Ford Madox Ford as a Critic of the Pre-Raphaelites

Abstract

An evaluator of Ford Madox Ford's criticism of the movement must face some hard facts. The most significant is that Ford's responses to the movement vary. Those concerning his grandfather, Ford Madox Brown, were unswervingly supportive even when Ford was hesitant about the value of some of Brown's canvases. Those responses involving other individuals, such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as well as those assessing the larger achievement of the Pre-Raphaelites, however, were skeptical and grew acerbic as time passed. Ford's major texts treating the Pre-Raphaelites are his famous biography of his grandfather, published in 1896; his study of Rossetti of 1902; and his monograph The Brotherhood of 1907. These three books cannot be considered without reference to several essays and exhibition reviews Ford published, including his 1896 evaluation of William Michael Rossetti's edition of his brother's letters; his 1898 appraisal of the Millais and Rossetti exhibitions; his appraisal of the career of Edward Burne-Jones in 1898; his review of poetry in Harper's in 1910; and his devastating essay Pre-Raphaelite Epitaph of 1934. In addition, the essays in Ancient Lights (1911) concern diverse figures of the movement, including Christina Rossetti and Brown, as well as several assessments of the Pre-Raphaelites in general. The evaluation presented in these essays and books is complex.