Jacob and Joseph's Coat

Madox Brown was a mentor to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and the realism of his literary and biblical subjects was in keeping with their ideals. Based on a story from the book of Genesis, the painting depicts the moment when Jacob’s sons try to convince their father that their brother Joseph was killed by an animal, when in fact they had sold him into slavery. To fabricate evidence, the brothers slaughtered a goat and smeared its blood on Joseph’s coat. The artist used a watercolor painted by his friend Thomas Seddon in Palestine for the landscape in the background.