The Irish Girl

Ford Madox Brown was an associate of the Pre-Raphaelites though never a full member of the Brotherhood. This small picture of an Irish girl was painted for T. E. Plint, a stockbroker from Leeds and a patron of Pre-Raphaelite artists. The model was an Irish orange seller whom Brown had discovered while looking for models for his monumental social realist painting Work (Manchester City Art Gallery, completed 1863), which was commissioned by Plint but finished only after his death. The Irish Girl reflects a trend among collectors in the latter half of the nineteenth century for small “cabinet pictures,” which were focused studies (suitable for domestic interiors) of individual women or children. Here, the artist was more concerned with the painting’s formal properties than with conveying a story or message. The central blue cornflower, kimono, and flat red background all emphasize formal effects that would later become associated with aestheticism.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

Credit Line: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund