Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an

English painter The following is a list of notable English and British painters (in chronological order). English painters Born 16th century *George Gower (c. 1540–1596) *Nicolas Hilliard (1547–1619) *Sir Nathaniel Bacon (1585–1627) *Cornelis Jansse ...

and illustrator who was one of the founders of the

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest student to enter the Royal Academy Schools. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded at his family home in London, at 83 Gower Street (now number 7). Millais became the most famous exponent of the style, his painting ''

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 ...

'' (1849–50) generating considerable controversy, and he produced a picture that could serve as the embodiment of the historical and naturalist focus of the group, '' Ophelia'', in 1851–52. By the mid-1850s, Millais was moving away from the Pre-Raphaelite style to develop a new form of realism in his art. His later works were enormously successful, making Millais one of the wealthiest artists of his day, but some former admirers including William Morris saw this as a sell-out (Millais notoriously allowed one of his paintings to be used for a sentimental soap advertisement). While these and early 20th-century critics, reading art through the lens of Modernism, viewed much of his later production as wanting, this perspective has changed in recent decades, as his later works have come to be seen in the context of wider changes and advanced tendencies in the broader late nineteenth-century art world, and can now be seen as predictive of the art world of the present. Millais's personal life has also played a significant role in his reputation. His wife Effie was formerly married to the critic John Ruskin, who had supported Millais's early work. The annulment of the Ruskin marriage and Effie's subsequent marriage to Millais have sometimes been linked to his change of style, but she became a powerful promoter of his work and they worked in concert to secure commissions and expand their social and intellectual circles.

Early life

Millais was born in Southampton, England, in 1829, of a prominent Jersey-based family. His parents were John William Millais and Emily Mary Millais (née Evermy). Most of his early childhood was spent in Jersey, to which he retained a strong devotion throughout his life. The author Thackeray once asked him "when England conquered Jersey." Millais replied "Never! Jersey conquered England." The family moved to Dinan in Brittany for a few years in his childhood. His mother's "forceful personality" was the most powerful influence on his early life. She had a keen interest in art and music, and encouraged her son's artistic bent, promoting the relocating of the family to London to help develop contacts at the Royal Academy of Art. He later said "I owe everything to my mother." His artistic talent won him a place at the Royal Academy Schools at the still unprecedented age of eleven. While there, he met William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti with whom he formed the

(known as the "PRB") in September 1847 in his family home on Gower Street, off Bedford Square.

Pre-Raphaelite works

Millais's ''

'' (1849–50) was highly controversial because of its realistic portrayal of a working class Holy Family labouring in a messy carpentry workshop. Later works were also controversial, though less so. Millais achieved popular success with '' A Huguenot'' (1851–52), which depicts a young couple about to be separated because of religious conflicts. He repeated this theme in many later works. All these early works were painted with great attention to detail, often concentrating on the beauty and complexity of the natural world. In paintings such as '' Ophelia'' (1851–52) Millais created dense and elaborate pictorial surfaces based on the integration of naturalistic elements. This approach has been described as a kind of "pictorial eco-system." ''Mariana'' is a painting that Millais painted in 1850–51 based on the play''

Measure for Measure ''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604, according to available records. It was published in the ''First Folio'' of 1623. The play's plot features its ...

'' by William Shakespeare and the poem of the same name by

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

, from 1830. In the play, the young Mariana was to be married, but was rejected by her betrothed when her dowry was lost in a shipwreck. This style was promoted by the critic John Ruskin, who had defended the Pre-Raphaelites against their critics. Millais's friendship with Ruskin introduced him to Ruskin's wife Effie. Soon after they met, she modelled for his painting '' The Order of Release''. As Millais painted Effie, they fell in love. Despite having been married to Ruskin for several years, Effie was still a virgin. Her parents realised something was wrong and she filed for an annulment. File:John Everett Millais - Mariana - Google Art Project.jpg, ''

Mariana Mariana may refer to: Literature * ''Mariana'' (Dickens novel), a 1940 novel by Monica Dickens * ''Mariana'' (poem), a poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson * ''Mariana'' (Vaz novel), a 1997 novel by Katherine Vaz Music *"Mariana", a so ...

'', 1851 File:Millais Order of Release.jpg, '' The Order of Release'' (1852–53) Tate Britain, London File:John Everett Millais - Ophelia - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Ophelia'' (1851–52) Tate Britain, London File:Millais - Die Rückkehr der Taube zur Arche Noah.jpg, '' The Return of the Dove to the Ark'' (1851)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Family

In 1855, after her marriage to Ruskin was annulled, Effie and John Millais married. He and Effie eventually had eight children: Everett, born in 1856; George, born in 1857; Effie, born in 1858; Mary, born in 1860; Alice, born in 1862; Geoffroy, born in 1863; John in 1865; and Sophie in 1868. Their youngest son,

John Guille Millais John Guille Millais ( , also ; 24 March 1865 – 24 March 1931) was a British artist, naturalist, gardener and travel writer who specialised in wildlife and flower portraiture. He travelled extensively around the world in the late Victorian p ...

, became a naturalist, wildlife artist, and Millais's posthumous biographer. Their daughter Alice (1862–1936), later Alice Stuart-Worsley after she married

Charles Stuart-Worsley Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Stuart of Wortley (15 September 1851 – 24 April 1926), was a British Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1916, shortly before he was raised to the peerage. He serv ...

, was a close friend and muse of the composer

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

, and is thought to have been an inspiration for themes in his Violin Concerto. Effie's younger sister

Sophie Gray Sophia Margaret "Sophie" Gray (28 October 1843 – 15 March 1882), later Sophia Margaret Caird, was a Scottish model for her brother-in-law, the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. She was a younger sister of Euphemia "Effie" Gray, w ...

sat for several pictures by Millais, prompting some speculation about the nature of their apparently fond relationship.

Later works

After his marriage, Millais began to paint in a broader style, which was condemned by Ruskin as "a catastrophe." It has been argued that this change of style resulted from Millais's need to increase his output to support his growing family. Unsympathetic critics such as William Morris accused him of "selling out" to achieve popularity and wealth. His admirers, in contrast, pointed to the artist's connections with Whistler and Albert Moore, and influence on

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

. Millais himself argued that as he grew more confident as an artist, he could paint with greater boldness. In his article "Thoughts on our art of Today" (1888) he recommended Velázquez and

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

as models for artists to follow. Paintings such as ''The Eve of St. Agnes'' and ''The Somnambulist'' clearly show an ongoing dialogue between the artist and Whistler, whose work Millais strongly supported. Other paintings of the late 1850s and 1860s can be interpreted as anticipating aspects of the

Aesthetic Movement Aestheticism (also the Aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century which privileged the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over their socio-political functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be prod ...

. Many deploy broad blocks of harmoniously arranged colour and are symbolic rather than narratival. From 1862, the Millais family lived at 7 Cromwell Place, Kensington, London. Later works, from the 1870s onwards demonstrate Millais's reverence for Old Masters such as

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

and Velázquez. Many of these paintings were of an historical theme. Notable among these are ''The Two Princes Edward and Richard in the Tower'' (1878) depicting the Princes in the Tower, ''The Northwest Passage'' (1874) and the ''Boyhood of Raleigh'' (1871). Such paintings indicate Millais's interest in subjects connected to Britain's history and expanding empire. Millais also achieved great popularity with his paintings of children, notably ''

Bubbles Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to: Common uses * Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid ** Soap bubble * Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying fundame ...

'' (1886) – famous, or perhaps notorious, for being used in the advertising of '' Pears soap'' – and '' Cherry Ripe''. His last project (1896) was to be a painting entitled "The Last Trek." Based on his illustration for his son's book, it depicted a hunter lying dead in the veldt, his body contemplated by two onlookers.

Landscapes 1870–1892

His many landscape paintings of this period usually depict difficult or dangerous terrain. The first of these, '' Chill October'' (1870) was painted in Perth, near his wife's family home. ''Chill October'' (Collection of

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

) was the first of the large-scale Scottish landscapes Millais painted periodically throughout his later career. Usually autumnal and often bleakly unpicturesque, they evoke a mood of melancholy and sense of transience that recalls his cycle-of-nature paintings of the later 1850s, especially ''Autumn Leaves'' (

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

) and ''The Vale of Rest'' (Tate Britain), though with little or no direct symbolism or human activity to point to their meaning. John Everett Millais by J

In 1870 Millais returned to full landscape pictures, and over the next twenty years painted a number of scenes of Perthshire where he was annually found hunting and fishing from August until late into the autumn each year. Most of these landscapes are autumnal or early winter in season and show bleak, dank, water-fringed bog or moor, loch, and riverside. Millais never returned to "blade by blade" landscape painting, nor to the vibrant greens of his own outdoor work in the early fifties, although the assured handling of his broader, freer later style is equally accomplished in its close observation of scenery. Many were painted elsewhere in

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

, near Dunkeld and Birnam, where Millais rented grand houses each autumn to hunt and fish. ''Christmas Eve'', his first full landscape snow scene, painted in 1887, was a view looking towards Murthly Castle.

Illustrations

Millais was also very successful as a book illustrator, notably for the works of

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...

and the poems of Tennyson. His complex illustrations of the parables of Jesus were published in 1864. His father-in-law commissioned

stained-glass windows Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

based on them for

Kinnoull Parish Church Kinnoull Parish Church is a Church of Scotland church in the Kinnoull area of Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. A Kinnoull Church appears in documents when it was granted to Cambuskenneth Abbey in 1361. It was rebuilt in 1779 but demolished in ...

Kinnoull Kinnoull is a parish in Perth, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, approximately half a mile northeast of Perth city centre. Beginning at the level of the River Tay, Kinnoull's terrain continues to rise as it continues southeast, culminating in Kinno ...

. He also provided illustrations for magazines such as '' Good Words''. As a young man Millais frequently went on sketching expeditions to Keston and Hayes. While there he painted a sign for an inn where he used to stay, near to Hayes church (cited in Chums annual, 1896, page 213).

Academic career and baronetage

Millais was elected as an associate member of the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

in 1853, and was soon elected as a full member of the Academy, in which he was a prominent and active participant. In July 1885, Queen Victoria created him a baronet, of Palace Gate, in the parish of St Mary Abbot,

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, in the county of Middlesex, and of

Saint Ouen Audoin (AD 609 – on 24 August 684; also spelled ''Audoen'', ''Ouen'', ''Owen''; la, Audoenus; known as Dado to contemporaries) was a Frankish bishop, courtier, hagiographer and saint. Life Audoin came from a wealthy aristocratic Frankish fami ...

, in the Island of Jersey, making him the first artist to be honoured with a

hereditary title Hereditary titles, in a general sense, are nobility titles, positions or styles that are hereditary and thus tend or are bound to remain in particular families. Though both monarchs and nobles usually inherit their titles, the mechanisms often d ...

. After the death of

Lord Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subjec ...

in 1896, Millais was elected President of the Royal Academy. He died later in the same year from throat cancer. He was buried in the crypt of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

. Additionally, between 1881 and 1882, Millais was elected and acted as the president of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.

Legacy

When Millais died in 1896, the Prince of Wales (later to become King Edward VII) chaired a memorial committee which commissioned a statue of the artist.Birchall, Heather
"Sir Thomas Brock 1847–1922"
,

Tate online Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, February 2002. Retrieved 5 April 2008. The statue, by Thomas Brock, was installed at the front of the National Gallery of British Art (now Tate Britain) in the garden on the east side in 1905. On 23 November that year, the ''Pall Mall Gazette'' called it "a breezy statue, representing the man in the characteristic attitude in which we all knew him." In 1953, Tate director Norman Reid attempted to have it replaced by

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

's ''John the Baptist'', and in 1962 again proposed its removal, calling its presence "positively harmful." His efforts were frustrated by the statue's owner, the Ministry of Works. Ownership was transferred from the Ministry to English Heritage in 1996, and by them in turn to the Tate. In 2000, under Stephen Deuchar's directorship, the statue was removed to the side of the building to welcome visitors to the refurbished Manton Road entrance. In 2007 the artist was the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain, London visited by 151,000 people. The exhibition then traveled to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, followed by venues in Fukuoka and Tokyo, Japan, and seen by over 660,000 visitors in total. Millais's relationship with Ruskin and Effie has been the subject of several dramas, beginning with the silent film ''The Love of John Ruskin'' from 1912. There have also been stage and radio plays and an opera. The 2014 film, '' Effie Gray'', written by

Emma Thompson Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress. Regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation, she has received numerous accolades throughout her four-decade-long career, including two Academy Awards, two British A ...

, featured

Tom Sturridge Thomas Sidney Jerome Sturridge is an English actor. His early films include ''Being Julia'' (2004), ''Like Minds'' (2006), and ''The Boat That Rocked'' (2009). He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performances in ...

as Millais. The Pre-Raphaelites have been the subjects of two BBC period dramas. The first, entitled '' The Love School'', was shown in 1975, starring Peter Egan as Millais. The second was '' Desperate Romantics'', in which Millais is played by Samuel Barnett. It was first broadcast on

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

Tuesday, 21 July 2009.

Gallery

File:Huguenot lovers on St. Bartholomew's Day.jpg, ''A Huguenot on St Bartholomew's Day'' (1851–52) File:John Everett Millais (1829-1896) - Mrs Coventry Patmore - 1010 - Fitzwilliam Museum.jpg, Mrs Coventry Patmore ( Emily Augusta Patmore) (1851) Fitzwilliam Museum File:Millais - Das Tal der Stille.jpg, ''

The Vale of Rest ''The Vale of Rest'' (1858–1859) is a painting by John Everett Millais. It depicts a twilight graveyard scene and prominently features two nuns. Subject The painting is of a graveyard, as night is coming on. Beyond the graveyard wall there is ...

'' (1858) Tate Britain, London File:John Everett Millais The Black Brunswicker.jpg, ''The Black Brunswicker'' (1860) File:Madeleine undressing – Eve of St Agnes, John Everett Millais.jpg, ''

The Eve of Saint Agnes ''The Eve of St. Agnes'' is a Romantic narrative poem of 42 Spenserian stanzas set in the Middle Ages. It was written by John Keats in 1819 and published in 1820. The poem was considered by many of Keats's contemporaries and the succeeding ...

'' (1863)
HM The Queen File:Esthermillais.jpg, ''Esther'' (1865) Private Collection File:Millais - Vanessa, 1868.jpg, ''Vanessa'' (1868)
Liverpool Museums Service File:John Everett Millais - Chill October.JPG, '' Chill October'' (1870), private collection File:John Everett Millais - A Flood.JPG, ''A Flood'' (1870), File:The Knight Errant b John Everett Millais 1870.jpg, ''The Knight Errant'' (1870), Tate Britain File:John Everett Millais - The Martyr of the Solway - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Martyr of Solway'' (circa 1871), Walker Art Gallery File:An Idyll of 1745 (Millais).jpg, ''An Idyll of 1745''. The three female artists models on the right were the sisters Lily Pettigrew

870-1920 87 may refer to: * 87 (number) * one of the years 87 BC, AD 87, 1987, 2087, etc. * Atomic number 87: francium * Intel 8087, a floating-point coprocessor See also * * List of highways numbered A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or ...

Hetty Pettigrew 867-1953and Rose Pettigrew

872-1905 87 may refer to: * 87 (number) * one of the years 87 BC, AD 87, 1987, 2087, etc. * Atomic number 87: francium * Intel 8087, a floating-point coprocessor See also * * List of highways numbered A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or li ...

File:EFFIE.jpg, ''Portrait of Effie Millais'' (1873), Perth Museum and Art Gallery File:Princes.jpg, ''The Two Princes Edward and Richard in the Tower'' (1878)
Picture Gallery of

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

File:John Henry Newman by Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt.jpg, '' John Henry Newman'' (1881)

National Portrait Gallery (London) The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

File:Grey lady.JPG, ''The Grey Lady'' (1888)
Private Collection

Notes and references

External links

* *
National Museums Liverpool important Millais collection

Millais's ''Ophelia'' in focus on Tate Online

Tate Shots: Millais's ''Isabella''

smARThistory: ''Christ in the House of His Parents'' and ''Ophelia''
– Khan Academy
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery's Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource
includes almost 200 paintings on canvas and works on paper by Millais {{DEFAULTSORT:Millais, John Everett Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom 19th-century English painters English male painters English illustrators Artists from Southampton Pre-Raphaelite painters Royal Academicians Burials at St Paul's Cathedral Deaths from laryngeal cancer Deaths from cancer in England Artists' Rifles officers 1829 births 1896 deaths Royal Society of Portrait Painters Child artists Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)

John Everett Herbert Barnard John Everett (18 August 1876 – 22 February 1949), was an English painter. Biography Known as Herbert by his family, he was born in Dorchester, Dorset.Pre-Raphaelite illustrators 19th-century English male artists