Cordelia Parting from her Sisters
Medium
pen and oil on paper on panel
Dimensions
unframed: 19.5 × 26.5 cm · framed: 30.5 × 36.8 × 3.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift in memory of Helen Borowitz
Accession Number
2013.261
Tags
male
About this artwork
Reimagining English history was one way that Victorian (1837–1901) artists rooted themselves during a period of tremendous social and political change and life-altering technological advances. Ford Madox Brown’s expressive and vividly colored sketch for an unrealized project takes a story from Britain’s most famous playwright, Shakespeare. The artist chooses the dramatic moment when King Lear’s daughter Cordelia parts ways with her sisters.