THE GRAFTON GALLERIES Grafton Street, Bond Street, W. HONORARY DIRECTORS. T. D. CROFT, ESQ. ALFRED FARQUHAR, ESQ. MARQUESS OF GRANBY. CARL MEYER, ESQ. HON. JOHM SCOTT MONTAGU, M.P EARL OF WHARNCLIFFE. A. STUART-WORTLEY, ESQ. SECRETARY. HENRY BISHOP, ESQ. 8, GRAFTON STREET, LONDON, W. 16•7 • INTRODUCTORY NOTE. WORD or two of introduction to the present Exhibition A may not come amiss. That Madox Brown was a remark­ able figure in the Art world of the present reign is now, I think, an acknowledged fact. That he was also a great painter has been generally ceded, even by those who, until lately, were his most ardent decriers. But there remains a body of public and cognoscenti who either ignore, or are ignorant of, both the man and his work. It is in the hope of reaching that body that the present Exhibition is held. "One-man shows" may or may not be desirable things; but, whether or no, such a show of Madox Brown's work is singularly appropriate, for did he not, along with a host of other incongruous things, invent the "one-man show " ? In 1865, at 191, Piccadilly, he exhibited a selection of 100 of his own works, a selection ranging from his earliest studies to his last picture, " Work," which had cost him eleven years' labour. Before that time no artist had been bold enough to challenge a verdict on so large a portion of his labours, though single pictures had been exhibited by artists like Mr. Holman Hunt and the late R. B. Martineau. Madox Brown's position was that he had been slighted by the Royal Academy, who never did better than " sky his works," even when they were as fine as the " Christ Washing Peter's Feet," now in the National Gallery. The position remains un­ altered as far as the Academy is concerned, for that body refused to hang even one picture of Madox Brown's at the Old Masters Exhibition that succeeded Madox Brown's death. Since 1865 Madox Brown's works have hardly been seen in London. He has been represented by single pictures at long intervals, but his art is still almost unknown. The exhibition of some of his works at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition during last autumn did little to lighten the cloud of INTRODUCTORY. ignorance as far as his pictures were concerned. It brought out strongly the fact that he was one of the " fathers" of the present decorative school, achieving this by showing a repre­ sentative array of his cartoons for stained glass. But the pictures exhibited were added as au afterthought, and, being undated in the catalogue, gave a rather erroneous impression as to the limits of Madox Brown's art. Thus, one critic, judging the whole from a part, stated that Madox Brown never used an}' but primary colours of as violent a hue as were conveniently attainable ; another, that he affected exclusively colour that one may call " aesthetic," and so forth. The fact is that, unlike au antediluvian reptile, Madox Brown's art cannot be reconstructed in its- entirety by looking at one picture. As I have tried to point out whenever I have written ou the subject, his art varied almost invariably with the changes of styles of the art of the century. Thus, in his pupilage, his work showed the influences of Deveria, Delacroix, or Gustaf, Baron Wappers; in the forties it was eclectic, shadowing forth the art of the P.R.B. Later it became sternly realistic, and we have such an undoubted masterpiece as " Work." Later again he became the sestheticist, and as such is best known to the world. Another defect in the otherwise excellent selection of his works at the New Gallery was the lack of descriptive episodes iu the Catalogue. To set a picture so full of "literary ideas" as the '•'Cromwell mi his Farm" unexplained before a public not over- prone to trouble itself to discover motives is to court misconception. This I have remedied by quoting in extenso the excellent descriptive passages of Madox Brown himself, or by supplying descriptions of my own for pictures most needing it. It must then appear how excellent a story-teller and pithy a thinker Madox Brown was. Finally, in making the present Collection, which I venture to assert is as nearly representative as is possible, I have been careful to leave out as little as was feasible, neither excluding works which are not to my own taste, nor suppressing others which might, perhaps, be accounted comparative failures. The limits of Madox Brown's style were so large, his experiments in various directions so constant, that it was not within the range of possibilities that his work should remain at one level. As I have INTRODUCTORY. said elsewhere, Madox Brown possessed technical powers of no slight order. That he was no mean draughtsman the studies exhibited by Mr. Fairfax Murray would alone go to prove, and similar evidence is not wanting that he was " well-grounded " in all branches of technique. At the same time he frequently suffered his pursuit of colour and dramatic expression to cause the overriding of the noble powers of draughtsmanship that were certainly his. "He sinned here and here," one may say; yet there is rare pleasure to be had for the mere effort to place oneself cn rapport with his genial view of life and Art. He ran counter to the usual course of artists' progress, becoming less and less facile of executive expression as he learnt more and more, becoming more enthusiastic where others become settled and monotonous. His singular conscientiousness limited his output by making him devote a prodigal amount of work and thought to each individual picture, and consequent adversity taught him that bread and butter can only be gained by having recourse to duplicates. In spite of this, the amount of thought he has recorded is more than ordinary. His artistic and intellectual idiosyncracy was marked, and all his work pregnant with suggestion ; he worked well, and, by his works, taught well. Included in the Exhibition are several works of Madox Brown's children, Oliver, Lucy, and Catherine Madox Brown. Working in their father's studio, they absorbed the method of his work and translated his spirit into their own inventions. Oliver was a youth of great promise and some little achievement. Dying at the early age of nineteen, he had already painted several pictures of no small merit, and had written two novels, distinguished by fervid imagination and considerable literary skill. Lucy, whose gifts have hardly received any recognition, achieved more than her brilliant brother. Catherine still survives. FORD M. HUEFFER. CATALOGUE. A'OTE.—The following descriptions of the pictures, when quoted from the 1865 Catalogue of Madox Brown's Exhibition, are included within inverted commas and signed "F. M. B." The remainder are from the pen of F. M. Huepfer, and signed " F. M. H." The asterisks indicate that the Picture is one of the designs for the Mazichester frescoes. STAIRCASE. CARTOONS. 1. — YOUNG MILTON. Executors of Miss Blind. 2. — CHRIST IN THE GARDEN. C. Rowley, Esq., Jun. 3. — BEETHOVEN. OwenA College, Manchester. 4- — SHAKESPEARE. Owen's College, Manchester. 5. — SPENSER. OwenA College, Manchester. 6. — SHIPWRECK OF ST. PAUL. C. Rowley, Esq. J. — LORD BACON. OwenA College, Manchester. O. — HOMER. Owe AS College, Manchester. OCTAGON GALLERY. 9. — SKETCH FOR " CHAUCER." Mrs. Ellen B. Marshall. This shows the original conception of the picture, which was to have formed part of a triptych (1845). F. M. H. I0o — WATER-COLOUR SKETCH FOR "SPIRIT OF JUSTICE." (See NO. 36). Harold Rathbone, Esq. II. — EXPULSION OF THE DANES FROM MANCHESTER.* Harold Rathbone, Esq. " Rushing clown the narrow and winding street ot a small wood-built city, the Danes are seen making for an open gateway, that discloses the country outside, with a Saxon church on a hill. "The Norsemen, or Vikings, wVio organised the plundering expeditions that at this time so much harassed Europe, used to begin their apprenticeship to rapine very early. Fifteen is said to have been above the age when they would start ofl'in quest of adventure and of that booty on which a few rears later thev would settle down upon as respectable married men and heads of houses. " The Danes are here represented therefor as very young men, mere beardless boys, in fact, with one or two better-seasoned elders to assist them with their experience. " The wealth which they acquired they were wont to convert into gold bracelets, which were worn on the right arm. "A rich and successful young chieftain, the wearer of many bracelets, but now badly wounded, is being borne past on a hastily-constructed stretcher, his companions endeavouring to protect him and themselves with their uplifted shields, as they run the gauntlet of the townsfolks' missiles. In the, front of these, four men have fallen, confusedJy, over another on (he ground. The pavement consists of the polygonal blocks that t/ie Romans had formed their road of, which ran through Manchester. OCTAGON GALLERY. 9 " From a house which faces this scene a young woman has thrown a tile, that strikes down the ' Raven standard-bearer.' An aged inmate, from the same window, throws a spear, the national Saxon weapon, while two little boys gleefully empty a small tub of boiling water on the fugitives. " The Danes, who in a group have reached the shelter of the rampart gate, pause for one moment to hurl back threats of future revenge on the inimical townspeople, whose chained-up dogs bark fiercely at the runaways, while in the background the soldiers of Edward the Elder are seen smiting the unfor­ tunate loiterers in the race for life.