The Manchester Art Gallery Presents "Ford Madox Brown: Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer"

Written by Elizabeth Pennington Thursday, 06 October 2011 23:30

Manchester, UK.- The Manchester Art Gallery will stage the first major exhibition of Ford Madox Brown’s work since 1964. "Ford Madox Brown: Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer" will bring together 140 works from public and private collections to reveal the pioneering role Ford Madox Brown played in the development of Pre-Raphaelitism and explore how the artist’s rebellion against traditionally taught methods led to a completely radical new style. The exhibition’s painting highlights include Brown’s masterpieces "Work" (1852–63) and "The Last of England" (1852–55), which have been brought together for the first time for over twenty-five years. "Work", acquired in 1885, was the first Pre-Raphaelite painting bought by Manchester Art Gallery and will be shown alongside a selection of rarely displayed preparatory studies.

These epic paintings are unique in Victorian art as they feature social and political themes. Painted with extraordinarily realistic details, these works demonstrate Brown’s anti-academic attitude and his strikingly unsentimental approach to portraying the social problems of the age. "Ford Madox Brown: Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer" will remain on view at the museum until January 29th 2012.


The exhibition examines the six years that Brown lived in Manchester, a city in which he was actively involved in both artistic and social issues. Related works on display include portraits of Brown’s friends in the city and studies for his huge decorative paintings for the Royal Manchester Jubilee exhibition of 1887. The culmination of Brown’s career came with the commission to paint the Manchester Town Hall murals, which he completed in 1893. Original studies for the murals will be on show in the exhibition and exceptional access to the twelve murals has been granted to The Great Hall in Manchester Town Hall for the period of the exhibition. The exhibition is curated by Julian Treuherz, former Director of the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, and an expert in Victorian art. Divided into eleven themes, the show starts with Brown’s early career before moving on to look at his radical change of direction following an influential trip to Italy, which anticipated the foundation of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood in 1848. Throughout, the exhibition celebrates the extraordinary breadth of Brown’s artistic practice, displaying his skills as a draughtsman, a narrative painter, a portrait artist, a designer of furniture and stained glass, and an innovative landscape painter of works such as "The Pretty Baa Lambs" (1851–59), a painting which was groundbreaking for being painted entirely in the open air and even anticipated the French Impressionist movement.


Manchester Art Gallery is a free-to-view municipally-owned public art gallery in Manchester City Centre in the North West of England. Manchester Art Gallery is one of the region’s most popular cultural destinations, attracting over 400,000 visits each year. Between 1998 and 2002, a £35million refurbishment and expansion programme transformed the venue into a world-class gallery for Manchester. Since then, Manchester Art Gallery has won many awards and has developed a national reputation for its high quality, audience focused services in the three buildings it now occupies. One building is the Grade I listed building that was originally the Royal Manchester Institution designed by Barry in 1824. The gallery houses the civic art collection of Manchester. As well as art of international significance, there are many works specifically related to Manchester (especially in the CIS-sponsored Manchester Room). The Manchester Art Gallery is strong in its representation of the English school, with numerous works of Thomas Gainsborough and major works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Another significant collection in the gallery is of works by Pierre Adolphe Valette. Valette was a French impressionist who painted and taught in Manchester in the early years of the twentieth century. His reputation is growing, and in the Manchester Art Gallery displays scenes of foggy Manchester streets and canals. A Paul Cézanne hangs in the same room, showing the similarity in treatment and subject between Cézanne's misty French river bridge and a particular river bridge in the pre-Clean Air Act Mancunian fog. L. S. Lowry was one of Valette's pupils and the influence on Lowry of impressionism, via Valette, can be seen here, where pictures by the two artists hang together. The museum also houses "The Picnic" (1908), an important work by the British Impressionist painter Wynford Dewhurst, who was born in Manchester. As well as its paintings, the museum holds important collections of glass, silverware and furniture, including two important pieces by the Victorian reformist architect and designer William Burges. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.manchestergalleries.org

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