Work

Ford Madox Brown, 1865

Oil on canvas

, 53.9 × 77.9 inches

Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester, England

Work (1852-1865) is a painting by Ford Madox Brown, which is generally considered to be his most important work. It attempts to portray, both literally and analytically, the totality of the Victorian social system and the transition from a rural to an urban economy. Brown began the painting in 1852 and completed it in 1865, when he set up a special exhibition to showcase it along with several of his other works. He wrote a detailed catalogue explaining the significance of the picture. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1143x806, 242 KB)Work by Ford Madox Brown, 1852-63 Oil on canvas. ... The Last of England, 1855 Ford Madox Brown (April 16, 1821 – October 6, 1893) was an English painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. ... Mona Lisa, Oil on wood panel painting by Leonardo da Vinci. ... Occupying three buildings, including what was originally the Royal Manchester Institution designed by Sir Charles Barry in 1824, the Manchester Art Gallery houses the civic art collection of Manchester, England. ... This article is about the city in England. ... The Last of England, 1855 Ford Madox Brown (April 16, 1821 – October 6, 1893) was an English painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Ascension to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... Social structure (also referred to as a social system) is a system in which people forming the society are organized by a patterns of prelationships. ... Rural area in Dalarna, Sweden Qichun, a rural town in Hubei province, China Rural areas (also referred to as the country, countryside) are sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities. ... Look up urban in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Subject

The picture depicts a group of so-called "Navvies" digging up the road to build a system of underground tunnels. It is typically assumed that these were part of the extensions of London's sewerage system, which were being undertaken to deal with the threat of typhus and cholera. The workers are in the centre of the painting. On either side of them are individuals who are either unemployed or represent the leisured classes. Behind the workers are two aristocrats on horseback, whose progress along the road has been halted by the excavations.^[1] Navvy is a shorter form of the word navigator and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Epidemic typhus. ... Cholera (frequently called Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera) is a severe diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. ...

The painting also portrays an election campaign, evidenced by posters and people carrying sandwich boards with the name of the candidate "Bobus". A poster also draws attention to the potential presence of a burglar.^[2] A sandwich board is a type of advertisement composed of two boards carried by an individual, one in front and one behind, creating a sandwich effect. ...

Background and influences

Hogarth, Humours of an Election: Chairing the Member. An MP is being carried by his supporters, while a Tory rural labourer and a Whig urban entertainer fight one another

Brown explained that he had intended to demonstrate that the modern British workman could be as fit a subject for art as the more supposedly picturesque Italian "lazarone". He set the painting on Heath Street in Hampstead, of which he made a detailed study. Hampstead was at the time a wealthy area on the outskirts of London, which was undergoing rapid expansion. The development of the new sewerage and drainage systems in the city was also widely discussed in the press as an agent of modernisation. The character of "Bobus" appears in the writings of Thomas Carlyle as the epitome of a corrupt businessman who uses his money to market himself as a politician. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 773 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2024 × 1571 pixel, file size: 255 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): User:Rl/Images... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 773 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2024 × 1571 pixel, file size: 255 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): User:Rl/Images... Hampstead is a suburb of north London in the London Borough of Camden, located four miles (6. ... The most familiar view of Carlyle is as the bearded sage with a penetrating gaze. ...

Brown's principal artistic model was the work of William Hogarth, in particular his paintings Humours of an Election and his prints Beer Street and Gin Lane. The Election paintings depicted both the vitality and the corruption of British society, while the prints set up a contrast between poverty and prosperity. While working on the painting Brown had set up the Hogarth club to link artists who saw themselves as Hogarth's admirers and followers. William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... The Humours of an Election is a series of four oil painting and later engravings by William Hogarth that illustrate the election of a member of parliament in Oxfordshire in 1754. ... William Hogarth produced the twin engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane at the height of what became known as the London Gin Craze in 1751. ... Gin Lane William Hogarth produced the twin engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane at the height of what became known as the London Gin Craze in 1751. ... The Hogarth Club was an exhibition society of artists which existed between 1858 and 1861. ...

Rustic Civility (1833) by William Collins depicting a deferential socal system and visual harmony. The boy is tugging his forelock to a passing member of the gentry on horseback (visible as a shadow)

The rustic aspects of the composition draw on the established tradition of the picturesque, epitomised by the work of artists such as John Constable and William Collins. The satirical and critical aspects of Hogarth's style work in tandem with Brown's Pre-Raphaelitism, with its intense concentration on the complication of the pictorial surface in conflicting details. This image of potentially violent and jarring confrontation is set in opposition to the social harmony and deference epitomised by the picturesque tradition. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... William Collins (1788-1847) was a British landscape and genre painter. ... Though the concept of the sublime had roots in the connoisseurship of Antiquity, the picturesque was a new category in the incipient Romantic sensibility of the 18th century. ... A self portrait by John Constable John Constable (June 11, 1776 – March 31, 1837) was a British Romantic artist. ... William Collins (1788-1847) was a British landscape and genre painter. ... The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets and critics, founded in 1848 by John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt. ...

Characters and action

Workers

The young navvy (shovelling soil) and the older navvy (sieving quicklime)

The principal figure of the young workman is shovelling soil from a platform hanging in a hole onto a large pile behind him. Beneath him in the underground shaft another workman is digging the soil and shovelling it onto the platform. He is only visible in the form of a hand and a shovel apearing from the hole. To his right an older navvy is seen shoveling unsifted lime into a sieve. The fine powder accumulates in a pile on the left.^[3] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Navvy is a shorter form of the word navigator and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects. ... Calcium oxide (CaO), commonly known as lime, quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. ...

the flower seller; the fashionable lady, and the evangelist (left to right)

The lime is to be used to make mortar which is being mixed by other navvies at the right of the composition. A hodcarrier, visible behind the main navvy, is transporting bricks down into the hole. The sheet floating in front of him is a copy of a religious tract handed to him by the lady in the blue bonnet at the left, who is attempting to evangelise the navvies. She is carrying copies of a tract called The Hodman's Haven or Drink for Thirst Souls. The reference to "drink" in the title reflects the emergence of the temperance movement. A navvy on right, swigging beer, emphasises their rejection of teetotalism. The woman in front of the evangelist represents genteel glamour - a fashionable lady whose only "job" is to look beautiful. The figure beyond her epitomises the opposite end of the social scale, a ragged itinerant who lives in a flop house in Flower and Dean Street, Whitechapel, the most notoriously criminalised part of London at the time. He is a plant and animal seller, a form of urban worker who obtained flowers, reeds and small animals from the country to sell in the centre of the city. These characters had been described in Henry Mayhew's book London Labour and the London Poor. All these figures are passing by the workers through a narrow pathway which brings them up against the sifted lime powder, a corrossive which symbolises the cleansing assault on their complacent rejection of useful work.^[4] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Mortar has several meanings: Mortar (weapon) fires shells at a much lower velocity and higher ballistic arc than other ordnance Paintball mortar fires paintballs or water balloons filled with paint Mortar (masonry), material used in masonry to fill the gaps between bricks and bind them together Mortar (firestop), hydraulic cementitious... A cartoon from Australia ca. ... Whitechapel is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, United Kingdom. ... Henry Mayhew (25 November 1812 - 25th July 1887) was an English journalist and one of the founders of the humorous magazine Punch, and the magazines editor for its beginning days. ... London Labour and the London Poor is an extraordinary work of Victorian journalism by Henry Mayhew. ...

the countryman (left) and the beer seller (right)

In the centre of the composition is a countryman who has recently moved to the town, identifiable by his rural smock. He is holding a brick-hod and drinking beer supplied by the man in the red waistcoat who is supposed to be a "bouncer" employed in a local pub. The beer seller's costume includes examples of cheap brummagem jewellery. His persona — including a copy of The Times under his arm — is a pastiche of a gentleman-flaneur. The two men behind him are imported Irish labourers, recognisable by their costume. This aspect of the painting is directly influenced by Hogarth's Beer Street.^[5] Download high resolution version (600x755, 69 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (600x755, 69 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A nineteenth-century shepherd in a smock-frock. ... A traditional waistcoat, to be worn with a two-piece suit or separate jacket and trousers A waistcoat (sometimes called a vest in Canada and the US) is a sleeveless upper-body garment worn over a dress shirt and necktie (if applicable) and below a coat as a part of... Brummagem (and historically also Bromichan, Bremicham and many similar variants, all essentially Bromwich·ham) is a local dialect name for the city of Birmingham, UK. It gave rise to the terms Brum (a generally affectionate local term for the city) and Brummie (inhabitants of the city, their accent and dialect... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ... flaneur: flan. ... William Hogarth produced the twin engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane at the height of what became known as the London Gin Craze in 1751. ...

the ragamuffin children

In the foreground are a group of ragged children who have recently suffered a bereavement, evidenced by the black band on the baby's arm. As Brown says in his description, their ragamuffin status suggests that it was their mother who died. The oldest child, wearing borrowed clothing too old for her, tries to control her wayward brother, who is playing with the navvies' wheelbarrow. The younger girl sucks a carrot in lieu of a dummy and looks into the hole created by the workers. Their mongrel pet dog challenges the fashionable lady's pet dog, because, writes Brown, he hates "minions of aristocracy in jackets". The baby, who looks challengingly out at the viewer, is in the exact centre of the composition. Brown's description emphasises this challenge by suddenly moving from a first-person narrative to the second person - speaking to his fictional fashionable lady about the perilous situation of the impoverished children.^[6] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... First-person narrative is a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one character, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, I. the narrator is a fool putting his nose into the storytelling exercise. ... Second-person narration is a narrative technique in which the protagonist or another main character is referred to by employment of second-person personal pronouns and other kinds of addressing forms, e. ...

Unemployed labourers resting and sleeping on the embankment

On the embankment between the upper and the lower road a group of unemployed rural labourers are sleeping in uneasy postures. A scythe wrapped in protective rope hangs over the railing that separates the productive from the unproductive figures in the composition. The Irish couple by the tree are feeding their baby with gruel, while an older man stands by the tree looking resentful. This aspect of the painting recalls Carlyle's discussion of unemployed Irish migrants in his book Past and Present. Embankment station Taken by A. Brady on November 28, 2003. ... Embankment station Taken by A. Brady on November 28, 2003. ... Using a scythe A scythe (IPA: , most likely from Old English siðe, sigði) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing and reaping grass or crops. ...

Beneath these figures on the road children can be seen playing, while genteel couples and sandwich-board carriers wander through the sun-dappled lower street. At the extreme right a policeman pushes a female orange seller who is resting her basket on a bollard (technically illegal, because she is setting up shop).

Intellectuals

Thomas Carlyle (left) and Frederick Maurice

At the right the workers are being watched by two intellectuals who "seem to be idle but work". They are described as workers in their minds and as "the cause of well ordained work in others". In fact these are portraits of Thomas Carlyle and Frederick Maurice. Maurice was the founder of Christian socialism. He established worker's educational institutions for which Brown worked. Carlyle was the main inspiration behind the picture. His books Past and Present and Latter-Day Pamphlets had criticised the laissez faire economic system and political corruption. He was known for his so-called "gospel of work", which described work as a form of worship. He wrote in Past and Present, Image File history File links Maurice. ... Image File history File links Maurice. ... The most familiar view of Carlyle is as the bearded sage with a penetrating gaze. ... John Frederick Denison Maurice (August 29, 1805 - April 1, 1872) was an English theologian. ... Christian socialism generally refers to those on the Christian left whose politics are both Christian and socialist and who see these two things as being interconnected. ... Prestigiuous British historical society which produces a journal (Past and Present), a book series (Past and Present Publications) as well as sponsoring occasional conferences and appointing postdoctoral fellows. ... Latter-Day Pamphlets was a series of pamphlets published by Thomas Carlyle in 1850, in vehement denunciation of the political, social, and religious imbecilities and injustices of the period. ... Look up laissez faire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

It has been written, 'an endless significance lies in Work;' a man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away, fair seedfields rise instead, and stately cities; and withal the man himself first ceases to be a jungle and foul unwholesome desert thereby. Consider how, even in the meanest sorts of Labour, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony, the instant he sets himself to work! Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Remorse, Indignation, Despair itself, all these like helldogs lie beleaguering the soul of the poor dayworker, as of every man: but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now a man. The blessed glow of Labour in him, is it not as purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour smoke itself there is made bright blessed flame!^[7]

In the same book Carlyle creates the character of Bobus Higgins, a corrupt sausage maker who uses horsemeat in his product to undercut competitors.^[8] In Latter-Day Pamphlets Bobus is portrayed as a populist manipulator who is going into politics.^[9] In the painting his agent appears behind Carlyle's head, prodding local "idlers" to walk through the streets carrying signs with his name on them. At the left a "Vote for Bobus" poster has been hit by a ball of mud or faeces and has "don't" chalked onto it.

Composition and significance

The painting is structured by the increasing compression of space from right to left, as the rural relaxation on the right side is replaced by the concentrated labour in the middle and the urban crush on the far left. The workers in the centre break up the established relationship between the characters, throwing people together in new ways. Brown reproduces the common triangular structure of the social system, with the horse-riding aristocrats at the top. But they are pushed to the back, stuck and unable to progress — forced into the shade in the background, while the workers occupy the brightly lit foreground. The railings around the excavations separate the realm of productive work from that of leisure, lassitude and unproductive work.

As with most Pre-Raphaelite paintings the composition minimises chiaroscuro and accummulates motifs in deliberately confusing abundance, containing numerous Hogarthian sub-episodes within the main image (a man washing windows; a dog worrying horses leading a carriage etc). The composition is also used to dramatically crop figures and motifs which complicates the legibility of space (the hand emerging from the hole; the cropped figures behind the intellectuals' head). Carlyle's smile links the viewer in a paradoxical engagement with the re-working process depicted.^[10]

Notes