Madox Brown was born in Calais on 16th April, 1821, the son of a ship's purser (a crew member in charge of the ship's finances). He trained in Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp between 1837 and 1839 and later moved to Paris. His best known paintings are 'Work', 'The Last of England', and 'English Autumn Afternoon'. He was a perfectionist and his paintings took years to finish, which meant that he spent much of his life poor and suffering genuine hardship. He died in 1893.