The Last of England: Portrait of Emma Hill. Courtesy BMAG

Exhibition Preview - Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until December 14 2008.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is currently showing a selection of drawings by one of the comparatively lesser-known artists of the Pre-Raphaelite group of artists.

Born in Calais in 1821, English artist Ford Madox Brown is celebrated today as the painter of The Last of England and Work, yet next to some of his contemporaries John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt he is a more shadowy figure whose work today sits less comfortably in the Pre-Raphaelite canon.

To many Madox Brown is seen as a key influence and ‘aider’ of Pre-Raphaelitism but never an official member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; rather he is often regarded as a dedicated painter of British history and literary subjects who became popular in both France and Britain.

Sterne's "Sentimental Journey": Yorick and Maria Walking. Courtesy BMAG

The third in a series of exhibitions focussing on Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery’s outstanding collection of nineteenth-century drawings, the exhibition is the result of a three-year collaborative research project with the University of Birmingham during which the postgraduate doctoral student Laura MacCulloch has catalogued the Museums’ collection of 174 works on paper by Madox Brown.

Revealing a remarkable strength and diversity the collection reveals the importance of Madox Brown’s academic art training and early historical and literary work when living in Paris and Rome. The actual process of drawing is seen as the informing means of working out elaborate compositions for such ambitious historical paintings as Chaucer at the Court of Edward III.

Over five decades of constant artistic activity, Madox Brown produced iconic observations of modern nineteenth-century life. The importance of his wife, Emma Hill, as his most influential model is also revealed in a series of head studies alongside such landmark paintings as The Pretty Baa Lambs.

Chaucer at the Court of Edward III: Study of a Man in medieval Hood. Courtesy BMAG

Madox Brown’s achievements as a decorative artist – he was also a founder member of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co – are represented by a group of stained glass designs.

It is this range of diversity and innovation that shows Madox Brown to be much more than simply a Pre-Raphaelite.

A fully-illustrated publication, with essays by Angela Thirlwell, Tim Barringer and Laura MacCulloch, and a complete catalogue of the Ford Madox Brown works on paper collection in Birmingham, has been published by D Giles Ltd.

The Infant's Repast: Study of Mother and child wth separate Arm and Leg studies of the Child. Courtesy BMAG

A series of lunchtime talks and events will accompany this exhibition which runs until 14 December 2008, and has free entrance. Please consult www.bmag.org for further details or Tessa Sidey at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (0121 303 4585).