Last of England

Thanks Annie

I love the little clasped hand peeping out from underneath her cloak. It's a very special painting indeed.

Although Ford Madox Brown was never a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, The Last of England, like many of his paintings, exhibits all the characteristics of the movement. The painting depicts a man and his wife seeing England for the last time. The two main figures, based on Brown and his wife, Emma, stare ahead, stony-faced, ignoring the white cliffs of Dover which can be seen disappearing behind them in the top right of the picture. The family's clothing indicates that they are middle class, and so they are not leaving for the reasons that would force the emigration of the working classes.

The fair-haired child in the background behind the man's shoulder is Brown and Emma's child, Catherine, who was born in 1850. The baby concealed under the woman's cloak, and whose hand she is clasping, is supposedly their second child, Oliver.

His diary noted that the '...ribbons of the bonnet took me 4 weeks to paint'.

What a gorgeous painting..you can see the anguish in their faces. Thanks for putting this in, Jrose. it's brilliant. AnnieAnnie0