Question: Ford Madox Brown, was an English painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style, Brown spent the latter years of his life painting the Manchester Murals, depicting what, which history that encompasses its change from a minor Lancastrian township into the pre-eminent industrial metropolis of the United Kingdom and the world?

Context articles: List of paintings by Ford Madox Brown
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Catherine Madox Brown
Lucy Madox Brown
Take your Son, Sir!
The Manchester Murals
George Rae (banker)
History of Manchester
Ford Madox Brown
The Last of England (painting)

This is a list of paintings by the British Pre-Raphaelite artist Ford Madox Brown.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
 The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member "brotherhood".
 Their principles were shared by other artists, including Marie Spartali Stillman and Ford Madox Brown.
Catherine Madox Brown Hueffer (11 November 1850 – 1927), also known as Cathy, the first child of Ford Madox Brown and Emma Hill, was an artist and model associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and married to the writer Francis Hueffer.
Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti (19 July 1843 – 12 April 1894) was an artist, author and model associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and married to the writer and art critic William Michael Rossetti.
 She was the daughter of Ford Madox Brown and Elisabeth Bromley (1819–1846).
Take Your Son, Sir!
 (1851-6) is an unfinished painting by Ford Madox Brown which depicts a woman showing her newborn son to its father.
 She is offering her baby towards the viewer of the painting, who is implicitly equated with the father - seen in the mirror behind, opening his arms to receive the baby.
 The mirror also forms a halo behind the mother's head, and the pattern on the wallpaper suggests the starry heavens.
 Brown's principal influence was Jan van Eyck's painting the "Arnolfini Marriage Portrait", recently acquired by the National Gallery.
 The mirror resembles the circular mirror in van Eyck's painting, which reflects an image of the artist looking at the couple in the image.
The Manchester Murals are a series of twelve paintings by Ford Madox Brown in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall and are based on the history of Manchester.
 Following the success of Brown's painting "Work" he was commissioned to paint six murals for its Great Hall.
 Another six murals were to be completed by Frederic Shields who later withdrew, leaving Brown to complete all twelve works.
 The murals were begun in 1879, towards the end of Brown's career, but were not completed until 1893, the year he died.
 During this period he moved from London to Manchester with his family, first living in Crumpsall and then Victoria Park.
George Rae (1817-1902) was a British banker and stockbroker based in Birkenhead.
 He is most notable for his patronage of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and his commissioning and acquisition of works by Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
 His commissions included Rossetti's "The Beloved", commissioned in 1863 for £300 but only completed two years later.
The history of Manchester encompasses its change from a minor Lancastrian township into the pre-eminent industrial metropolis of the United Kingdom and the world.
 Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution.
 The transformation took little more than a century.
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was an English painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style.
 Arguably, his most notable painting was "Work" (1852–1865).
 Brown spent the latter years of his life painting the Manchester Murals, depicting Mancunian history, for Manchester Town Hall.
The Last of England is an 1855 oil-on-panel painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting two emigrants leaving England to start a new life in Australia with their baby.