Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite - the third in a series of publications on Birmingham's unique collection of nineteenth-century drawings - throws new light on this important artist. Born in France in 1821, Ford Madox Brown was older than his contemporaries Holman Hunt, Millais, and pupil Rossetti. The creator of seminal nineteenth-century paintings, including Work and The Last of England, Brown has nevertheless remained a presence that defies easy categorisation in art history. Never officially a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he was, however, a central figure within this major nineteenth-century art movement. As Brown said of himself in 1851,'if not an actual Pre-Raphaelite Brother, I am an aider and abettor of Pre-Raphaelitism'.
The volume illustrates fifty-five selected drawings and works on paper, which appear throughout the essays and the main exhibition presentation, forty of which are reproduced in colour. Each work is accompanied by an entry, which includes specifications, provenance, inscriptions and an extended caption. A full catalogue listing of the Museums' 174 works on paper by Madox Brown appears in this volume, which will be incorporated into a new online Pre-Raphaelite Resource Site. This includes sketch and study drawings, watercolours, stained glass designs, design for wood engravings and archive material dating from the 1840s to the 1890s, which were largely acquired through public subscription from the collection of Charles Fairfax Murray in 1906.
