Lucy Madox Brown - View of Charmouth, Dorset

Price Realized
£1,875

signed with monogram and dated '79' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour with bodycolour and gum arabic, on paper, unframed
12 x 18 1/8 in. (30.5 x 46 cm.)

Listed in William Michael Rossetti's 1908 inventory of the artist's work, no. 81.
Angela Thirlwell, William and Lucy: The Other Rossettis, Yale, 2003, pp. 176-178, fig. 96.

The eldest of Ford Madox Brown's three surviving children, Lucy acted as her father's model and studio assistant from an early age, but only began to paint herself in 1868. She made her debut at the Royal Academy the following year, and continued to exhibit there, at the Dudley Gallery and elsewhere. Most of her work is in watercolour, a Romeo and Juliet of 1871 (Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton) being generally considered her masterpiece. In 1874 she married William Michael Rossetti, her senior by fourteen years, and with the arrival of children devoted less time to painting.

The present landscape was made in the summer of 1878 (it must have been dated when it was exhibited the following year), and is one of several she executed during family holidays at this period. Others showed views at Lynmouth (1872) and Broadstairs (1876). William Michael also made a pencil sketch at Charmouth (Thirlwell, fig. 95).

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lucy-rossetti-nee-madox-brown-view-of/5396361/lot/lot_details.aspx?pos=2&intObjectID=5396361&sid=&page=3

Lucy & Catherine Madox Brown

Lucy Madox Brown - Margaret Roper Rescuing the Head of her Father Sir Thomas More, 1873

Lucy was the oldest of Ford Madox Brown's three surviving children of his first marriage. She later married William Rossetti. After becoming a mother, she painted only rarely; however, she was active politically in the cause of women's suffrage.

A label on the back of the painting describes this scene: "Margaret Roper by night stealthily removes the head of her father Sir Thomas More from London Bridge, A.D. 1534." Lord Chancellor More was executed for refusing to support Henry VIII's divorce, and so in accord with custom, his severed head was placed on a spike at the entrance to London Bridge. His daughter Margaret removed it for Christian burian, an act of courage and filial honor that, together with her reputation for learning, elevated her into histories of "famous women" popular in the 19th century. Had she been caught removing the head, she too could have been charged with treason.



http://faculty.css.edu/phagen/hon4777pr/4777women2.htm

Lucy Madox Brown - Mathilde Blind

1872
chalks on grey paper
Newnham College

Lucy Madox Brown - photo

Lucy Madox Brown by Rossetti

1874

Daughter of Ford Madox Brown and wife of Michael William Rossetti, friend to the Morrises', Marie Stillman and Algernon Swinburne. Born in Paris but when her Mother died whilst she was still young she was partly brought up by the Rossetti's.

http://www.mystudios.com/women/abcde/lm_brown.html

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/19c/lucy_madox_brown.aspx

Lucy Madox Brown - Ferdinand and Miranda

[Ferdinand and Miranda Playing Chess] 1871

Lucy Madox Brown

[The Duet]
1870
private collection
1843-1894.
Born in Paris 1843, she was the eldest of Ford Madox Brown's three surviving children. Lucy posed for her father from an early age and later acted as her secretary and studio assistant. She began painting herself in 1868 under the guidance of her father. Her first exhibit was in 1869 and during her career, she appeared largely as a watercolorist with figure compositions drawn from modern life, literature and history. In 1874 she married William Rossetti and had four children in the next seven years. After becoming a mother she painted little and from 1885 showed signs of respiratory disease. Radical in her political and cultural interests, she was a signatory of the national petition for women's suffrage and wrote an unpublished biography of her father.
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/19c/lucy_madox_brown.aspx