Ford Madox Brown
[English Pre-Raphaelite Painter, 1821-1893]
[작업] Work,1852-63
Oil on canvas, 53 15/16 x 77 11/16 in
Manchester City Art Galleries
프랑스 칼레 출생. 빅토리아시대의 대표적 화가의 한 사람으로 젊어서 부르게 ·겐트 ·안트베르펜 ·파리 등지에서 수학하고 1844년부터 영국에 정주했다. 1845년 로마를 방문, 이때 나자레파 화가들과 사귀면서 그들의 종교적이면서도 진지한 예술태도에 감명를 받고, 그것은 D.G.로세티 등으로 전해져 라파엘전파(前派)를 낳게 하는 데 큰 역할을 했다.
그는 그 멤버에는 들지 않았으나 그들 젊은 그룹에 대한 지도적 역할을 한 데서 그의 존재적 의의는 크다. 초기에는 낭만적 ·역사적인 주제를 전통적인 수법으로 그렸으나 점차 종교적 ·사회적인 주제로 기울어갔고, 만년에는 표현에 과장과 테포르메가 눈에 띄게 많아졌다. 대표적인 작품에 《영국의 최후》 《노동》 등이 있다.
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was an English painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. While he was closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he was never actually a member. Nevertheless, he remained close to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with whom he also joined William Morris's design company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., in 1861.
One of his most famous images is The Last of England, a portrait of a pair of stricken emigrants as they sail away on the ship that will take them from England forever. It was inspired by the departure of the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner, who had left for Australia. The painting is structured with Brown's characteristic linear energy, and emphasis on apparently grotesque and banal details, such as the cabbages hanging from the ship's side.
Brown's most important painting was Work (1852–1865), which he showed at a special exhibition. It attempted to depict the totality of the mid-Victorian social experience in a single image, depicting 'navvies' digging up a road, Heath Street in Hampstead, London, and disrupting the old social hierarchies as they did so. The image erupts into proliferating details from the dynamic centre of the action, as the workers tear a hole in the road – and, symbolically, in the social fabric. Each character represents a particular social class and role in the modern urban environment. Brown wrote a catalogue to accompany the special exhibition of Work. This publication included an extensive explanation of Work that nevertheless leaves many questions unanswered.