This Painting Changed His Life

I love this painting because of the chaos, the emotion, and all those cabbages. What? This piece is called The Last of England by Ford Maddox Brown. It captures a moment in the journey of a family leaving their homeland to start a new life in a distant land. But couldn't he have made it a bit more uplifting? Nope. Because this time, it was personal. Let's rewind to France in the 1830s. Ford Maddox Brown wasn't born to an artistic family. His father was in the navy, so he wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. But when he showed artistic talent as a teenager, like this painting he created when he was only 15, his family decided to move to Belgium to further his training at the art academy. Despite coming from humble beginnings, the artist was living the dream and spent the remainder of his teens and early 20s traveling across Europe studying art. By the age of 30, Ford Maddox Brown had gone through many hardships. Tragically, he had lost his mother, sister, father, his infant daughter, and his wife in that order. What's more, his career wasn't going great since the art establishment saw his work as disturbing and grotesque. Which probably means he was innovative and ahead of his time. Take his piece, Pretty Ball Lambs. Critics didn't like this painting at all, partly because the woman didn't meet the beauty standards of the day. Brown could have portrayed her with flawless, pale skin, but he chose to make it natural and flushed, like how a real woman might look. Critics believed that the painting could have been redeemed by a deeper symbolic interpretation, maybe as a contemporary take on the Madonna and child. But Ford spoiled it for everyone, saying it was just a lady, a baby, two lambs, a servant maid, and some grass. At this point, Ford Maddox Brown had hit rock bottom. Despite developing another love interest in one of his models, Emma Hill, with whom he had already fathered a child and would later marry, he was going through a career slump that forced him into something of a midlife crisis. Writing in his journal that he was broken in spirit and but a melancholy copy of what I once was. Intensely miserable, very hard up, and a little mad. And who could blame him when he was struggling to pay his mortgage and his career prospects were down the toilet. He was desperate and searching for options. And so it goes that out of all of this pain and uncertainty, an epic masterpiece was born. Our eyes are immediately drawn to a couple sitting on a boat. Their gaze fixed ahead, solid like stones, unfazed by the brisk wind that whips the woman's bonnet ties and forms white caps in the sea. Above the pale green waves, a glimpse of the white cliffs of Dover hints at their location and purpose. Leaving England and embarking on a voyage across the Strait of Dover. The painting is so intense and emotional. But why? It's because this isn't just any old boat ride. Ford Maddox Brown brings us into the lives of an immigrant family leaving their homeland to start a new life in Australia with their newborn baby. What baby? This baby. We can make out the bulge of the baby's head nestled in his mother's gray shawl. His tiny hand reaching out to grasp his mother's. His teeny foot peeking out between his parents. This will likely be the last glimpse they will ever have of their homeland. But for them, there's no looking back now. It's gonna be a long journey ahead. So they made sure to come prepared with so many cabbages. You know, to prevent scurvy. The family's clothing and books show us that they're educated and middle class. Their expressions are difficult to read. And this makes sense because I would imagine that this couple is grappling with a multitude of emotions all at once. But looking into their eyes, I see hope and fear combined with determination. While his furrowed brow and brooding eyes convey a sense of anxiousness and introspection, her wide eyes and tightly pressed lips exude more optimism and assurance. They both look forward, but at different things. But we can tell that they're very much in this together. The man holds a black umbrella, shielding his family from the sea spray that builds in droplets on its surface. The woman extends her gloved right hand out of her shawl, squeezing her husband's hand so tightly that his pinky finger smooshes in a bit. To me, this extra tight squeeze is the best part of the whole painting. Unlike pretty ball lambs, Ford Maddox Brown had a lot to say about this piece. He writes, I have singled out a couple from the middle classes, high enough through education and refinement to appreciate all they are now giving up, and yet dignified enough in means to have to put up with the discomforts and humiliations incident to a vessel all one class. Behind the man's right shoulder, we get a glimpse of the passengers that accompany them. We see a father and his three children. The artist refers to them as the honest family of the green grocer kind. The man in the gray modeled hat smoking a white pipe is the father. The girl in front of him wearing the straw bonnet is his eldest daughter. Wrapping her arms protectively around her brother. The green grocer's youngest daughter locks eyes with us, eating an apple with one hand and clutching her brother's blanket with the other. Her arms are exposed and burn bright red in the cold. Above her, a man holds a cigar between his teeth and cradles a black bottle against his chest. Brown characterizes this man as a reprobate, who shakes his fist with curses at the land of his birth, as though they were answerable for his want of success. His drunken companion grabs his arm and squishes his face up to his friend. Brown identifies the figure below them in black as the reprobate's mother, her hands raised in a plea for her son to stop. Above them, a crew member aboard a lifeboat deliberates over what vegetables they will have for dinner. This very lifeboat exposes the vessel's name, Eldorado, beneath a streak of rust. The inclusion of this name was intentional by the artist. In the 16th century, Eldorado was known as the City of Gold and rumored to exist in the New World. This promise of wealth enticed many European explorers to embark on countless expeditions to South America in search of treasure. But there was just one problem. No one ever found any treasure. Because, in reality, Eldorado never existed. This story resonates with the personal journey of a contemporary artist and a friend of Ford Maddox Brown, Thomas Wollner, who, in search for gold, chose to emigrate to Australia but regrettably returned to England empty-handed merely two years later. It's Wollner's own experience that serves as the inspiration for this painting. Thomas Wollner was one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood might sound a little fringe, but that's because it was. It was made up of like-minded artists who were unhappy with the teaching they had received at the art academy and questioned the strict rules and guidelines they were taught. They wanted a revolution in the British art world. And although Ford Maddox Brown's paintings embraced the characteristic colors and realistic style associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, he was never technically a member. So this must be a portrait of Thomas Wollner, right? Wrong. Take a closer look at this man. Do you recognize him? This is Ford Maddox Brown, the artist who created this painting. And this is his second wife, Emma, their daughter, Catherine, and their infant son, Oliver. It's a bizarre plot twist since Ford Maddox Brown never emigrated to Australia or anywhere else for that matter. But around the time this painting was created, he strongly considered moving to India But Brown didn't have to insert himself into this scene for us to know this painting was personal for him. His meticulous attention to detail, like in the woman's shawl for instance, shows how much he cared about this piece. He even said that it took him four weeks to paint the ribbons of the bonnet. To make this painting even more authentic, Ford Maddox Brown insisted on working on it outside in his backyard, only on particularly cold and dreary days. He wrote in his diary, The weather for my picture made my hand look blue with the cold as I require in the work, so I painted all day out in the garden. He had his wife, Emma, model outside in the cold as well, which apparently put a strain on their marriage. Brown created The Lost of England in 1852, in the same year that over 350,000 people emigrated from England to places like the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. So the emotions conveyed in this painting really hit home for a lot of people, so much so that it received the most universal praise than any of his previous paintings. And in 1859, it sold for 325 guineas, equivalent to approximately $50,000 today when adjusted for inflation. This achievement significantly bolstered Ford's career, and paradoxically, might have been a decisive factor in his choice to remain in England. The oval shape of this painting makes us feel like we're peering at the scene through a telescope or a peephole. It almost gives me the sense that we're looking at Brown's daydream or a vision. And I can't help but wonder if, in creating this painting, he was living vicariously through it, literally putting himself in their shoes. During the most intense moment of grief, fear, and uncertainty, and perhaps in the midst of reflecting on this moment, he found that for him, leaving England wasn't worth it after all. Thank you to my incredible channel members. I'll see you in the next video.