ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

Manchester A.D. 1363 which was completed in 1882. 104 This mural was one of a series
of twelve Brown painted to decorate Manchester
Town Hall between 1878 and 1893.
This is one of seven drawings given to BMAG by the collector Harold Hartley (1851-
1943) (see also cat. nos. 132, 138-142). His particular interest was book illustration of
the 1860s and the bulk of his collection was purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston in 1955.
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Cat. no. 79 Female: Two Studies of young Woman
in eighteenth-century Costume, 1849
Pencil;
375 x 232 mm
Insc. bl.: Ford M Brown London/49
Lit.: Twelve English Pre-Raphaelite
Drawings, 1925, ill. pl. 4; Whitley, p. 45
Exh.: Arts & Crafts, 1896 (445); Grafton, 1897
(173); Pre-Raphaelite Drawings, Roland
Browse & Delbanco, London, 1947 ( 37); Pre-Raphaelite Drawings and Watercolours,
Cambridge Arts Council Gallery, 1953 (4); Artists of Victoria's England, Cummer
Gallery of Art, Jacksonville, 1965 (5); Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-
Raphaelite (23)
Prov.: Charles Fairfax Murray
Presented by Subscribers, 1906 (1906P677)
The eighteenth-century costume in these two
delightful drawings of a young woman is
almost
certainly that worn by the young mother in Brown’s painting Infant’s Repast
which he was finishing in January and February 1849 (Fig. 166). In both works the
fabric is striped, the dress has a plunging neckline and three-quarter-length sleeves with
flowing cuffs, and the young women wear roses in their hair. It is possible that Mrs
Ashley, the model for Infant’s Repast, also sat for these drawings (see cat. nos. 80 and
81). In these drawings the model sits awkwardly in an armchair giving the impression of
being restless and uncomfortable. If the model was indeed Mrs Ashley, Brown’s first
description of her as someone who ‘let the fire out 3 times & talked all day’ seems rather
apt for the fidgetly woman depicted in these drawings. 105
On the left side of the sheet there are traces of an erased pencil inscription which appears
to be a name and address. Very few of the letters and numbers are still visible but the
writing may have given details of the model. 106
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104
Conversation with the author 7 August 2007.
105
Op. cit. at note 2, p. 27.
106
'It is likely that [the inscription] was written by the artist - a '4' can be seen which looks identical to the
date written in brown ink, close
by' (Gill Casson, BMAG Conservation Report, 02.05.2008).
243