cornflowers | girl | child | street vendor | pattern | paisley | red | blue | flower (plant) | shawl | portrait | Irish
Currently On View:
On view
Exhibition History:
In a New Light: 500 Years of British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-04-01 - 2026-01-30)In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-03-24 - 2023-12-03)Ford Madox Brown (Manchester City Galleries, 2011-09-24 - 2012-01-29)Ford Madox Brown (Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, 2012-02-25 - 2012-06-03)Figuring Women - The Female in Modern British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-03-28 - 2008-06-08)Conquering England - Ireland in Victorian London (National Portrait Gallery, 2005-03-09 - 2005-06-26)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)
Publications:
Kenneth Bendiner, The art of Ford Madox Brown, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA, 1998, pp. 69, 70, 112, 119, 139, col. pl. VII, fig. 39, NJ18 B8307 B45 19987 (YCBA)Mary Bennett, Ford Madox Brown : a catalogue raisonne´, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2010, v.ol 1, pp. 81, 194, 195, 200, 201; v.ol 2, p. 559, 572, 573, A74, A74, NJ18.B8307 A12 B45 2010 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Deborah Cherry, The Hogarth Club, 1851-1861, Burlington Magazine, vol. 122, April, 1980, pp. 239, 242,243, fig. 17, N1 B87 122:1 OVERSIZEChristie's sale catalogue : Catalogue of the Highly Important Collection of English Pictures and Drawings formed by that distinguished Patron of Art, Thomas E. Plint, Esq. : 7-8 March 1862, Christie's, London, March 7-8, 1862, p. 25, lot. no. 205, Art Sales Catalogues OnlineFintan Cullen, Conquering England : Ireland in Victorian London, , National Portrait Gallery, London, 2005, pp. 61, 72, DA125.I7Fintan Cullen, Visual Politics : the Representation of Ireland 1750-1930, , Cork University Press, Cork [Ireland], 1997, pp. 139-40, fig. 61, N6782 .C85 1997 + (YCBA)Ford M. Hueffer, Ford Madox Brown : a record of his Life and Work, , Green Longmans, London New York, 1896, pp. 168, 197, 439, NJ18 B8307 A12 1896 (YCBA)Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 158, no. 64, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)Teresa Newman, Ford Madox Brown : and the Pre-Raphaelite circle, , Chatto & Windus, London, 1991, pp. 140-41, 143, NJ18 B8307 N48 1991 (YCBA)Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Sotheby's sale catalogue : Nineteenth Century European Paintings Drawings and Sculpture : 21 June 1988, Sotheby's, London, June 21, 1988, pp. 66-67, Lot 38, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)Julian Treuherz, Ford Madox Brown : Pre-Raphaelite pioneer, , Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, London, 2011, pp. 63, 235, 242-43, fig. 91, NJ18.B8307 T74 2011 (LC) OversizeWalker Art Gallery, Ford Madox Brown, 1821-1893. Exhibition organized by the Walker Art Gallery, , Liverpool, 1964, p. 24, no. 38, NJ18 .B8307 L58 (YCBA)Adrienne Wong, Figuring women : the female in modern British art., , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2008, p. 23, V 1925 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
The cornflowers this young street vendor holds to her chest are for sale, and the paisley red shawl around her body is a type often made by child laborers, many of whom were Irish immigrants to Britain. Brown encountered this sitter while looking for subjects for Work, a larger painting about labor and class in Victorian England that he completed in 1865. Originally, The Irish Girl formed a pair with The English Boy, which depicts the artist’s five-year-old son wearing a hat and a smock and holding his toys. The two give contrasting views of childhood: his hair is brushed, hers is wild and unkempt; his gaze is innocent, hers is wily and self-possessed. His is a life of privilege, while she lives in poverty. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025