1844
Brown pen and ink over pencil; 360 x 178 mm
Insc. b.: Different sketches for a design of the Ascension Paris / Ford M Brown/44
Lit.: Hueffer, ill. p. 447 et seq.; Whitley, p. 28; Newman and Watkinson, ill. pl. 22; Ford
Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite, p. 64
Exh.: Arts & Crafts, 1896 (441 ?) 9
Prov.: Charles Fairfax Murray
Presented by Subscribers, 1906 (1906P668)
8
Christie’s, The Forbes Collection of Victorian Pictures and Works of Art, London, 19-20 February, 2003,
vol. 3, p. 218.
9
No. 441 included multiple works. It is described in the catalogue as 'Studies for "Ascension, " 1844 First
sketch for "Chaucer," 1845 Sketch for "Oure Ladye of Saturday Night," 1846 Head of Wycliffe, 1847 Lent
by C. Fairfax Murray, Esq' (Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, New Gallery, London, 1896, p. 105). It is not
clear which of the studies for The Ascension were included and for the sake of brevity the exhibition has
been added to the exhibition history of only the first sketch.
200