The Last of England
After Ford Madox Brown British, born France
Engraver Herbert Bourne British
Publisher Gebbie & Barrie American
Not on view
Bourne's engraving reproduces Madox Brown's celebrated painting from 1852–55, then in the collection of John Crossley from Halifax, now in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The print was first published in the British art magazine "The Art Journal" in August 1870 and this Philadelphia reissue was created for "The Art Treasures of England. The Master-pieces of the Best English, Irish and Scottish Painters and Sculptors" (1875). The painting's subject of emigration was suggested by the 1852 departure of the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner (1825–1892) for new opportunities in Australia. Madox Brown himself and his wife posed for the central protagonists sheltering under an umbrella from the sea-spray, with the coastline of Kent receding in the distance behind them.
