King René's Honeymoon: Architecture

Ford Madox Brown 

Date: 1861 

Materials: Brush and brown ink, with watercolour, over pencil

 A founding partner in Morris's firm, Brown was responsible for the scheme of painted decoration on an oak cabinet designed by the architect J. P. Seddon to house his drawings (this is now on view in the William Morris exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum).

The painted panels depict the artistic interests of King René of Anjou, a famously cultivated medieval monarch. In Brown's words: "Of course, as soon as married, he would build himself a new house, carve it and decorate it himself, and talk nothing but Art all the 'Honeymoon' (except indeed love). It is twilight when the workmen are gone".