MHC: The Belatedness of Work: Ford Madox Brown and the Problem of Realism | Pamela Fletcher, Bowdoin College

Date: 

Thursday, September 7, 2017, 6:00pm

Location: 

Barker Center Rm. 133 (Plimpton Room), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

Abstract

When Ford Madox Brown first had the idea for his self-described “magnum opus” Work in 1852, it was a pioneering venture in the painting of modern life; by the time he finished it in 1863 and exhibited it in 1865, interest in this new type of subject matter had grown, flourished and then withered. In this talk, I read Work in the light of the history of the Victorian painting of modern life, arguing that in its very belatedness, it offers a meditation not only on the value and meaning of labor in the modern world, but also on the problem of realism itself.