John Everett Millais

Background

Millais was born on June 8, 1829 in Southampton, England in 1829, of a prominent Jersey-based family. His parents were John William Millais and Emily Mary Millais.

Education

He studied at Sass's school. Then he was educated at the Royal Academy Schools.

Career

In 1838 he came to London, and on the strong recommendation of Sir Martin Archer Shee, P. R. A. , his future was decided.

In 1846 he exhibited "Pizarro seizing the Inca of Peru " at the Royal Academy, and in 1847 " Elgiva seized by the Soldiers of Odo. "

In the latter year he competed unsuccessfully at the exhibition of designs for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament, sending a very large picture of " The Widow's Mite, " which was afterwards cut up.

In the beginning of 1848 he and W. Holman Hunt, dissatisfied with the theory and practice of British art, which had sunk to its lowest and most conventional level, initiated what is known as the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and were joined by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and afterwards by five others, altogether forming the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

According to Millais, the Pre-Raphaelites had but one idea-" to present on canvas what they saw in Nature. "

Millais's first picture on his new principles was a banquet scene from Keats's " Isabella " (1849), and contains all the characteristics of Pre-Raphaelite work, including minute imitation of nature down to the smallest detail, and the study of all persons and objects directly from the originals.

The tale was told with dramatic force, and the expression of the heads was excellent.

The rest of his more strictly Pre-Raphaelite pictures-" The Return of the Dove to the Ark, " " The Woodman's Daughter " and the " Mariana " of 1851, " The Huguenot " and " Ophelia " of 1852, " The Proscribed Royalist " and " The Order of Release " of 1853-met with less opposition, and established his reputation with the public.

In 1851 Millais, who had refused to read Modern Painters, where the supposed principles of the Brotherhood were first recommended, became acquainted with Ruskin, and in 1853 went to Scotland with him and Mrs Ruskin, the latter of whom sat for the woman in " The Order of Release. "

He made several designs for Ruskin, and painted his portrait.

In the Paris Exhibition of this year he was represented by " The Order of Release, " " Ophelia " and " The Return of the Dove. "

The principal pictures of 1857 were " Sir Isumbras at the Ford, " and " The Escape of a Heretic, " both of which were violently attacked by Ruskin, who was kinder to the " Apple-blossoms " and " Vale of Rest " of 1859, extolling the power of their painting, but still insisting on the degeneracy of the artist.

He contributed to Moxon's illustrated edition of Tennyson's Poems, and made occasional drawings for Once a Week, the Illustrated London News, Good Words, and other periodicals and books.

In 1863 he was elected a Royal Academician.

The most important pictures of this and the next few years were " The Eve of St Agnes, " remarkable for the painting of moonlight, " Romans leaving Britain " (1865), " Jephthah " (1867), " Rosalind and Celia " (1868), " A Flood, " and " The Boyhood of Raleigh " (1870).

All these were executed in a very broad and masterly manner.

He now painted many single figures with more or less sentiment, like " Stella, " " Vanessa, " and " The Gambler's Wife, " with occasionally a' more important composition, like " Pilgrims to St Paul's, " and " Victory, О Lord " (exhibited 1871), representing Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' hands (Exod.

xvii.

12).

They were all from Perthshire, where he generally spent the autumn, and included " Scotch Firs " and " Winter Fuel " (painted in 1874), " Over the Hills and Far away, " and " The Fringe of the Moor " (1875) and "The Sound of Many Waters" (1876).

A later series was painted in the neighbourhood of Murthly, a village in the parish of Little Dunkeld, Perthshire, where he rented a house and shooting from 1881 to 1891.

It was to painting nature and the world around him that he principally devoted himself for the last twenty-five years of his life, abandoning imaginative or didactic themes.

A Yeoman of the Guard " (1877) was perhaps his most splendid piece of colour, and was greatly admired at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, where it was sent with " Chill October " and three others of his pictures.

But perhaps the works of his later years by which he will be most remembered are his portraits-especially his three portraits of Gladstone (1879, 1885 and 1890), and those of John Bright, of Lord Tennyson, and of Lord Beaconsfield, which was left unfinished at his death.

He also painted the marquess of Salisbury, Lord Rosebery, the dukes of Devonshire and Argyll, Cardinal Newman, Thomas Carlyle, Sir James Paget, Sir Henry Irving, George Grote, Lord Chief Justice Russell, J. C. Hook, R. A. , and himself (Uffizi Gallery, Florence).

He drew Charles Dickens after his death.

Amongst his finer portraits of women were those of Mrs Bischoffsheim, the duchess of Westminster, Lady Campbell and Mrs Jopling. No very serious interruption of his usual life as a prosperous English gentleman occurred in these years, except the death of his second son, George, in 1878.

In 1875 he went to Holland, one of his few visits to the Continent.

In 1879 he left Cromwell Place for a house at Palace Gate, Kensington, which he built, and where he died.

In 1885 lie was created a baronet, on the suggestion of Mr Gladstone.

After a bad attack of influenza he was troubled with a swelling in his throat, which proved to be due to cancer.

He suffered much from depression, but worked when he could, and derived much pleasure in painting several pictures, including " St Stephen, " " A Disciple, " " Speak !

Speak ! "

(which was bought out of the Chantrey Bequest), and " The Forerunner "- his last exhibited subject-picture.

In 1895, in consequence of the illness of Lord (then Sir Frederick) Leighton, he was called upon to preside at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy, and on the death of Lord Leighton he was elected to the presidential chair.

The Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1898 was devoted to his works.

Achievements

• John Millais was known for his most notable painting Christ in the House of His Parents (1850).

Works

More photos

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  • Millais: Portraits

    ( John Everett Millais (1829-1896) was one of the most ce...)

  • Framley Parsonage (Annotated & Illustrated) (Chronicles of Barsetshire) (Volume 4)

    (*This Book is annotated (it contains a detailed biography...)

  • Millais

Personality

As a man he was manly, frank and genial, devoted to his art and his family, and very fond of sport, especially hunting, fishing and shooting.

He was greatly loved by a very large circle of friends.

Connections

In 1855 Effie and John Millais married. They eventually had eight children.

Spouse:

Euphemia Chalmers Gray

References

• Millais
• Sir John Everett Millais