ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

The hand studies, the figure of the page slumped over, and the head of a man wearing a
crown of leaves do not appear to have been used in the final version and may have been
early experiments in pose and character.
Cat. no. 20 Chaucer at the Court of Edward III: Nude Studies for the Figures of Byron,
Shakespeare and Burns, 1845
Black chalk; 294 x 328 mm
Insc. br.: Ford M Brown Rome/45
Lit.: Whitley, p. 32
Exh: Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial
Pre-Raphaelite (9)
Prov.: Charles Fairfax Murray
Presented
by Subscribers, 1906 (1906P705)
These life studies are for the full-length figures of Byron, Burns and Shakespeare from
the wings of The Seeds and Fruits
of English Poetry (Figs. 1 and 77). The blockish
simplicity of the nudes is unusual in Brown’s oeuvre and suggests that he was inspired
by
the muscularity of the classical sculpture he saw in Rome.
Cat.
no. 21 Chaucer at the Court of Edward III: Drapery Study for Burns, 1847
Black chalk; 355 x 212 mm
Insc. bl.: Ford M Brown London/47
Lit.: Whitley, p. 33; Ford Madox Brown:
The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite, p. 64
Prov.: Charles Fairfax Murray
Presented by Subscribers, 1906 (1906P744)
his rather abstract-looking drapery study shows the intensity of Brown’s preparations
rns and at the top Brown has added lines
indicate his tartan sash. Brown writes about drawing the drapery for Burns in his diary.
the
ies for Robert Burns in the Lay figure - sweated over it till dark but got it to do at
noted ‘finished the plaid and began drawing for the robe of
shed the following afternoon. 40 T
for a painting and his close observation of minute details such as the fall of the fabric. It
is a study for the full-length figure of Robert Bu
to
On 9 September he wrote, 'bought some plaid draperies … set about arranging
draper
last.'
This one of two
Burns drawn a year apart (see also cat. no. 50).
39 On 14 September he
R.B. [Robert Burns]' which he fini
drapery studies for the figure of
Cat. no. 22 Chaucer at the Court
of Edward III: Study of a right Leg and left Foot for
Milton, 1847
Black
chalk; 294 x 125 mm (s.)
Insc. br.: Ford M Brown London [further writing hidden by mount]
Lit.: Whitley, p. 32; Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite, p. 64
Prov.: Charles Fairfax Murray
Presented by Subscribers, 1906 (1906P711)
39 Op. cit. at note 2, p. 5.
40 Ibid., p. 6.
213