''Ferdinand Lured by Ariel'' is an 1850 painting by
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
which depicts an episode from Act I, Scene II of Shakespeare's c. 1611 play ''
The Tempest''. It illustrates
Ferdinand
Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...
's lines "Where should this music be? i' the air or the earth?". He is listening to
Ariel
Ariel may refer to:
Film and television
*Ariel Award, a Mexican Academy of Film award
* ''Ariel'' (film), a 1988 Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki
* ''ARIEL Visual'' and ''ARIEL Deluxe'', 1989 and 1991 anime video series based on the novel series ...
singing the lyric "Full fathom five thy father lies". Ariel is tipping Ferdinand's hat from his head, while Ferdinand holds on to its string and strains to hear the song. Ferdinand looks straight at Ariel, but the latter is invisible to him.
The painting was Millais' first attempt at the ''plein air''
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood style, which he did at
Shotover Park
Shotover Park (also called Shotover House) is an 18th-century country house and park near Wheatley, Oxfordshire, England. The house, garden and parkland are Grade I-listed with English Heritage, and 18 additional structures on the property are al ...
near Oxford. He wrote to his close friend and Pre-Raphaelite colleague
Holman Hunt that he had painted a "ridiculously elaborate" landscape. Referring to Hunt's belief in devotion to detail he wrote that "you will find it very minute, yet not near enough for nature. To paint it as it ought to be would take me a month a weed — as it is, I have done every blade of grass and leaf distinct."
[''The Pre-Raphaelites'' (London: Tate Gallery, 1984) p. 74]
He painted the face of Ferdinand from another Pre-Raphaelite,
Frederic George Stephens
Frederic George Stephens (10 October 1827 – 9 March 1907) was a British art critic, and one of the two 'non-artistic' members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Life
Stephens was born to Septimus Stephens of Aberdeen and Ann (née Cook) ...
. The clothing and the pose are derived from plate 6 of Camille Bonnard's ''Costumes Historiques'', which represents the costume of a "young Italian" of the fifteenth century.
The supernatural green bats were the last additions to the composition. Their grotesque poses put off the patron who had originally undertaken to buy it, since they were a radical departure from the standard sylph-like fairy figures of the day.
They adopt the poses of "see, hear, speak no evil."
The invisibility of Ariel and the bats is suggested by their semi-merger with the green background. The connection with natural camouflage is implied by the presence of the green lizards hiding in front of the clump in the right foreground.
The work was exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1850.
The painting was bought by the collector Richard Ellison, and in 1897 entered the collection of
Roger Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield
Roger Mellor Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield, (3 February 1904 – 9 November 1996), was a British diplomat who served as British Ambassador to the United States from 1953 to 1956.
Background and early life
Makins was the son of Brigadier-General ...
, who acquired several Millais paintings. Later, the composer and
impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
His ...
, Andrew,
Lord Lloyd Webber, tried to buy it. In an interview with
Apollo magazine
''Apollo'' is an English-language monthly magazine covering the visual arts of all periods from antiquity to the present day.
History and profile
''Apollo'' was founded in 1925, in London. The contemporary ''Apollo'' features a mixture of revie ...
, Lloyd Webber said: "I offered the price put on it
£9.5m and was going to do it in association with the
Ashmolean
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University o ...
, but the owner turned the offer down". Subsequently, the work received a three-year temporary export licence to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
Reception
Critical reception was initially mixed. The ''
Atheneaum'' stated that it was "better in the painting" than Millais' controversial previous exhibit ''
Christ in the House of His Parents
''Christ in the House of His Parents'' (1849–50) is a painting by John Everett Millais depicting the Holy Family in Saint Joseph's carpentry workshop. The painting was extremely controversial when first exhibited, prompting many negative rev ...
'', but "more senseless in the conception."
[ Jane Martineau and Desmond Shawe-Taylor (eds.), ''Shakespeare in Art'' (London: Merrel, 2003) p. 84.] ''
The Art Journal
''The Art Journal'' was the most important British 19th-century magazine on art. It was founded in 1839 by Hodgson & Graves, print publishers, 6 Pall Mall, with the title ''Art Union Monthly Journal'' (or ''The Art Union''), the first issue of 7 ...
'' identified "a considerable vein of eccentricity" in the portrayal of Ariel as "a hideous green gnome". ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' condemned it as a "deplorable example of perverted taste."
In 1998, when it seemed as though the painting might leave Britain to be sold in the U.S., the columnist
Kevin Myers
Kevin Myers (born 30 March 1947) is an English-born Irish journalist and writer. He has contributed to the ''Irish Independent'', the Irish edition of ''The Sunday Times'', and ''The Irish Times''s column "An Irishman's Diary".
Myers is kn ...
, wrote that he would "put my foot through it" with "violent joy".
[Kevin Myers, "Let them have this awful art", ''Daily Telegraph'', Aug 16, 1998, p. 27.]
See also
*
List of paintings by John Everett Millais
This work in progress is a list of all paintings by John Everett Millais.
Youthworks
*''Emily Millais''. Ca. 1843. Oil on canvas, 59.7 x 49.5 cm. Geoffrey Richard Everett Millais Collection.
*''Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru''. 1846. Oil ...
Notes
{{Authority control
Paintings by John Everett Millais
1850 paintings
Works based on The Tempest
Paintings based on works by William Shakespeare
Lizards in art
Bats in popular culture
Fairies in art