ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

these preparatory studies. Even the touches of white chalk adding a sense of lighting
in Cat, no. 116, a focused study for Parisina’s head, suggest a much more theatrical
lighting in keeping with the macabre works of Fuseli than the naturalistic paintings of
Rembrandt.
Hueffer records that the painting was 'rejected at the exhibition of the French Salon in
1843' with 'a polite accompanying note stating that the subject was too improper for
the walls of the French gallery under Louis Phillippe.' 121 However, the previous year
Thomas Jones Barker (1813-1882), another English artist exhibiting in France and
England, had a painting entitled Parisina accepted by the Salon. The picture was
accompanied by the quotation
…. Aussi insensibles que les morts eux-mêmes à tout ce qui est autour, au-
dessus, au-dessous d'eux, on dirait que ne respirant que l'un pour l'autre, tout le
reste a disparu pour eux …. L'idée de crime, de péril ne leur vient point dans ce
rêve tumultueux de leur tendresse…. 122
It seems as if it was not the subject matter of which the judges disapproved but the
moment Brown chose to depict when the husband discovers his wife's infidelity.
Although the whereabouts of Barker's painting are now unknown, it is possible to gain
display a similar naturalness and sympathy with the child. However, this subject falls outside the remit
of this thesis but would make another fascinating avenue of research.
121 Op. cit. at note 1, p. 30.
122 It was no. 37 in the 1842 Salon (Op. cit. at note 26, vol. 4, p. 73). The quotation in English is: 'And
heedless as the dead are they / Of aught around, above, beneath; / As if all else had pass'd away, / They
only for each other breathe … Of guilt, of peril, do they deem / In that tumultuous tender dream?' (Op.
cit. at note 117, p. 245). Barker was the eldest son of the painter Thomas Barker of Bath. He trained in
France, studying under Horace Vernet (1789-1863), and specialised in history painting. He exhibited
at both the Salon and the RA and was patronised by King Louis Philippe. Like Brown he capitalised
on the popularity of English subjects in France in the 1830s and 1840s. At the 1838 Salon he exhibited
Jane Gray (no. 36, Op. cit. at note 26, vol. 3, p. 212).
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