Madox Brown, Lucy

PAINTER (ENGLAND)
BORN 19 Jul 1843, Paris - DIED 12 Apr 1894, Sanremo, Liguria: Hotel Victoria
CAUSE OF DEATH tuberculosis
GRAVE LOCATION Sanremo, Liguria: Cimitero Monumentale della Foce, Via San Rocco 8

Lucy Madox Brown was a daughter of the painter Ford Madox Brown and his first wife Elisabeth Bromley (1819-1846). Afther her mother died of tuberculosis she was taken care of by her aunt Helen Bromley, who educated her at her school in Milton Lodge, Gravesend. When she was twelve she returned to her father but she never liked his young second wife Emma Hill. The sister and mother of the painter Gabriel Dante Rossetti assisted with her further education.

She was a model for her father from an early age and later she became his secretary and his studio assistant. In 1868 she started painting herself and she first exhibited in 1869. Her father trained her together with the beautiful Marie Spartali who became her friend. Lucy's watercolours often portrayed themes from modern life.

In 1869 she travelled to Europe with William and Jane Morris and in 1873 she visited Italy with Alice Boyd and William Michael Rossetti. William proposed to her on their way home in Basel and in 1874 they were married. Her strict atheism wasn't appreciated by William's catholic mother and sisters. She was also a feminist and a liberal in politics. She and William had four children and after becoming a mother she spent less time on painting. From 1885 onwards she suffered from health problems.

In 1890 she published a biography on Mary Shelley. Her health detoriated and she died from consumption at the Hotel Victoria in San Remo, Italy. Her husband and her daughter Olivia (1875-1960) were with her at the time of her death. She was buried at the La Foce Cemetery in Sanremo.

Family
• Father: Madox Brown, Ford
• Mother: Bromley, Elizabeth
• Husband: Rossetti, William Michael (1874-1894)
• Brother: Brown, Oliver Madox

Related persons
• drew Blind, Mathilde
• wrote about Shelley, Mary

Images

The grave of Lucy Madox Brown at the Cimitero Monumentale della Foce, Sanremo.
Picture by Androom (08 Mar 2014)

 

The grave of Lucy Madox Brown at the Cimitero Monumentale della Foce, Sanremo.
Picture by Androom (08 Mar 2014)

 

Sources
• Jones, Kathleen, Learning not to be first, the Life of Christina Rossetti, The Windrush Press, Gloucestershire, 1991
Full text of "Some reminiscences"


Maertens, Willy

Published: 30 Mar 2014
Last update: 22 Jun 2022