Ford Madox Brown (1821 – 1893) was an English pre-Raphaelite artist, best known for his painting Work (1865), which hangs in Manchester Art Gallery, and the Manchester Murals which adorn the Great Hall in Manchester Town Hall. Brown tutored the young Dante Gabriel Rosetti (whose brother William became Brown’s son-in-law), and through him influenced the generation of young artists who went on to form the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

Through his depiction of the human condition and social hierarchy in Victorian England, Brown became deeply engaged with social issues (subversively commenting on them in his works), at one stage opening a soup kitchen and setting up a labour exchange to help the poor of Manchester.

Image: Ford Madox Brown, drawing by Dante Gabriel Rosetti (detail), 1867.