The Spirit of Justice

Ford Madox Brown

Date: c. 1844-45

Materials: Black chalk

The House of Lords

Six arched compartments on the end walls of the House of Lords in the new Palace of Westminster were reserved for frescoes of Religion, Justice and Chivalry, allegories representing: "the functions of the House of Lords and the relation in which it stands to the Sovereign". 

Brown's cartoon, shown in the 1845 competition exhibition, had as its subject "a widow, whose husband has been murdered by a knight, appealing to the Spirit of Justice, who, blind and seated on high with scales and sword, is surrounded by revered counsellors". 

Acquired by the Gallery

Of the ten studies in Birmingham for this cartoon, four are large heads of the knight and the widow, and of two of the counsellors. These powerful drawings were presented to the Museum in 1905 by the collector Harold Hartley (1851-1943).