Ford Madox Brown, born in Calais, had studied art in Antwerp under Egide Charles Gustave Wappers.

In 1843, he had submitted work to the Westminster Cartoon Competition, for compositions to decorate the new Palace of Westminster.

He was not successful.

His early works were, however, greatly admired by the young Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who had asked him to become his tutor.

Through Rossetti, Brown had come into contact with the artists who went on to form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB).

Though closely linked to them, he is never actually a member of the brotherhood itself.

Nevertheless, he remains close to Rossetti, with whom he had also joined William Morris's design company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., in 1861.

He is a close friend of the landscape artist Henry Mark Anthony.

Brown was also the main organizer of the Hogarth Club, a short lived replacement for the PRB that exists between 1858 and 1861.

One of his most famous images is The Last of England, which had been sold in March 1859 for 325 Guineas (2010: £25,800).

It depicts a pair of stricken emigrants as they sail away on the ship that will take them from England forever.

It was inspired by the departure of the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner, who had left for Australia.

The painting is structured with Brown's characteristic linear energy, and emphasis on apparently grotesque and banal details, such as the cabbages hanging from the ship's side.