ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

from a darkened Earth to a brilliantly illuminated heaven.’ 80 It is not in the
expressions of the figures that Brown’s knowledge of Fuseli becomes apparent; it is in
the muscularity of the angelic host, their near nakedness and their contorted poses. 81
In particular, the two angels which hover in the middle of the composition, are
strikingly similar to the figure of Galanthis in Fuseli’s drawing Galanthis deceives
Eleithyia by announcing the Birth of Hercules (Fig. 44). These angels appear in two
drawings at BMAG. 82 Like Galanthis they balance on one toe in contorted poses,
their arms outstretched, fingers pointing, draped in robes full of complicated folds
with wild curly hair. It is impossible to know if Brown saw this particular drawing
which was used on a school invitation and was copied by Fuseli’s contemporary
James Northcote. However, Fuseli’s Galanthis certainly represents an ethereal spirit
and her impossible pose suggests unearthly powers which would have interested
Brown for his angelic figures. The long-haired angels in the top tier resemble ethereal
spirits found in two of Fuseli’s paintings: The Death of Dido (Fig. 45) and Queen
Katherine’s Dream (Fig. 46) both exhibited at the RA in 1781. 83 Both pictures show
angelic-looking figures hovering mid-air, with wild hair and loose flowing robes. The
figures in Brown’s drawing of a Group of six flying Angels (cat. no. 7) are highly
reminiscent of these spirits, particularly as his angels appear to have been feminized
like the spirits in the two works by Fuseli. With similarities such as these, it is not
surprising that the drawings for The Ascension were made in the same year as those
80 Stephen Wildman, unpublished label texts at BMAG. See curatorial files on cat. nos. 5-7.
81 The Christie's catalogue entry for the oil sketch shares the view that the poses of the angels appear to
be influenced by Fuseli: 'the wildly exaggerated poses of the angels to either side of Christ, and the
figures of the Virgin and the disciples on the ground are unmistakably Fuselian' (Op. cit. at note 73, p.
218).
82 The drawings must both have been early studies as each has distinct differences from the angels
which appear in the final painting. The angel on the left is seen in both cat. nos. 5 and 6 but in cat. no.
6 it is depicted flying above a group of three other angels which appear in the top tier of the final
version. In addition in cat. no. 6 the angels are depicted with wings but these were omitted in the final
painting.
83 Queen Katherine’s Dream was engraved in 1788 (see op. cit. at note 55, no. 77, p. 78).
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