Watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ford-madox-brown-65" aria-label="More by Ford Madox Brown" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Ford Madox Brown</a>
Last England
Purchased 1916
actions: expressive
adults
baby
boat - non-specific
Brown, Emma
Brown, Ford Madox
children
class
cliff
cloak
clothing and personal items
coat
contemplation
couple
crowd
despair
displacement
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
England, Southern
family
family
food and drink
girl
groups
hat
hat, bonnet
headscarf
history
holding hands
individuals: female
individuals: male
man
named individuals
net
objects
people
pipe
places
politics and society
portraits
rope
sea
seascapes and coasts
sex and relationships
social comment
society
society: emigration, 19th c.
tools and machinery
transport: water
UK countries and regions
umbrella
vegetable, cabbage
wave
woman
<p>Brown's picture shows a boat of emigrants as they pass the most westerly cliffs of southern England. This highly topical scene is given an added poignancy by the fact that it was stimulated by the emigration of Thomas Woolner, a fellow Pre-Raphaelite, who left for Australia in July 1852. The focus of the picture is the tragedy of exile for the middle-class couple (modelled by Brown and his wife), a theme reiterated in Brown's writings: 'The educated are bound to their country by quite other ties than the illiterate man, whose chief consideration is food and physical comfort'. This watercolour is a replica of an oil painting now in Birmingham.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique watercolour
12 July 2003 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
12 July 2003 – 28 September 2003
2003-09-28
2003-07-12
Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
25 October 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
2003-10-25
Dunedin Public Art Gallery (Dunedin, New Zealand)
http://www.dunedin.art.museum
14 May 2004 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
2004-05-14
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2003-07-12
The Pre-Raphaelite Dream: Paintings and Drawings from the Tate Collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
26 February 2009 – 24 May 2009
2009-05-24
26 February 2009 – 24 May 2009
2009-05-24
2009-02-26
National Museum of Fine Arts (Stockholm, Sweden)
http://www.nationalmuseum.se
2009-02-26
The Pre-Raphaelites
Loan-out
14 December 2018 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
14 December 2018 – 28 April 2019
2019-04-28
2018-12-14
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
19 June 2019 – 6 October 2019
2019-10-06
2019-06-19
Palazzo Reale (Milan, Italy)
13 May 2021 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
2021-05-13
Hungarian National Gallery (Budapest, Hungary)
2018-12-14
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Tate partnerships & programmes
25 September 2024 – 20 January 2025
2025-01-20
25 September 2024 – 20 January 2025
2025-01-20
2024-09-25
Musée du Louvre-Lens (Lens, France)
2024-09-25
« EXILES »
Loan-out
The Last of England
support: 356 × 330 mm
Purchased 1916
<p>This is the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> replica for Brown's famous image of emigrants leaving England (1855, Birmingham Museums &amp; Art Gallery).  The theme was inspired by the emigration of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptor</span></a> Thomas Woolner, a fellow <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pre-raphaelite" title="Glossary definition for 'Pre-Raphaelite'"><span>Pre-Raphaelite</span></a>, who left for the goldfields of Australia in July 1852.  In the same year, 369,000 emigrants left Britain to seek their fortune overseas.

</p><p>Brown himself, hardly able to make a living from his art, was contemplating emigrating to India when he began work on <i>The Last of England</i>.  As the main focus of the picture he chose a middle-class couple, 'high enough, through education and refinement, to appreciate all they are now giving up, and yet depressed enough in means to have to put up with the discomforts and humiliations incident to a vessel "all one class".'(Catalogue of Mr Brown's Exhibition, 191 Piccadilly, 1865, quoted in Lambourne 1999, p.356). Beneath her shawl the woman cradles a small baby, whose tiny hand (modelled on that of Brown's own child) is just visible, grasping its mother's hand. The models for the figures were the artist himself and his second wife, Emma. The father's brooding expression betrays his anxiety and apprehension at the voyage ahead, while the mother's serene features convey her trust and sense of resignation. Following the Pre-Raphaelite prerequisite of truth to nature, Brown painted the bulk of the picture out of doors and asked his wife to sit in all weathers, even when there was snow on the ground.  His intention, as he himself explained in 1865, was to achieve 'the peculiar look of <i>light all round</i> which objects have'(ibid., quoted in Newman and Watkinson 1991, p.89).

</p><p>The circular format is reminiscent of a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/renaissance" title="Glossary definition for 'Renaissance'"><span>Renaissance</span></a> tondo, but also serves to emphasise the couple's unity. Accompanying them in the boat are 'an honest family of the green-grocer kind' and, behind them,  'a reprobate', who 'shakes his fist with curses at the land of his birth, as though that were answerable for <i>his </i>want of success' (ibid., quoted in Lambourne 1999, p.356).  The rather comical-looking cabbages arranged around the boat are intended to indicate a lengthy voyage.  In the distance, the White Cliffs of Dover are just visible, while at the back of the boat a cabin boy is selecting vegetables for dinner from a small lifeboat, which bears the ironic name of the ship, <i>Eldorado</i>.

</p><p>The watercolour replica was painted for George Rae of Birkenhead, an important patron of the Pre-Raphaelites. Some of the preliminary work for the copy is said to have been done by Brown's daughter Catherine.

</p><p><b>Further reading:</b> <br/>Lionel Lambourne, <i>Victorian Painting</i>, London 1999, pp.355-9, oil version reproduced p.357, in colour.<br/>Teresa Newman and Ray Watkinson, <i>Ford Madox Brown and the Pre-Raphaelite Circle</i>, London 1991, pp.72-3; 88-93, oil version reproduced pl.1, in colour.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>October 2000<br/></p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Brown's picture shows a boat of emigrants as they pass the most westerly cliffs of southern England. This highly topical scene is given an added poignancy by the fact that it was stimulated by the emigration of Thomas Woolner, a fellow <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pre-raphaelite" title="Glossary definition for 'Pre-Raphaelite'"><span>Pre-Raphaelite</span></a>, who left for Australia in July 1852. The focus of the picture is the tragedy of exile for the middle-class couple (modelled by Brown and his wife), a theme reiterated in Brown's writings: 'The educated are bound to their country by quite other ties than the illiterate man, whose chief consideration is food and physical comfort'. This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> is a replica of an oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> now in Birmingham.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><span>Watercolour and gouache with gum on medium weight, wove, watercolour paper.  In general the support is in poor condition.  It is attached to a blind wooden strainer and is free from planar distortions.  The media is in moderate condition.  Tiny brush marks have been used for the face and hands of the central figures, with broader stokes and applications of paint for the clothes and background.  Due to the discolouration of the support, the original translucency and contrasts of the paint have been altered, and it is possible that any organic colours may have faded.</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>Katharine Lockett</span>
<br/><span>April 2003</span>
<br/></p>

Technique and condition
2003-11-05T00:00:00
technique-and-condition
TECHNIQUE_AND_CONDITION_TEXT
actions: expressive adults baby boat - non-specific Brown, Emma Brown, Ford Madox children class cliff cloak clothing and personal items coat contemplation couple crowd despair displacement emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas England, Southern family family food and drink girl groups hat hat, bonnet headscarf history holding hands individuals: female individuals: male man named individuals net objects people pipe places politics and society portraits rope sea seascapes and coasts sex and relationships social comment society society: emigration, 19th c. tools and machinery transport: water UK countries and regions umbrella vegetable, cabbage wave woman