The Pretty Baa-Lambs

Ford Madox Brown

Date: 1851 - 59

Materials: Oil on wood panel

Outdoors painting

Together with Hunt's 'Hireling Shepherd' and Millais's 'Ophelia', this is one of three revolutionary paintings begun in 1851 which aim to depict the effects of sunlight on figures and landscape.

Brown's painting is the most significant, because he alone painted the figures outside in bright sunlight, anticipating the vision of the French Impressionists.

The effects of light

Brown made new observations on the effect of light and shade on the colour of objects; for example, that sunlight bleaches skin tones to a high, flat contrast and that deep shadow gives a bluish cast to white material.

The stark, bright light on the figures and the blue / violet shadows for example are more akin to the French Impressionist Manet's 'Women in the Garden' of 1866-67, than to earlier English art.

Brown's diary 

In his diary of 1854, Brown wrote:

"The Baa lamb picture was painted almost entirely in sunlight which twice gave me a fever while painting. I used to take the lay figure out every day and bring it in at night or if it rained. My painting room being on a level with the garden, Emma sat for the lady and Kate for the child. The lambs and sheep used to be brought in every morning from Clappam (sic) Common in a truck. One of them eat (sic) up all the flowers one morning in the garden where they used to behave very ill".

Support from critics

"By God! the whole history of modern art begins with that picture. Corot, Manet, the Marises, all the Fontainebleau School, all the Impressionists, never did anything but imitate that picture".

R. A. M. Stevenson (francophile art critic) is quoted in 1911 as saying this to Brown's grandson.

Disclaiming any religious interpretation of this painting, Brown wrote:

"Few people I trust will seek any meaning beyond the obvious one, that is - a lady, a baby, two lambs, a servant maid and some grass".