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ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

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Cat. no. 118 Poets <strong>of</strong> the Nineteenth Century: The Prisoner <strong>of</strong> Chillon: Study <strong>of</strong> a<br />

Corpse, 1856<br />

Verso: Designs for Decoration, c. 1856<br />

Pencil; 165 x 280 mm<br />

Insc. in pencil br.: FMB <strong>University</strong> Hospital / Study for prisoner <strong>of</strong> / Chillon / from<br />

Corpse FMB<br />

Lit.: Reid, p. 49; Whitley, p.42; Rodney Engen, Pre-Raphaelite Prints, 1995, pp. 108-109;<br />

Victorian Illustration, p. 10; Laura MacCulloch, 'Forgotten Images: The Illustrations<br />

<strong>of</strong><br />

Ford Madox Brown' in Ford Madox Brown: The Un<strong>of</strong>ficial Pre-Raphaelite, p. 33<br />

Exh.: Ford Madox Brown, 1964 (78); Death, Heaven and the Victorians, Brighton<br />

Museum and Art Gallery, 1970 (47);<br />

Byron, Victoria and Albert Museum, 197 (S25);<br />

Lord Byron, Biblioteca Classense, Ravenna, 1988 (Fig. 103, no cat. no.); Visions (37);<br />

The Quick and the Dead: Artists<br />

and Anatomy, Royal College <strong>of</strong> Art, 1997 (37);<br />

Exposed: The Victorian Nude, Tate, London, 2001-2002 (114); Ford Madox Brown: The<br />

Un<strong>of</strong>ficial<br />

Pre-Raphaelite (35)<br />

Prov.: James Richardson Holliday<br />

Bequeathed by James Richardson Holliday, 1927 (1927P352)<br />

In order to make his illustration as realistic as possible Brown asked his friend John<br />

Marshall, an assistant surgeon at <strong>University</strong> College Hospital, London, to arrange access<br />

to a cadaver. Brown spent two days making this study <strong>of</strong> the dead body, arranging the<br />

corpse as he wanted it, even including a rope to stand in for the chain that ties the dead<br />

brother to the wall. On 13 April 1856 he described the sombre task in his diary:<br />

Out<br />

shopping, then to <strong>University</strong> hospital to ask John Marshall about a dead<br />

boddy [sic]. He got the one that will just do. It was in the vaults under the<br />

dissecting room. When I saw it first, what with the dim light,<br />

the <strong>brown</strong> &<br />

parchment<br />

like appearance <strong>of</strong> it & the shaven head, I took it for a wooden<br />

imulation [sic] <strong>of</strong> the thing. Often as I have seen horrors I really did not<br />

remember how hideous the shell <strong>of</strong> a poor creature may remain when the<br />

substance<br />

contained is fled. Yet we both in our joy at the obtainment <strong>of</strong> what<br />

we<br />

sought declared it to be lovely & a splendid corps [sic]. Marshall<br />

evidently loves a thing <strong>of</strong> the kind. 165<br />

The n ext day he finished the study noting with a sense <strong>of</strong> macabre, 'draw the corps [sic]<br />

till ½ past 2. Got on quite merrily & finished it 2 hours sooner than was obligate on me.<br />

As I was going met Marshall who could not keep away from the sweets <strong>of</strong> the charnel<br />

house<br />

.' 166<br />

165 Op. cit. at note 2, p. 167.<br />

166 Ibid.<br />

268

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