Catherine Madox Brown

Catherine Madox Brown Hueffer (11 November 1850 – 1927), also known as Cathy, the first child of Ford Madox Brown and Emma Hill, was an artist and model associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and married to the writer Francis Hueffer.

Catherine Madox Brown Hueffer
Catherine Madox Brown (unfinished)
Born	Catherine Madox Brown (1850-11-11)11 November 1850 London, England
Died	1927
Education	Queen's College, Harley Street
Movement	Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Aesthetic Movement Arts and Crafts Movement
Spouse	Francis Hueffer ​ ​ (m. 1872; died 1889)​
Children	3, including Ford Madox Ford, Oliver Madox Hueffer and Juliet Soskice
Father	Ford Madox Brown
Relatives	Lucy Madox Brown (half-sister)

Early life

Born out of wedlock to Ford Madox Brown and Emma Matilda Hill on 11 November 1850 in London, Catherine was named after Emma's mother. Emma and Catherine posed as the mother and child in Pretty Baa-Lambs. Catherine's parents married in 1853.

Marriage and family

She married Francis Hueffer on 3 September 1872. They had two surviving sons, Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) and Oliver Madox Hueffer (1877-1931), both writers. Their daughter, Juliet Catherine Emma, married Russian revolutionary journalist David Soskice, with whom she had three sons including Frank Soskice, future Home Secretary.

Francis Hueffer died in January 1889. Emma left Catherine all of her property after her death in September 1890.

Artistic career

She began painting along with her half-sister Lucy Madox Brown, while they modelled and worked as assistants under their father. Other female Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Georgiana Burne-Jones, the sister of Thomas Seddon and Marie Spartali Stillman also took lessons in the same studio.

List of works

Portrait of her father Ford Madox Brown at the Easel, watercolour, 1870.
At the Opera, watercolour and pencil, 1869.
Wandering Thoughts, watercolour heightened with bodycolour, 1875.
Portrait of Laura, wife of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, watercolour, 1872, 50.8 x 33 cm, Exh. The Fine Art and Antiques fair Olympia, London, 2000 by Campbell Wilson (London).

Exhibitions

'Uncommon Power': Lucy and Catherine Madox Brown at the Watts Gallery 28 September 2021 – 20 February 2022.

"A Deep Problem 9 and 6 make - " by Catherine Madox Brown. 1875. Watercolour. Birmingham Museums Trust.

Work and portraits

• 
  Catherine Madox Brown, Portrait of the artist's second daughter by Ford Madox Brown, 1852, Walker Art Gallery, 19 cm x 16.5 cm, Accession Number WAG10507
• 
  Waiting: an English fireside of 1854-55 by Ford Madox Brown
• 
  Pretty Baa-Lambs by Ford Madox Brown, oil on panel, 1851/1859, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
• 
  Stages of Cruelty (Catherine Madox Brown is the child), 1857, Manchester Art Gallery
• 
  Cathy Madox Brown, pencil, Tate Gallery

Further reading

• [2] Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, Catherine Madox Brown
• Thirlwell, Angela, Into The Frame: The Four Loves of Ford Madox Brown (London: Chatto & Windus, 2010)
• ---., William and Lucy: The Other Rossettis. (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2003), ISBN 0-300-10200-3
• Marsh, Jan and Nunn, Pamela Gerrish, Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement (London: Virago, 1989)
• Marsh, Jan, Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, (London: Quartet, 1985)
• Roe, Dinah The Rossettis in Wonderland. A Victorian Family History(London: Haus Publishing, 2011), ISBN 978-1-907822-01-8
• Gaze, Delia, Dictionary of Women Artists, Volume 1 (London: Routledge, 1997)
• [3] Peattie, Roger W., Selected Letters of William Michael Rossetti (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990)
• Treuherz, Julian, Ford Madox Brown: Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer (London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2011) ISBN 978-0-85667-700-7