Ford Madox Brown was an English painter, notable for his distinctively graphic version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. While he was closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he was never actually a member. Nevertheless, he remained close to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris, whose design company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., he joined in 1861.

Brown trained in Belgium and Paris. He visited Rome in 1846, coming into contact with the Nazerenes, a group of German painters who pre-dated the Pre-Raphaelites and focused on extreme detail in their paintings. Even so, the two movements had much in common.

In 1848, Dante Gabriel Rossetti approached Brown, asking him to be a studio pupil. This arrangement did not last long, as Rossetti replaced Brown as his instructor, with William Holman Hunt. However, this did not seem to have affected their relationship, as they remained friends until the end of Rossettis life with Brown even designing Rossetti's gravestone.

Brown lived in Manchester, was a somewhat touchy and slow worker, unwilling to accept compromise of any kind, but basically a kind, decent human being. This meant his output was small, but it was of a very high quality.

Brwon had a highly original mind and produced some wonderful images including his most famous painting "Work" which represented a particular social class and role in the modern urban environment. Brown's major achievement a series of twelve paintings in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall depicting the history of the city. These present a partly ironic and satirical view of Mancunian history.