ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

The picturesque mode not only told the history of the leaders of the nation but aimed
to give an insight into the lives of ordinary people as well as those previously
marginalised, such as Roman Catholics and women. 20 New historical sub-disciplines
were formed such as History of Dress and great emphasis was placed on historical
accuracy which meant using artefacts such as medieval illuminated manuscripts and
new archaeological finds as sources of costume, furniture and details of everyday life.
This in itself made history more visual and publishers such as Charles Knight began
producing heavily illustrated books such as Old England: A pictorial Museum and
James Robinson Planché's British Costume. 21 Studies such as Frederick William
Fairholt's Costume in England described 'the history of the costume of each period'
and unlike the history books of the previous century looked at the lives of all classes
commencing 'with that worn by royalty and nobility' before moving onto 'the dresses
of the middle classes' and finally discussing 'the commonality.' 22 Brown appears to
have been influenced by this desire to show the lives of people from all classes, and
included stable boys, servants and musicians as well as royalty in his scenes of the
past.
Publishers and writers responded to their new middle class readership who devoured
history books. As Strong points out Macaulay's History of England (1849-1861) 'sold
20 Op. cit. at note 14, p. 15.
21 Charles Knight Old England: A pictorial Museum of regal, ecclesiastical, baronial, municipal and
popular Antiquities, 2 vols., London, 1845 and James Robinson Planché, British Costume: A complete
History of the Dress of the Inhabitants of the British Isles, London, 1834.
22 Frederick William Fairholt, Costume in England: A History of Dress from the earliest Period until
the Close of the eighteenth Century, 1st ed., London, 1846, p. xii. As Rosemary Mitchell points out
'most studies of nineteenth-century English historiography tended-and still tend-to concentrate almost
exclusively on the texts of leading nineteenth-century historians, marginalizing the popular, the
fictional and the visual aspects of the historical consciousness' (Op. cit. at note 14, p. 3). Such a narrow
view would be too restrictive in this study of Brown's construction of English history and popular texts
will be discussed. As will be seen Brown used a wide range of historical literature from accounts
written by famous authors such as Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) to the more 'popular'
illustrated histories published by Charles Knight (1791-1873) (Valerie Gray, Charles Knight:
Educator, Publisher, Writer, Aldershot, UK, Burlington, USA, 2006 discusses Knight's publishing
career in detail).
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