Tuesday 9 December 2008New book throws light on “unofficial” Pre-Raphaelite painter

Published by the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery in association with London-based publisher D Giles Limited, this new book, Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre- Raphaelite is a newly researched book which uses the extensive Madox Brown collection at BMAG to reassess the work of this important artist, and to reveal his achievements

Older than his contemporaries Holman Hunt, Millais, and pupil Rossetti, and never officially a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Ford Madox Brown was however a central figure within this major 19th-century art movement. As he said in 1851, “if not an actual Pre-Raphaelite Brother, I am an aider and abettor of Pre-Raphaelitism”. Madox Brown, the creator of Work and The Last of England, whose work was marked by an unmistakable originality in the face of critical rejection and market failure, has until now remained a somewhat neglected presence in art history. In a career spanning nearly 60 years, Brown was committed to the reformation of art and society, and never ceased to confront the problem of what it meant to be an artist in the Victorian age.

The Madox Brown collection at BMAG ranges in date from the early 1840s to the 1890s. It includes sketch and study drawings, watercolours, stained glass designs, wood engravings as well as paintings and archive material. The unique breadth of these holdings was largely acquired through public subscription from the collection of Charles Fairfax Murray in 1906, and is currently part of a series of research projects profiling the scope of Birmingham’s Pre-Raphaelite collections, and the third in a series of publications and exhibitions.

The volume includes three essays by leading Madox Brown specialists. The first, by Angela Thirlwell, deals with the broader aspects of the artist’s developments, setting his works in the context of his life. The second essay, by Tim Barringer, studies the difficulty of categorizing Madox Brown’s work, and his refusal to be defined by a particular artistic movement. The final essay, by Laura MacCulloch, looks specifically at Madox Brown’s illustrations, especially the neglected but important drawings for English literature including Chaucer, Shakespeare and Byron.

The volume illustrates 42 selected drawings and works on paper, which appear throughout the essays and the main exhibition presentation, 20 of which are reproduced in colour. Each work is accompanied by an entry, which includes full specifications, provenance, inscriptions and an extended caption. Over three years Laura MacCulloch has catalogued the Museum’s 174 works on paper by Madox Brown as part of her doctoral thesis. Working with Tessa Sidey, Curator of Prints and Drawings to select the accompanying exhibition at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (23 August-14 December 2008), Laura’s findings will also be incorporated into a new online Pre-Raphaelite resource site of the Birmingham collection to be launched in April 2009.

The Authors:
Angela Thirlwell is the author of William and Lucy; the Other Rossettis, Yale University Press, 2003; Tim Barringer is Paul Mellon Professor at Yale University Laura MacCulloch is a postgraduate doctoral student at the University of Birmingham

FORD MADOX BROWN
The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite

72 pages, 8 3/8” x 10 3/8” (265 x 215mm)
40 colour and 15 black-and-white illustrations, paperback
Text: Up to 40,000 words
ISBN: 978 1 904832 56 0 (13 digit)
ISBN: 1 904832 56 3 (10 digit)

Price: US$34.95/UK£17.95
Publication date: September, 2008
Publisher: D. Giles Limited, London

Distributed in the UK and Rest of World (excluding US and Canada) by
ACC
Sandy Lane
Old Martlesham
Woodbridge
Suffolk
IP12 4SD
UK
T: +44 (0)1394 389950
F: +44 (0)1394 389999
Enquiries: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Distributed in the US and Canada by
ACC Distribution,
6 West 18th Street
Fourth Floor
New York, NY 10011
Toll-free orders: +1 800-252-5231
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

For Further Information and Review Copies:
In the UK contact:
Liz Japes
20 Lockitt Way
Kingston
Lewes
East Sussex
BN7 3LG
Tel: +44 (0)1273 480225
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

In the USA contact:
Karen Lunstead, Marketing Manager
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

For Illustrations and Interviews:
BMAG 0121 303 4514 for media enquiries only
About Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Since its opening 120 years ago, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (BMAG) has continued to expand and is now home to more than half a million artworks and artifacts, notably the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings and drawings in the world.
For a full list of forthcoming public programmes, please visit http://www.bmag.org.uk.