This chapter extends the focus of this book, which has so far been on the textual output of emigration culture, into the realm of visual art. It takes as its focus five paintings, produced during the mid-century: Ford Madox Brown's The Last of England (1855), Richard Redgrave's The Emigrant's Last Sight of Home (1858), Thomas Webster's A Letter from the Colonies (1852), James Collinson's Answering the Emigrant's Letter (1850) and Abraham Solomon's Second Class – The Parting (1854). With the exception of Brown's painting, which was first exhibited at Liverpool City Art Gallery, all the paintings here were first shown at the Royal Academy in London. All the paintings discussed here were first shown at the Royal Academy in London, when emigration peaked as a result of the discovery of gold in Australia. It is no surprise, then, that three out of the five paintings discussed here depict emigration to that country. Brown's The Last of England was famously inspired by the emigration of his friend and sculptor Thomas Woolner, to Australia in 1852. It is possible that Collinson may have known Brown through the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but regardless of whether or not he did, emigration was a hugely important subject to him. This chapter looks at two of Collinson's paintings of emigration. While Brown is the only artist in this study to be directly inspired by an actual instance of emigration, Webster and Redgrave were both working in, and familiar with, agricultural areas from which large numbers of people were emigrating.

Positioning these paintings alongside the textual cultures of emigration has a twofold purpose. Firstly, it demonstrates just how pervasive the cultural effects of settler emigration in Britain were. By mid-century, emigration had become a legitimate subject for artists: one art critic wrote that, as a ‘serious subject of interest’, ‘recourse’ to emigration ‘is always to be applauded’. This enthusiasm for emigration as subject matter by both artists and audience alike is attested to by the prolific range and number of paintings that were produced throughout the course of the nineteenth century, and the sheer quantity of their reviews in art periodicals. One critic has identified over 300 images of emigration which were produced between 1830 and 1870.