Ford Madox Brown British (1821-1893)

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Image courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Study for a Greyhound, ca. 1850 Black chalk on recto, red chalk on verso 15.3 x 38.9 cm Presented by I.G. Robertson, in memory of James Banntyne Stewart Robertson WA 1966.92

The study for a greyhound is a preparatory sketch for one of Madox Brown’s largest scale oil paintings of his career entitled Work. There is an acute attention to the outline as one notices Brown’s preoccupation with obtaining a realistic rendering of the shape of the greyhound. On the verso, the simple outline of the greyhound is drawn in reddish brown chalk, the same exact line work and shape as the recto but looking the opposite way. Looking closely at the drawing, one can get a sense for the high degree of pressure being applied, as well as the motion of going over and over the outline. There is an attempt at the anatomical accuracy of the dog noticeable where Brown has shaded out the rib cage and the muscles in the lower torso. We are given a view of the entire breadth of the greyhound’s body. This notion is key as the worth of a greyhound was precisely for their bodily capabilities; dogs and greyhounds in general were highly valued for their performance be it in racing or hunting. It is in the nineteenth century that track racing comes about and the breeding of greyhounds a lucrative business. The dog’s tail is folded under his body and in between the legs. A sign of being frightened, this emphasis on the dog’s physique the greyhound and its be connected to the narrative of the painting.

The greyhound with its sweater greatly contrasts with the other two dogs in the foreground of the painting. The bigger dog to the right is half hidden and looks out at the greyhound from behind the woman’s dress; they are startled by each other’s presence. The dog in the center belongs to the barefoot herb seller, a criminal according to some sources. In the painting this is signaled by a wanted poster tacked to the wall and a poster indicating the kidnapping of dogs. The rich, highly valuable, sweater-clothed dog juxtaposed with the larger ‘mongrel’ dog probably belonging to the ragged and cholera-ridden children, and the terrier bullpup to the barefoot seller.[i] The dressed greyhound is most likely owned by the young lady who is also like her dog dressed with a red cloak.

Work takes place in the main street of Hampstead, which, in the nineteenth century was a growing suburb. For its exhibition in 1865, Madox Brown himself wrote the catalogue entry. Work is often written about as being a social commentary on the socio-political anxieties caused by the encroachment of the working class outwards into the suburbs. It has also been interpreted as a meditation on the nature of labor in the modern industrializing society. The hard manual labor being performed by the working class is juxtaposed against upper class idleness, as the figures ride in from the background of the painting on horses. The text around the frame of the painting consist of quotes taken from the Bible that refer to the physical and thus spiritual cleansing toward purity. By placing members of the working class in the center of the composition, Brown gives them importance and almost a noble quality.