Ford Madox Brown’s “Irish Girl” surpasses the masterpiece for which it was supposed to be a study. Loading 4 minWatchful, assessing and faintly disgusted, this young Irish girl stares out of a tight frame, her own fiery interest in a world we can’t see burning through our voyeuristic interest in her. In “Work,” which hangs in the Manchester Art Gallery, Brown painted a paean to the heroic nature of labor. “The Irish Girl,” on the other hand, is one of the glories of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. “The Irish Girl” could well be renamed — with a nod to Vermeer — “Girl With a Cornflower.” But she won’t be so easily turned into a male artist’s cipher.

Source: Washington Post December 28, 2025 01:16 UTC