Ford Madox Brown's Work: An Iconographic Analysis

Abstract

This article explores the complex visual and iconographic content in the painting of 1852–65, particularly the “work” in Work, and the relationship between its differing narrative and iconographic threads. The symbolism, narrativity, and association of word to image in Work are examined in light of Brown's idiosyncratic character and life style, as well as a specific urban semiotica that had developed concerning water supply in mid-19th-century England.

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Notes on contributors

Gerard Curtis

Gerard Curtis, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Essex, is Lecturer of Art History at Memorial University, Newfoundland. He is currently researching the relationship of word to image in Victorian England; his article on this topic, “The Art of Seeing: Dickens in the Visual Market,” will be published shortly [Dept. of Visual Arts, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University, Cornerbrook, Newfoundland, A2H 6P9].