Ford Madox Brown's paintings

Ford Madox-Brown Profiled, art principles examined.

Rossetti, William M. "Ford Madox-Brown." Hobby Horse 2 (April 1886): 48. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

Madox-Brown is the focal point of Rossetti's journalistic, educational essay examining the artistic principles that produce the most authentic, sincere are. Madox-Brown is the exemplar, and Rossetti uses him to compare his work and achievements to the work of more mainstream Royal Academy adherents, with the comparison demonstrating a higher level of aesthetic achievement owing to the former. Hogarth is discussed in a similar vein, but Madox-Brown surpasses him and the rest of the contemporary field in the achievement of "commanding dramatic presentation" through his art. Rossetti detects a "touch of Thomas Carlyle" in Madox-Brown's work.

Rossetti was asked to provide a few remarks to preface the autotype presentation of Madox-Brown's "Entombment" by the editor of Hobby Horse, and this article is the result. Rossetti points readers towards Madox-Brown's ongoing work on the Manchester frescoes, which he reviewed previously for The Art Journal, as a measure of his success and as worthy of viewing.

Rossetti expressed concern to the editors of Hobby Horse regarding "the discredit that might attach to such a transaction owing to the family-connexion," but relented in favor of his father-in-law's wishes. Rossetti mentions that the publication is "exceedingly handsome in paper, type and general get-up," but nonetheless pronounced it, "to much (for my taste) of aestheticopurist cliqueism, and the title of the magazine seems to me singularly absurd" (Letters fn 486).

". . . a passionate, dramatic, and impressive general treatment;" "original without being wiredrawn;" "How can I demonstrate to the eye the sum and substance of the exhibited and implied facts? How can I best tell my story?"