Ford Madox Brown

Carrying Corn

1854–5

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

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On loan

Hungarian National Gallery (Budapest, Hungary): Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Artist
Ford Madox Brown 1821–1893
Medium
Oil paint on mahogany
Dimensions
Support: 197 × 276 mm
frame: 350 × 425 × 55 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Purchased 1934
Reference
N04735

Display caption

This intensely coloured painting captures a harvest field just before sunset. Each landscape element is faithfully recorded in jewel-like colours. This is a nostalgic view of rural England, untouched by industrialisation and modern city life. Ford Madox Brown’s view is typical of idealists of the time who believed that an engagement with nature offered spiritual redemption from urban corruption. Brown and his family were facing financial hardship at the time this picture was painted. It was one of a number of ‘potboilers’, modest and straightforward landscapes he hoped would sell easily.

Gallery label, July 2007

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