Brown, Ford Madox 1821-93
British historical painter

Born in Calais, France, he studied art at Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp. In Paris he produced his Manfred on the Jungfrau (1841), a work intensely dramatic in feeling, but sombre in colouring. A visit to Italy (1845) led him to seek a greater variety and richness of colouring, as in Chaucer reciting his Poetry (1851). He settled in England in 1846. He contributed verse, prose, and design to the Pre-Raphaelite Germ, and in his youth Dante Gabriel Rossetti worked in his studio. He was a close associate of William Morris, and in 1861 was a founder-member of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company (later Morris & Company) for which he produced some designs for furniture and stained glass. Among his more mature works are Christ washing Peter's Feet, The Entombment and hisbest-known painting, The Last of England (1855). He completed 12 frescoes for Manchester Town Hall, just before his death. He was the grandson of the physician John Brown.